KIESEL guitars yes.
Also Schecter makes a V style… evil twin?
I think that the ESP could still work…
That lower button/input jack shouldn’t be an issue, and you dont have to swap out EMGs immediately.
I drove myself crazy over my recent guitar purchases. It’s very much a personal thing, but I’m a SS guy. Ibanez Prestige and Yngwie Strat…
Just got an ESP , LP variant
I am looking into that.
But the body is so short. See the LP above; longer body style. That’s necesssary to get the guitar more left-shifted. This kiesel guitar has the body too short. Even for the X Series, they took the Carvin V220 and perverted the body design by making the body right side smaller, thereby right-shifting the guitar to cause difficulty playing upper frets.
Carvin classic shape, better balanced design.
Kiesel recycled mod. Notice how they shortened the body RHS, so the strap button is nearer to the bridge.
It does look smaller! Wow. Wonder why Jeff went with this?
Just curious why does a smaller body not work well for you? I’ve always concentrated on the fretboard as the most important part of a guitar’s playability.
I’m on the hunt for a vader on reverb and ran into this a while back, looks pretty slick.
If the neck joint on the solar V is anything like the one on my S series Solar then it would be the best V neck joint ever. Fret access has always been my problem with Vs I love em but past the 17th fret the access is always tricky. Rhoads Vs suffer from this badly in my experience because they were designed for 22 frets. This is a main reason I gave up on the V quest and went with super strats. The only other guess is an Alexi Laiho ESP model but the nice ones are pricey and they only have a bridge pickup.
As for Kiesel changing shapes I know there was a lawsuit or threats of one awhile back by Jackson iirc in regards to their V and X designs. Although the X shape change may have more to do with trying to compete with strandberg since lots of these modern shred dudes are into the smaller bodied guitars.
The problem is that the guitar is too right-shifted for me. The problem is worse when the strap button is at or near the bridge.
This is not unlike my bicycle seat being too high for you.
With cycling, a fit specialist will adjust the bicycle to the cyclist’s body. This includes changing the heights and angles of the seat, seatpost, stem, and handlebars.
Bicycle fit specialists make adjustments to make the cyclist more comfortable on the bike, to eliminate arm, back, neck, knee, and hip pain, and to improve efficiency, speed, comfort, and power.
In contrast, guitar players get to pick a body design and a color.
This works well for most players, as the instrument can be moved around. But when you have very broad shoulders, as I do, or a very flat breastplate, as I also do, and very long arms (I don’t have this “problem”, unfortunately), the guitar fit can be a problem.
Fit problems can also arise for smaller people, such as young children, who may be too small to play certain things on their instrument well or at all. This is also a problem with the piano.
The problem with custom instruments is aggregated with the unknown effect that any particular cut might not be easily recut. Some things, like strap buttons, can be moved. Other things, like the angle or shape of the body or the pitch of the neck cannot be easily or heavily changed once built. Once the custom guitar has been built, it’s built. If it doesn’t balance like you guessed it might, too bad. You’re stuck with a weird guitar that doesn’t balance well. Happy expensive experiment. Better luck next time.
I was excited when I hear Kiesel would be making the X-Series. Then, when I saw it, I was instantly disappointed by the way they totally fouled it up, apparently on purpose.
Let me ask you this…
Have you ever just spent hours in a guitar shop trying out model after model?
I assume u did and arrived at the V shape?
Played superstrats for years. Tried many models and shapes.
The most comfortable guitar shape I played was the ESP Vulture (pictured above). Despite being all mahogany, it’s very light.
Good:
Contour cutaway on the body gives more room for the arm.
Light.
Guitar is left-shifted.
Bad:
The volume knobs are too far down and there are two of them.
The fingerboard is too narrow.
Large James Hetfield identifying logo.
I also purchased a Jackson Rhoads V and played that for a while. Horrible sounding high-output guitar that wouldn’t stay in tune. Fingerboard was too narrow. Action a bit high, even for me. Returned to GC.
When I see that Kiesel body shape, I want to cut off the upper horn and glue it to where the strap button is on the lower horn. I would put the strap button where the neck meets the body around the 19th fret. Such modifications would be unstable, expensive, and would require a lot of care to make it look less ugly.
I should ask Gary how much that kiesel hack would run me.
I can try the Keisel V and see if Gary can mod it to my liking. If it looks like it’ll work; I’ll order one with better options.
It’s a about $2200 ($1900 + tax) to try the Kiesel V. If it looks like it might work, I can either return it and order a better one or use this one itself for the base. Gary can work on whatever I select when it’s selected.
I’m guessing it’s going to cost about $500 to modify the body to get a more reasonable shape.
If it doesn’t look like it will work at all, I can return it. I’ll get my money back, but will incur the cost of shipping (probably about $80).
https://www.kieselguitars.com/cart/cart.php?id=73b3b46601da1bbec6eb6c7599d8023e
Can I get a custom neck-thru blank, possibly with pickup and bridge routing? If so, I should be able to find someone to put the wings on it.
You know, for the 2700 bucks you’re looking at it’s possible you could just get someone to build you a custom to your exact specifications. Hipshot makes headless hardware.
Custom neck thru for $2700? Where? I’m seriously looking now…
If I were going headless, I would go with Sophia Tremolos. The 2:90 can fit into Floyd Rose routing.
I might also want either a zero fret or a nut with a 1-2 cm “headstock”. (This should make bending at the low frets easier.) Jumbo frets until the 17th fret, then slim tall frets thereafter, compound radius, etc… But that’s getting ahead. I could go on about product spec. And it would be great if I could get what I wanted in a quality hand-build instrument. Sure, I’d love a USA or Japan build, if I could get it.
Keisel sales rep says that the strap button placement and body size was determined by balance tests.
Changing the body size changes the balance, obviously.
So again, f I don’t like the result, I’m stuck with a weird guitar that doesn’t balance well. That only makes me hesitate more on pulling the trigger on a guitar.
JML Instruments has some neck thru Rhoads Vs and charge under 3k. https://www.instagram.com/jmlinstruments/
Hello, i would like to try the steinberger spirit to have a comfortable guitar to practice at home on the sofa maybe in headphones.
But after the good news of Steinberger coming back in 2018, i see today that social accounts and web site are quite dead… Nobody answers to requests…
Are there any news from the steinberger company or is Gibson going to kill it?
Other headless alternatives like traveler (too cheap) or strandberg (too expensive) or harley benton (too young) do not convince me.
Thank you
Agile brand has strand berg shaped headless…they range $500-$1000 range. I’ve played one…it was a descent instrument. Good pickups in it.
well it’s a guitar tho
!
