KIESEL GUITARS

If you really want to get freaky, then the Kiesel Guitars website is the place to go. For more than 70 years the company has been building exotic instruments to spec for extreme shredders like Allan Holdsworth, Jason Becker, Will Swan, Johnny Hiland, Al Joseph, Frank Gambale and thousands of other players. Their models include carved-top guitars, multi-scale fanned-fret models, headless guitars and basses, extended-scale baritone instruments and just about anything else you can think of.

Their guitars ain’t cheap – their baseline price is somewhere around $1,200 – but because Kiesel has their production so streamlined and organised, they aren’t nearly as pricey as many comparable boutique guitar makers.

“I think the thing that makes us special is that all of our instruments are built at our in-house factory in the U.S.A.,” says Zak Kiesel, who oversees the company’s marketing and social media. “We hold ourselves to the higher standard that comes with making quality instruments. We’re always pushing the limits to make our guitars better and more durable.”

While we found their website graphically unappealing (C’mon guys, this thing looks like it was built in freakin’ 1997), it was easy to navigate and endlessly addicting once you start realising how many options are available to create your own dream guitar. But if you really want to get a sense of what Kiesel has to offer, we recommend checking out their far superior Instagram page. Unlike their website, it offers hundreds of great videos, photos and testimonials from satisfied customers.