The Carvin / Kiesel thread

[THEBOTTOMLINE]

I paid off my vader yesterday and my ECD was last Monday. I Hope I get the shipping email soon

 

[spudmunkey]

I paid off my vader yesterday and my ECD was last Monday. I Hope I get the shipping email soon

When you paid it off, was it in response to an email/call, or were you proactive and just paid it off because you were close to the estimated completion date?

Based on what I've noticed over on the FB group, most shipments are about 2-4 weeks behind.

A while back, there were a string of people who didn't provide their final payments, and it got to a point where they said they wouldn't install hardware or electronics until the guitar was paid for in full. So if your guitar was at that point, there's still electronics, hardware, final buffing, QC...I could see that being another 2 weeks-ish. Maybe more, maybe less.

In previous Q&A's, Jeff's mentioned that he doesn't like having more than 700-ish builds in progress at any one time. Last week or the week before, they said they had 1000-1100, if i remember right...that's 50% more than what they'd like. So that might mean that they are slowing some things down a little more so that they can batch some things out. Rather than doing 1-2 of a finish, they might wait until they can do 4-5 so there's less paint booth down-time with cleaning the tools, etc. No idea...that's aaaaall just conjecture. But the reality is that they are, a bit unexpetedly, busier than they have ever been in their history, it seems. Who knew that a pandemic closing down much of the country, national social unrest, and 30+% unemployment would mean record sales for custom guitars. With in-progress builds being 30-50% higher, something as simple as coming up short on specific guitar cases if there's longer leadtime on those, could hold up hundreds of shipment in just a couple of weeks. I feel like I remember him saying shipments of hardware form Hipshot slowed down, but I might be misremebering.

 

[Karg]

Right, it's hard to call it a recession when custom guitar orders are flooding Kiesel, and people are flocking to casinos. In stark contrast to how people were living in the '30s.

Who knew that a pandemic closing down much of the country, national social unrest, and 30+% unemployment would mean record sales for custom guitars.

 

[THEBOTTOMLINE]

When you paid it off, was it in response to an email/call, or were you proactive and just paid it off because you were close to the estimated completion date?

Based on what I've noticed over on the FB group, most shipments are about 2-4 weeks behind.

A while back, there were a string of people who didn't provide their final payments, and it got to a point where they said they wouldn't install hardware or electronics until the guitar was paid for in full. So if your guitar was at that point, there's still electronics, hardware, final buffing, QC...I could see that being another 2 weeks-ish. Maybe more, maybe less.

In previous Q&A's, Jeff's mentioned that he doesn't like having more than 700-ish builds in progress at any one time. Last week or the week before, they said they had 1000-1100, if i remember right...that's 50% more than what they'd like. So that might mean that they are slowing some things down a little more so that they can batch some things out. Rather than doing 1-2 of a finish, they might wait until they can do 4-5 so there's less paint booth down-time with cleaning the tools, etc. No idea...that's aaaaall just conjecture. But the reality is that they are, a bit unexpetedly, busier than they have ever been in their history, it seems. Who knew that a pandemic closing down much of the country, national social unrest, and 30+% unemployment would mean record sales for custom guitars. With in-progress builds being 30-50% higher, something as simple as coming up short on specific guitar cases if there's longer leadtime on those, could hold up hundreds of shipment in just a couple of weeks. I feel like I remember him saying shipments of hardware form Hipshot slowed down, but I might be misremebering.

I reached out to them and paid it off. I wasnt expecting it to be done when on my estimated completion date because I ordered when the pandemic first started shutting stuff down at the end of March. I figured that between their limited hours and the high number of builds , it would add at least a couple of weeks to the build time.

 

[Samark]

Killing it with these delicious Koa beasts

 

[Drew]

Right, it's hard to call it a recession when custom guitar orders are flooding Kiesel, and people are flocking to casinos. In stark contrast to how people were living in the '30s.

This is a weird recession in a number of respects, but one of the biggest is since it wasn't one caused ny a demand collapse, the Federal stimulus effort has been focused on propping up consumers, from one-off stimulus checks to a $600 ad-on to weekly unemployment benefits, and since it's come at a time when consumer services spending has HAD to stop, we've seen an increase in a lot of discretionary spending on items that can be used at home or with your immediate families. A surge in guitar orders fits this trend pretty neatly.

That said, you're comparing what's now been three months, to an entire decade. Let's not be so sure until 2023 or so that this isn't going to require some real belt tightening once some of those federal programs start ending.

 

[Matt08642]

They have done some pretty neat builds with one-piece flamed tops.

View attachment 81433 View attachment 81434 View attachment 81432


Still.....Spud's build is better

The flamed maple HSS strat here is speaking to me, god DAMN that's a nice looking instrument

 

[spudmunkey]

They have done some pretty neat builds with one-piece flamed tops.

View attachment 81433 View attachment 81434 View attachment 81432


Still.....Spud's build is better

They do one-piece tops most often (when the customer doesnt necessarily specify it) I think on the two models that use the smallest tops: Zeus and HH (headless Holdsworth).

 

[Spicypickles]

Man I love those holdsworths.

 

[Karg]

This is a weird recession in a number of respects, but one of the biggest is since it wasn't one caused ny a demand collapse, the Federal stimulus effort has been focused on propping up consumers, from one-off stimulus checks to a $600 ad-on to weekly unemployment benefits, and since it's come at a time when consumer services spending has HAD to stop, we've seen an increase in a lot of discretionary spending on items that can be used at home or with your immediate families. A surge in guitar orders fits this trend pretty neatly.

That said, you're comparing what's now been three months, to an entire decade. Let's not be so sure until 2023 or so that this isn't going to require some real belt tightening once some of those federal programs start ending.

That basically implies that our economy is mostly dependent on people with low-paying jobs spending a bunch of money. Most people who are receiving the unemployment checks now should have been 'tightening their belts' even before Coronavirus. Guitar buying does make sense when everyone is stuck inside, but CUSTOM Kiesel orders are through the roof. I feel like everyone would have went for $350 Epiphones instead because of the 'recession', but apparently loads of people can afford custom guitars right now.

 

[mbardu]

That basically implies that our economy is mostly dependent on people with low-paying jobs spending a bunch of money. Most people who are receiving the unemployment checks now should have been 'tightening their belts' even before Coronavirus. Guitar buying does make sense when everyone is stuck inside, but CUSTOM Kiesel orders are through the roof. I feel like everyone would have went for $350 Epiphones instead because of the 'recession', but apparently loads of people can afford custom guitars right now.

Hey, everyone got a check for 1,200 bucks, that's way too much for a base Epi! So people get the 1,200$ Kiesel instead.
Makes so much sense

TBH, it's not limited to Kiesel, even on this forum recently you see a bunch of 1k$+ Covid-NGD that I bet would not necessarily happen otherwise.

 

[Karg]

Hey, everyone got a check for 1,200 bucks, that's way too much for a base Epi! So people get the 1,200$ Kiesel instead.
Makes so much sense

TBH, it's not limited to Kiesel, even on this forum recently you see a bunch of 1k$+ recent Covid-NGD.

Right, and until all of these custom orders stop, we are not in a 'recession' - at least not in the 1930s/starvation sense. We are actually far from that. And if people think that the recession 'wont really hit' until 2023 or something, then we are about to get our worlds rocked compared to the way people are living / buying stuff right now.

 

[mbardu]

Right, and until all of these custom orders stop, we are not in a 'recession' - at least not in the 1930s/starvation sense. We are actually far from that. And if people think that the recession 'wont really hit' until 2023 or something, then we are about to get our worlds rocked compared to the way people are living / buying stuff right now.

You can make that difference, but we are already technically in a recession.
It might last or might not (after all, it looks like the Admin would have no moral opposition in running the money-presses forever Zimbabwe-style); it might bring economic harm to many or not....
Regardless though, there are always going to be people who spend on non-essentials before putting together an emergency fund; so I wouldn't take those consumption signals as indicators that things are going well or not.

 

[bzhang9]

Anyone have experience with polarity, beryllium, illusionist for 8 strings? Their demo is only for 6 strings, not much other info out there on these. I've tried the lithiums, too trebly for my taste.

 

[r3tr0sp3ct1v3]

Okay so I just got my first Kiesel in like 2-3 years. I will do a NGD eventually

 

[Drew]

That basically implies that our economy is mostly dependent on people with low-paying jobs spending a bunch of money. Most people who are receiving the unemployment checks now should have been 'tightening their belts' even before Coronavirus. Guitar buying does make sense when everyone is stuck inside, but CUSTOM Kiesel orders are through the roof. I feel like everyone would have went for $350 Epiphones instead because of the 'recession', but apparently loads of people can afford custom guitars right now.

Rather, it's mostly dependent on people with low AND high paying jobs spending a bunch of money on services, which has absolutely ground to a halt in the last two months. People had been tightening their belts for a while - the savings rate had been increasing nicely the last several years - but when COVID hit and people suddenly had to cancel summer vacations (the old millennial "experiences over things" thing) and stopped getting haircuts, going out to eat or for drinks, or buying new clothes, that suddenly freed up a LOT of money to pay down debt or buy big-ticket items that could be enjoyed away from others. The shift from dining out to dining in put nearly $50 billion in aggregate back into consumers' pockets, according to some estimates I've seen.

I don't know a single economist who disagrees with us being in a recession right now.

 

[Albake21]

Okay so I just got my first Kiesel in like 2-3 years. I will do a NGD eventually

I'm interested to hear what you say about it. Kiesel is still a very 50/50 feeling for me. Was it a new or used one?

 

[Avedas]

I emailed about the fade finish I was looking at and they quoted me $300 for the custom 3 color fade on top of $250 for the deep clear flame for the flame maple top. Seems super reasonable to me.

I was disappointed to find out they discontinued the 5 piece white limba/walnut neck. I think I'll probably go with 5 piece maple/walnut to keep the same general look, and I'm going with tung oil for the neck so that should feel great. Still not 100% decided on that yet though.

 

[diagrammatiks]

I LOVE THIS

 

[mbardu]

Mini-SCB!
He says it's the smallest of the new generation of headless guitars they do.

I had been contemplating the single cut Zeus, in particular because of the 24 3/4 scale, but prefer the neck through and ergonomics of the Vader....so I guess that solves it
This is guaranteed to be next if I can justify another build.

Would probably do a flamed maple top in orange candy and a solid walnut neck in tung oil.