Keiper 115

Specification

small size, full acoustic, double cutaway (venetian and florentine) jazz guitar, nature (polyuretan) flat top, spruce body, rosewood fingerboard, gold hard ware, cheap humbucker pickups and cheap die cast tuners, jumbo frets

Playabilty
Even after 15 years, the neck ist straight and the action is quite good. Therefore the overall playabilty is unexepctedly high. The Tuners were crap and needed to be replaced immedately.

Sound
The original pups sounded dull and flat so I replaced them Epiphone Alnico classics (neck) and Probucker 3 (bridge) which worked out surprisingly well. Now its a good jazz sound with a fender deluxe amp.

Overall
The shape is strange and the sound is weak. The Woodwork is a reasonable --s so for me its a hot rodder

This is a peculiar instrument. The twin cutaways, (Venetian and Florentine) do not make for an attractive instrument, which is why I consider it a novelty guitar. Having said that, it plays surprisingly well, and has immensely powerful pickups, not really something you want on a 'jazz' archtop. In contradiction to one of the reviewers, who I'd suggest hasn't measured it, it has a 25.5" scale length, which is Fender scale, and consequently quite long. This has the effect of making light-medium flatwounds fairly tight, and unless you go lighter, you won't get much useful bending. I bought it REALLY cheaply (for 60 GBP, years ago) and don't play it much. It's in immaculate condition, and I use it for recording as you can get a nice soft 'bebop' tone from it.. Better than it looks, but still relatively second -rate

This is a classic hollow body guitar, favored by many players. My boss owns one, and once he deemed me worthy, started letting me play it on occasion. It has a spruce top with a maple body and neck. The fretboard is made of ebony, a rare treat. There are 22 frets and two humbucker pickups, with two volume and two tone knobs and a three-way pickup selector switch. Depending on which model you buy, the guitar has a shallower round cutaway or a deeper pointed one. The guitar is a beautiful specimen, classy and elegant when not beaten up or damaged.


UTILIZATION

The very top notes, even with the cutaway, are somewhat difficult to reach and still get a good sound. I never really thought that was too much of a problem though, as I tend to use this guitar more for jazz and similar styles of playing. The neck is actually really thin and the scale isn't quite as long as usual, which allows the player to form some complex, wide-reaching chords easily. Getting a nice sound out of this thing is a snap, it plays smoothly and excellently. It's a bit on the bigger side, but it's not as awkward to play as some of the older archtop hollow bodies. The drivers on the guitar that I play are stable.


SOUNDS

Basically nothing that will rob the guitar of its brightness or warmth. Warm is definitely the best way to describe it, the thing is as smooth as butter. It's got a great low end that doesn't get to woofy, and the mid and highs are both at a respectably low level. Any traditional jazz player or old-school country player could dig this, as would anyone trying to emulate the sounds of the 50s rockers. Ted Nugent even plays one at times, and gets some GREAT rock tones out of it. Basically a versatile guitar if there ever was one, as long as you're not trying to shred on some metal or play punk or anything TOO modern.


OVERALL OPINION

The sound and feel of this guitar are priceless. And everyone apparently knows it too, because these guitars are ridiculously expensive. I've seen them go for a lot of money! I can't even imagine paying that for any guitar, but certainly I would choose this one if I had to pay that much for anything. I don't own this guitar, but play it often, and I can tell you that it brings me much joy. Five Stars overall.

Chinese manufacturing, we suspect Bought € 150 on eBay.
Handle 20 boxes, 2 humbuckers, gibson bridge type hard wood with glued (it may be surprising but it is very efficient)
Four knobs (level, tone, treble bass) and classical selector 3 positions.
Finish and polish is exceptional for a guitar of this price, even if the gold hardware has a tendency to bite and deserves to be replaced.
The lifts are a little too direct but, surprisingly, fit perfectly the agreement.
The strings supplied are original to throw on the field, they replace a set of strings spun flat 10-46 or 12-48 or 52.

UTILIZATION

The handle is very nice and very comparable to a 335 es
Cutting offers good access to acute, even if past the 17 fret, as all guitars of this type, a bit of acrobatics is required, but the frantic solos are not the vocation of this guitar.
The ergonomics are perfect, even if regtette the absence of an attachment point for the ramp on the front of the guitar, but the sharp horn of the box does not help much. We will therefore use a snap 'to the string' so dreadnough. Similarly, the body is thicker than Thinline and ask to play in a more 'folk', but you get done right away.
The guitar I received was well regulated to the origin and takes only a few minor adjustments, it provides a simply stunning, especially on the neck pickup is smooth as desired

SOUNDS

I bought it for jazz and I must say that once the original strings replaced, it is largely a Gretsch or a Gibson in the same style, which are worth between 10 and 20 times its price. I said earlier: for its price, its just stunning.
I use a Behringer V-tone amp, not a précisment rolls, but it sounds great even here ..
The neck pickup sounds very creamy product, perfect for jazz, and if the bridge pickup is slightly less good, however we get very good results, the intermediate position (rhythm) is very nice and provides perfectly what it is destiny.
I use a BOSS PW10 and I am surprised by the sounds that can be drawn on the records crunch, see metal.
A highlight is the virtual absence of feedback, lack of such classical guitar (must not go too high in the distos anyway), it offers ..
Overall I remain amazed at the range of sounds it offers, and apart from one flat to the microphone acute, I think she is perfect to use as I have (jaz, blues)

OVERALL OPINION

I use deuis a month.
I love the sound it produces, its only drawback for me is a little micro acute feeble.
I already had a rds109 the same manufacturer (a kind of Les Paul Thinline hollowbody) which I was already happy, but it delights me altogether.
The value is simply unbeatable! Even by changing the micro acute and some details of the hardware, the value will remain unbeatable in the category.
If I had the choice again, it would without hesitation .. I also think to buy a second to customize the (mechanical, pickups and Bigsby) .. I think that is an exceptional guitar.