Kiesel Zeus Bass, 5 string ZB5 model , 2018 , exotic wood build, Outstanding condition & tone

I have a really cool bass here for you. One you do not see many of. This is a Kiesel Zeus headless 5 string bass. This one is a recent 2018 build and comes with it's Kiesel Ultimate gig bag and Dunlop strap locks and allen wrench set.

Conditionally this one is barely touched and looks fantastic all over. It has no dings that i can find and i will rate it as a 9.8/10 cosmetically. Truly a gorgeous specimen to look at and hold. Equally important is playability and setup. This one has it's original Kiesel setup and has not been changed from that. It has a moderate string action that is not to high or low. What is most noticeable to me and i see this often in newer Kiesel guitars, is the flexibility and the feeling of elasticity of the strings feels very comfortable and makes for an easy to play instrument. The strings fret easily and bend easily and also recover fast when you attack them hard. The sustain is outstanding and the notes ring through full and long. These are all traits of a great setup, which entails a straight neck and string to string radius that matches the fretboard perfectly. I would not change a thing about the setup. It's dialed in perfectly.

The only thing close to conditional note i will mention is when i run my finger up and down the sides of fretboard i can feel barely just a little bit of an edge to the  frets. I cannot feel it when i play at all, it feels super smooth, so i am not gonna call it sharp fret edges, but if you are searching and probing with your fingers i can feel just a tiny bit of that. That's fairly common and rarely mentioned in guitars, i just like to be very exacting in my descriptions. The fretwork on the board itself is outstanding.

In addition to playing well it's a great sounding bass and i will give you my impressions of it's tone as well as the influence it's composition has on it's tone. The walnut body sounds like something between mahogany and maple. It has the pore density and hardwood nature of maple. This makes for a percussive, snappy, aggressive tone. Where it resembles mahogany is it is warmer and darker sounding then maple. Walnut is not as "laid back" sounding as mahogany. It has traits of warmth and traits of percussion and "pop". It's great tonewood that is not super common mostly because it is more expensive then common body woods like alder, ash, and mahogany.

This is complimented by a nice big slab of ebony as the fretboard with no marker inlays on it ( it has side dot markers). Ebony will give the tone a spacious, open, cavernous sound that has a touch of natural reverb to it. It's a very pure and articulate sounding wood that is used for that purpose to add note separation and distinction to your tone, and it matches well with warm dark body woods.

The neck shaft is a 5 piece walnut and purple heart specimen, with a tung oil, soft to the touch back contour finish. The 5 piece configuration is favored by boutique and high end bass builders and one of it's benefits is it makes for a stable neck that is resistant  to the the minor seasonal bowing that naturally happens to necks. Kiesel 5 piece necks with the dual carbon internal rods are simply state of the art, and will hold their setups and playability for a long time without need for adjustment.

The single bar style pickup is 100% passive with a volume and tone knob. It has a natural, dynamic tone to it. Not quite as bassy as a P-bass pickup but a bit wider sounding in the dynamic range then a Jazz bass set. It is fair to say it sounds like something between the two. It definitely has a musical sound to it. It appeals to me because i prefer this sound to an active preamp style pickup setting. Passive pickup circuits sound to my ears a bit more detailed, they have less power but more overall frequency response and have a wider sense of dimension, sounding more three dimensional and open. Enhancements to the EQ, and to the level of gain and such are typically done through the amp with passive pickup setup. An active pickup with preamp will give you more versatility through the guitar knobs. The trade off though is you can never fully dial in the clarity and dynamic range of a true passive pickup in a 9V battery powered guitar.

So that pretty well describes this one. This is a straight forward accessible bass build. It is comfortable to play, has a shorter wingspan stretch for your arms due to it's headless design. It feels almost more like playing a 6 string guitar then a bass. What makes it special is the core quality of it. It's a USA custom shop instrument made with premium exotic woods and has a tone that does justice to that distinction.

I will pack this one up well with sufficient filler and bracing in the box, i will detune it an octave prior to shipment. And it will be insured.

Thank you for reading and considering!`