Swan Dive

“KIESEL INSTRUMENTS ARE so versatile, they can cover all styles and extremely well,” says Will Swan, guitarist in Californian post-hardcore quintet Dance Gavin Dance. The last year or so has kept him busy — not only with writing, recording and releasing his group’s ninth full-length, Afterburner — but also finalizing his own signature Kiesel, which was announced back in February.

Available in five finishes, it’s a single-cutaway curved top featuring Kiesel’s Beryllium humbuckers and a white acrylic swan inlay around the 12th fret. For Swan, the main attraction with the Beryllium pickups was the fact they weren’t overly compressed. Instead, there’s more clarity coming from Alnico II magnets and vintage-style windings, voiced more like the classic guitars of old than the maximized output typically appointed to modern instruments.

“I’ve always been into a really clean tone, even when I’m distorted,” Swan says. “The same goes for my approach to gain. I’ve never used distortion pedals. I like to get the distortion