Kiesel trem arm does not stay in "playing position"

Gear
#1

If I reach for my Kiesel Hipshot trem arm and then let go of it, it falls so that it’s pointing towards the floor. Like this (7s video):

I would like it to stay in place, like this (this player fully lets go at 2s into this link):

This is so that I can do flutters. But I don’t see an allen screw or anything to tighten the trem arm. Do I need a replacement, or maybe I’m missing a part? Does anyone have experience with the Kiesel Hipshot trem as to shed light?

I’ve reached out to Kiesel but my experience so far is that it’s a literal coin toss whether they’ll reply or not.

1 Like
#2

Found this in the Kiesel forum:

Put the arm in the hole, dive bomb the bridge, and then look under the back of it. There should be a small set screw in the trem block right in line with the arm.

https://www.kieselguitarsbbs.com/viewtopic.php?t=51877

1 Like
#3

I see it! Thanks.

Didn’t know about that forum (doesn’t seem to be official), cool resource.

1 Like
#4

Yeah, it’s the same basic premise as Gotoh/Wilkinson’s design, and it rules.

I don’t think it’s a Kiesel trem, either, just a Hipshot, unless they’re doing some sort of Kiesel branded variant for some reason…? It’s a nice trem, very smooth, though with more of a vintage strat range than something like the Gotoh/Wilkinson VS100 that I have in my “main” strat - I bought the Hipshot to try out in that guitar, and liked it enough that I ended up grabbing a few other Fender parts to build a second Strat for it, but the more aggressice range of the VS100 fit that gutiar a lot better.

#5

FWIW Someone on the forum I linked to above said it’s “based on the Hipshot Contour”.

#6

How does it differ from the Contour, though? It looks identical to me, though by default the Contour comes with a strat-style plastic tip arm - getting a tipless one with a rounded metal end was as simple as sending them an email, though, five or so years ago.

Curious if there’s anything else difference about it. And I had to go to the Kiesel website to confirm as much as I just did, and now I feel a bit dirty. :laughing:

#7

Yes that was a big forum in the early days and there’s still much information on there.

That site is no longer around as of Sep 30th. All communications are now going through the Kiesel Guitars Carvin Guitars Group Facebook Page

As we count down the final hours of the Kiesel BBS (in case some weren’t aware…it’ll be retired in the morning when they cut ties with that server. It’s still up now, but the plug will be pulled sometime in the morning), I wanted to share the coolest thing that happened in the time I was a member there (which was since January 2008)

Sometime between 2009 and the early 2010s, long-time user “mgood” ran some polls to come up with a sort of “Forum’s Pick” build. It was just a fun thing to do, and it ended with a spec list and some fun conversations. A honeyburst SB bass won that one. I thought it was a lot of fun, so in May of 2014, I was inspired to do another one. Pretty quickly, I think even on the first page of the BBS thread, it was suggested by user “Appollyon” that if we did a raffle, someone could actually win the actual guitar that got spec’d out, if we got enough money together to order it. Then user “ferret” suggested a great idea that really got things going: any extra money raised by the raffle would be donated to Jason Becker. At that point we started a list of people who wanted to buy-in to the raffle. Appollyon put in a lot of his own time, effort, some cash, and lots of other behind-the-scenes support to help make this happen the best way it could.

When Jeff heard about the raffle, while Carvin (as there were known then) couldn’t officially be involved in any aspect of the raffle itself, he threw in a few additional free upgrades for us to help sweeten the build without eating into the funds: the KTB and I believe the black 3PB if I remember right.

After 30+ polls where we chose specs (and final playability specs were left to be chosen by the winner), we landed on an SCB6. I honestly don’t remember who did the mock-up of it based on the selected specs, if it was me or Evster (I think it was Evster) or someone else, but this was the guitar to be raffled off (see below with the red floral wallpaper background).

An online randomizer was used to chose the winner from the entrants, and user “emux2” was selected as the winner. Today, this guitar would be around $3100.

The order was placed. After the purchase price of the guitar was met, an additional $1820 was raised for donation to Jason Becker. I put together a sort of thank you “card” with the image of that pre-builder rendering, a brief description of what happened, and the names of everyone who bought in to the raffle. It was sent to Jason along with the check in October (I believe).

In November, we received a postcard from Amy Becker, Jason’s sister-in-law, thanking everyone for the donation, and mentioned that Jason got a kick of some of the funny usernames when they were read to him.

3 Likes