NGD - Kiesel Zeus --- Definitely Again!

[Vede]

To help kick-off the launch of the Zeus earlier this year, Jeff built a crazy one (see above) to showcase the possibilities, with a buckeye burl & resin top, a flamed koa body, and a cocobolo neck.

I loved that guitar. But it wasn't for sale. And I didn't want to risk having them make a copy because I'm very particular about the aesthetics of my guitars. Ordering a custom sight-unseen isn't terribly appealing to me - too much risk that I won't like the end result. I only ever buy custom if I'm able to see or personally select the wood myself. So, no problem - with Kiesel, I just hang-out in their "in stock" section from time to time to see what pops up. I found an amazing Osiris that way shortly after NAMM...

Last week, out of the blue, Jeff's showcase Zeus popped up in the "in stock", and I bought it.

It arrived on Tuesday, and it was superb - EXCEPT that the string slots in the nut were cut too deeply, and so the strings were sitting only a hair higher than the first fret. What that meant was that fretting chords up towards the top of the neck felt odd (there was no "bounce"), and the extremely low action at the nut was causing buzz on the open strings.

I sent a video to Kiesel support showing them the problem. I said that I'd hate to have to ship the guitar all the way back just for that fix, but that I could do, or I could take the guitar to my local tech and have him take care of it.

Kiesel customer service got back to me very quickly, apologized, and offered to cover the cost of the repair with my local tech. I took the guitar into him on Wednesday, he filled the slots, got the strings to the height they should be, and had the guitar back to me by Friday, yesterday.

Now my Zeus plays as good as it looks. It originally shipped with an issue, and that's not fun, but it happens. What matters here is that Kiesel was extremely easy to work with and were very quick to make it right. The experience was painless.

And, therefore, I'm sure I'll buy from them again.

Without further ado, here are more pix of my new Zeus, which is right up there in terms of playability and quality with my other high-end USA and Polish-made (Mayones) guitars...

 

[walkhard]

nice!

 

[Shoeless_jose]

Like the burl, not the bevel, glad it plays nice though, epic piece of buckeye there.

 

[ShadeOGreen]

That Zeus is famous! Can we get a pick of the back of the neck? Is the neck tung oiled or a clear satin?

 

[Cynicanal]

Gotta be tung oil, tung oil is standard on Kiesel bolt-ons, and there's no neck finish option mentioned in the guitar's specs at the top of the post.

Cool score!

 

[crankyrayhanky]

cool!

 

[BlackSG91]

The top on that guitar looks gorgeous and a real eye pleaser. How do you find playing with fanned frets?


;>)/

 

[KnightBrolaire]

HNGD, enjoy it, that guitar looks great.

 

[Vede]

Like the burl, not the bevel, glad it plays nice though, epic piece of buckeye there.

Thanks. Yeah, the top on this is ridiculous. I'm not a huge fan of bevels, either, but I like them on the Zeus and Osiris.

 

[Vede]

That Zeus is famous! Can we get a pick of the back of the neck? Is the neck tung oiled or a clear satin?

Oiled 1-piece neck and fretboard.

Apologies for the terrible photos - iPhone + bad lighting

 

[Vede]

The top on that guitar looks gorgeous and a real eye pleaser. How do you find playing with fanned frets?


;>)/

Moving from standard 6 to fanned 6, the transition was relatively painless. Felt normal to me quickly, and I like the extra tension on the low E. The guitar is currently in E standard and strung with 9s, and the low E feels more like a 10.

My 7-string Osiris took longer to adjust to because I was coming from standard 6, so had to adjust to the extra string and the fan at the same time. Even so, wasn't too bad.

That said, I own a lot of guitars with a lot of different neck shapes and radii, and I find moving between them to be very easy, as well, so I may be less sensitive to these types of things than other folks.

 

[ShadeOGreen]

Didn’t know Kiesel did one piece necks/fretboards. A first maybe? Loving the color and figuring.

 

[ReignIB]

killer looking guitar, saw it pop up in their in stock section but couldn't justify spending the $$$ given that I'm not a fan of multiscale other than for 8 strings...

cool that they paid for the adjustment, although you'd think something in that price range would be perfect out of the box.

 

[Vede]

Didn’t know Kiesel did one piece necks/fretboards. A first maybe? Loving the color and figuring.

Not sure how long they've been doing them, but my Osiris is also 1-piece. Not something I'd ordinarily spec, because I'm worried about long-term stability, but since they put carbon fiber rods in these, I think it's fine.

 

[Vede]

killer looking guitar, saw it pop up in their in stock section but couldn't justify spending the $$$ given that I'm not a fan of multiscale other than for 8 strings...

cool that they paid for the adjustment, although you'd think something in that price range would be perfect out of the box.

It was definitely unexpected! But this was Jeff's "personal guitar", so who knows, maybe he likes them setup that way. My Osiris came setup perfectly. Thankfully, it was a quick, inexpensive fix, and Jeff himself (despite all the flak he gets around here) approved the refund for the local repair, and very quickly at that, without me having to do any pushing or prodding whatsoever.

 

[spudmunkey]

Oiled 1-piece neck and fretboard.

Didn’t know Kiesel did one piece necks/fretboards. A first maybe? Loving the color and figuring.

Not sure how long they've been doing them, but my Osiris is also 1-piece. Not something I'd ordinarily spec, because I'm worried about long-term stability, but since they put carbon fiber rods in these, I think it's fine.

I don't think it's what you think it is...or at least what it *sounds* like what you think it is. If you're thinking it like on some Strats, where the fretboard and neck were and are literally one piece of wood, that's not what Kiesel does. They likely have taken one piece of wood (a "neck blank") and cut off a piece for the fretboard, then re-glued it back on to the neck after they insert the truss rod and carbon fiber rods. Fender can do it on those strats because they have the "skunk stripe" on the back, where they route a channel in the back of the neck for the truss rod, then use a different piece of wood to fill in that slot.

I know for sure they've done this with someone else's cocobolo neck, as well as someone's flamed maple Vanquish guitar *body*, who wanted a chambered Vanqish, but solid flamed maple.

 

[noise in my mind]

Thinking they would get the nut right on a K custom line series. Guitar looks nice though.

 

[Cynicanal]

...That's not a K series.

 

[Vede]

I don't think it's what you think it is...or at least what it *sounds* like what you think it is. If you're thinking it like on some Strats, where the fretboard and neck were and are literally one piece of wood, that's not what Kiesel does. They likely have taken one piece of wood (a "neck blank") and cut off a piece for the fretboard, then re-glued it back on to the neck after they insert the truss rod and carbon fiber rods. Fender can do it on those strats because they have the "skunk stripe" on the back, where they route a channel in the back of the neck for the truss rod, then use a different piece of wood to fill in that slot.

I know for sure they've done this with someone else's cocobolo neck, as well as someone's flamed maple Vanquish guitar *body*, who wanted a chambered Vanqish, but solid flamed maple.

That's right - appears to be one piece of wood, cut so they can insert the truss rod and additional stability rods, and then the top piece is glued back on and becomes the fretboard. When I say "1-piece" I mean it's all from one piece of wood. The fact that they cut it and glued it back together doesn't increase stability in and of itself, I don't think - at least not in the same way a legitimate multi-ply neck would.

 

[narad]

Not my thing but I know that feeling when you find a guitar you really want only to discover it's already taken, and then wind up somehow taking it home. And that's a good feeling!