DC stuff

These are the bird's eye maple spotting on my Kiesel DC400H fretboard. I have no idea what's the fixation on bird's eye maple, personally, I don't find them attractive. Then again, I'm not a fan of such features, flame stripes & quilts included.

Top marks for this - look at how well the nut slots were cut. I prefer these V-profile nut slots, strings rest better this way, very little room for nut materials from the sides to choke the strings during tuning. Yes, I remove all strings during re-stringing regardless of the guitar's bridge type. This way, I have better access to the fretboard surface for cleaning. 

Kieseling

This was the guitar of choice yesterday. Not really a fan of the bridge pickup but the neck pickup rules! It's not a warm PAF-ish type, but something that has lots of clarity with single notes under high gain. My kinda pickup, very similar to Duncan's Distortion/ Pearly Gates. I didn't really care about the semi-birds eye maple fretboard until Beez told me that it looks good there. This was listed at the Kiesel webpage under the clearance list some time ago & the price was just too good to pass. In that listing, the photo didn't highlight the birds eye maple affair maybe due to its B-grade vibe. Regardless, this is a good guitar.

DCSGJ

Had been cutting it with my SG for the last few days or so. Really enjoying how the shorter scale length coupled with slight de-tuning (Eb) opened up heavy riffing ideas with ease. Sometimes, we need to get into the right frame of mind to trigger ideas & a different tuning helps.

The DC was out to offer a different feel/ tension. A wee bit more reach compared to the SG in terms of scale length but the neck profiles are somewhat similar- both rounded with substantial chunkiness without going overboard. Strangely, my legato was more efficient here compared to the SG so the sure take-away here is that a shorter scale length does not translate into playing efficiency for sure.

DC vs Paisley

Nah... I'm not pitting these two against each other, they are awesome in their own rights. It's the first time I played them sequentially in a single sitting.

Took the DC out to hear the pickups in action more than anything else. This is one of the guitars whose default pickups I'm happy with- the Lithium humbuckers. The fatter, rounder neck profile is also a break from the Paisley's which I've been playing the entire week.

The Paisley was played after the DC as a psychological reminder of what I've been used to for the last few days or so. It's a return to familiar settings of sorts but it didn't affect my playing in that way. The only familiar feel that I would call 'familiar' is the Ibanez neck profile as I've been accustomed to this neck type for the longest time. 

OK so the real 😁 reason I played them this morning was to feel the difference in fretboard radius; flat (Kiesel @ 14") vs curved (Fender @ 7.25"). The Kiesel did well for both solos & riffs, especially for the latter. The Fender's curved profile manifested some challenge in terms of riffing especially at the E & A strings. The fingers tend to work harder resisting the curvature as notes get muted easily if you don't observe/ maintain a certain arching. For someone who riffs incessantly with furious right hand movements & keeping ideas at the lower neck register, the flatter radius wins it. However, I tend to legato better with a curved fretboard radius & this is indeed a recent discovery (OK maybe not that recent as in this morning); my picking hand is more relaxed. So ladies & gentlemen, if you think fretboard radius influences the fretting hand exclusively, know that the picking hand gets affected as well but not as much. It becomes more apparent if you hear your playing through recordings, you'd realize the degree of extraneous noise presence changes when playing different guitars with different fretboard profiles. However, this is not a marked occurrence because implements like the noise gate & fret wraps play their role effectively to make sure you are what you play without those little things getting in the way. 

Maple brotherhood

Had been busy for the last couple of days; was acclimatizing to the new work place & after three weeks, all's good.

Played a little bit last night, 15min with each guitar seen above. I have to say that I'm totally OK with both rosewood/ maple fretboard. The thing with maple is, you don't get to feel the open grain under your fingertips while playing. That's ridiculous you say? Maybe. But do not discount the fact that some of us out there feel this & it affects play more than affecting choices with regards to tone. Feel-wise, the Kiesel has a more rounded profile & things are not that slim while the Schecter has a shallower C-carve; very Fender-ish but slimmer. 

Guitars seen here:

• Black: Kiesel DC400H
• Amber: Schecter KR-24-2H

Tweaks: Kiesel DC

Was at Beez's last Saturday. Caught in the downpour (trapped at the bus stop for more than 20min) but still managed to get there.

Forgive the fuzz but that's the Kiesel DC's new input jack right there. The old one was crackling, after several bouts with the contact spray, it was still problematic so it made way for this Switchcraft version.

While at it, told Beez to swap out the default capacitor with the Emerson one here. Beez insisted on not cutting the wires away, he told me I would need a good working length should I decide to remove it into another guitar. So, like the true pro that he is, he managed to insulate the exposed parts (blue) as seen above. Awesome.

This guitar was set for a 20" radius & it might be the reason why I snagged on strings during fast picking runs. It was re-set to a 16" setting when I reached home.

OK, all done! Spent time with it on Sunday morning putting the Angry Driver pedal to good use. More on this to come. 

Night & day

Saturday morning guitar noodling- done.

These 2 may be in the shred/ high gain territory but they can never replace each other. Some thoughts:

Kiesel DC400

It's the heavier among the two, has more inherent bottom end in there. There are more cleans in the pickups as well, very apparent when the volume knob is rolled down. The neck profile- rounder, more pronounced than an average Fender. Also, the narrower neck influences less death & destruction. If you noticed, the guitar's lower cutaway isn't as aligned to the body as the Ibanez's so when played sitting down, the neck is more angled to the floor.

Ibanez RG471

This guitar is about $500 lesser than its American counterpart, it's also lighter. The satin body finish might be attributable to this. Neck profile- not the thinnest Ibanez has to offer but you can feel the difference once you switch from playing this to the DC. As mentioned above, this one has a wider profile so the hand is more at ease when playing riffs which involve more bass notes. The replacement pickups in this one are of my preferences so tone-wise, I prefer what I hear. The lighter overall feel might contribute to a less pronounced bottom end as well but the Seymour Duncan's Screamin' Demon humbucker (bridge) is one endowed with a commanding bottom end.

It's the first weekend of May- wishing you good times with your gear. 😀

Kiesel to the metal

This was the set up yesterday. I had the opportunity to let loose for about 15min so it happened. Strictly no soloing or extended legato passages, just apocalyptic metal riffing from start to end. The Kiesel pickups here are quite devoid of FAT. There are low frequency servings in there but you need to keep your EQ checked for excessive hairy top end. It happened just by cranking the amp up- way more treble than I expected. It might also be the fact that the smaller amp driver contributed to the treble poke, I didn't rule this out. One thing for sure, these are my kind of metal mayhem pickups. Not for Gibson humbucker lovers, definitely.

Kiesel: DC

The new Kiesel is a humble DC (DC400H) devoid of flash & strictly functional. The plan was to try a ready made model to see if what the manufacturer has to offer is as appealing (to me) as my other Kiesel (Vader 6). This guitar, upon listing, was rather unpopular; it was spec'd to be very working grade with no particular visual attraction & stayed put till the Veteran's Day price cut took place. I had one other model in mind which 'disappeared' shortly after the Halloween discount went into effect- the price of hesitation. However, I'm kinda glad I went with this one because it proved to be 'different'. The usual custom shop QC is all over this guitar despite being very simple & down to earth. Kiesel is still the standard to beat if you intend to spend good money on some very high standards of production without that over-priced feeling. 

So this adventure very well proved that I could definitely get along with a ready spec'd guitar from Kiesel & not revel too much in their custom spec'd ones as being the superior discourse. I've told myself to never spend hard earned money on any more black guitars but this happened. At the back of my mind I know it's not about the colour, it's about believing what the brand name has to offer in terms of quality, first & foremost. Worth every single cent. This is my second Kiesel & it won't be my last (the next one to be a little different, of course).