instruments founded 1946 ; 70 years ago 1946 founder lowell kiesel headquarters escondido california 1 united states of america area served global key people mark kiesel jeff kiesel products electric guitars electric bass guitars number of employees 50 website www.kieselguitars.com kiesel guitars is an american manufacturer of electric guitars and electric bass guitars located in southern california . it was founded in 2015 and took over the guitar and bass portions of carvin corporation . 2 3 contents 1 history 2 notable artists 3 references 4 external links history edit carvin guitar s model v220 custom built for craig chaquico of jefferson starship lowell kiesel founded carvin corporation in san diego california in 1946 as the l. c. kiesel company to manufacture guitar pickups . 4 by 1947 the company manufactured steel guitars in gothenburg nebraska . around 1948 it returned to southern california and in 1949 moved to baldwin park california where the company name changed to carvin after kiesel s two eldest sons carson and gavin . 5 starting in the 1970s mark kiesel took over the guitar department and started offering custom instruments made to order to allow customers to choose from a range of available body shapes woods colors electronics and other features . in 1995 jeff kiesel started working for the company and in 2011 he began to help with design and instrument development . 4 6 carvin guitar s jb200c jason becker tribute guitar at the 2014 namm show in 2015 carvin corporation split its business units and kiesel guitars was founded to take over the guitar and bass manufacturing as a wholly separate company . the original kiesel name and logo was chosen to honor founder lowell kiesel . the new company continues to build electric acoustic electric midi synth semi hollow chambered headless guitars and basses along with necks bodied kits and a full parts department under the carvin guitars name as well as new kiesel name . kiesel guitars opened up sales globally following the name change . the company employed over 50 people and produced almost 4 000 custom made instruments per year . it is ran by president mark kiesel lowell kiesel s middle son and vice president jeff kiesel mark s son . jeff kiesel s two children also work for the company when not attending school full time . 7 example of a kiesel guitar s 4x3 headstock design in january 2015 kiesel guitars won revolver s best of show award at the winter namm show for their headless guitar model the vader . 8 at the 2016 winter namm super namm awards were won from guitar aficionado for their 70th anniversary k series model and from guitar world for their 24 fret bolt on aries model . 9 10 notable artists edit jason becker has been a long time endorser of carvin guitars and kiesel offers two tribute models in his honor . the jb200 is based on the original dc200 models that jason played while the newer jb24 numbers guitar is based on jason s original peavey custom model with the numbered fretboard markers . 11 allan holdsworth has several models based on his own designs including headless and midi synch variants . frank gambale s model is a semi hollow carved top available with midi synch . greg howe s signature model along with jason becker s jb24 is the first 24 fret bolt on neck model offered by kiesel . neil zaza s signature is based on the carved top model line featuring his preferred control layout . craig chaquico has a signature thin line acoustic electric model . lee mckinney of born of osiris has signature six and seven string models with the six string being a 25.5 scale variant of the dc600 model line . bassist brian bromberg has a series of basses based on a body of his design while roy vogt has a signature 6 string model based on the vanquish model . other current and past endorsers include anna sentina jonathan butler frank zappa nicki kin alex lifeson marty friedman al di meola yngwie malmsteen willie nelson joe walsh shawn lane tony macalpine timothy b. schmit doug lindsey warren cuccurullo 12 jaco pastorius 13 john mcvie and earl slick . references edit kiesel guitars new location in escondido . facebook . kiesel guitars . varga george january 20 2015 . carvin splits in two to launch kiesel guitars . retrieved march 5 2016 . carvin announces the launch of kiesel guitars . january 24 2015 . retrieved march 5 2016 . a b mobley max august 9 2011 . builder profile carvin . retrieved march 7 2016 . moseley willie g. june 2009 . the carvin dn440t . vintage guitar . p. 64 . access date requires url help carvin s new company kiesel guitars to handle guitar and bass manufacturing . january 20 2015 . retrieved march 7 2016 . carvin launches kiesel guitars . january 20 2015 . retrieved march 7 2016 . revolver best of show 2015 namm winner . january 29 2015 . retrieved march 7 2016 . guitar aficionado announces the super namm award winners . march 9 2016 . retrieved march 9 2016 . guitar world congratulates super namm award winners . march 7 2016 . retrieved march 9 2016 . fanelli damian march 5 2015 . the making of carvin guitars jason becker jb24 numbers tribute guitar video . retrieved march 7 2016 . the carvin museum 1985 carvin endorsers page 4 . retrieved march 7 2016 . the carvin museum 1985 carvin endorsers page 5 . retrieved march 7 2016 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to kiesel guitars . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kiesel guitars & oldid 743674845 categories 2015 establishments in californiabass guitar manufacturing companiescompanies based in san diegocompanies established in 2015guitar manufacturing companiesmanufacturing companies based in californiamusical instrument manufacturing companiesprivately held companies based in californiahidden categories pages using citations with accessdate and no urluse mdy dates from march 2016commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged 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