Great to see Lee on your videos. He adds the working clubdate musician perspective that many of the watchers want to hear.

Heck yeah, haven't even played it yet and I know it's gonna sound killer in your hands. I've been looking at Nik Huber guitars for the longest, but never pulled the trigger.

I just bought a 52 Custom Shop Tele after watching your videos on telecasters. Its heavy relic, super thick neck, weighs 6.2 lbs and is absolutely glorious. I'm glad I watched.

I think the stock pickups in the Krauster are a great choice. You have that full sounding P90 in the neck and a higher output bridge pickup if you need it. In addition this guitar has as demonstrated a coilsplit on the humbucker which creates a much more open (tele bridge pickup) kind of sound so a lot op options for variation on that bridge pickup by itself. In addition this guitars has great volume pots with treble bleed so please use them..... With that you can dive into so much other flavors with fe less gain. Also just crank your amp and roll some volume back on either the P90 or Humbucker in full or split mode. The very strong point of this guitar is also in the middle position using both pickups. That sound is really awesome and just also use the HB split for variation together with volume change. Yes this guitar has a lot of output but it's just there is so much subtleness under the hood as well. Also you have to see this guitar positioned in the total range of other guitars that Nik Huber offers. He has many PAF based guitars so if your preference is in that direction buy one of his other guitars. I love the Krauster as is and would never change it.

I owned two of them in the past, never got on with the pickups, and sold them. Great build quality. I should have kept one looking back and put different pickups in it. I can't wait to hear how it sounds with new pickups.

For the neck P90 I got some great results by removing the keeper bar. I own a Tokai R6 where I really liked the clarity of the pickups - especially for the neck PU. When I swapped the PUs for some Sanford Magnetics, I never got really happy. The sound was always too dark for me. Until I found that the original Tokai PUs had no keeper bars. Once I removed those from the Sanfords, they sounded also much clearer. Give it a try!!

I played one of these with a Lollar Imperial in the bridge and it sounded great. Though I think it likely that a change of pickup will result in a less pleasing split sound. I don’t think it’s possible to have the best of both worlds. Another alternative would be to to wire the the pull switch up for series/parallel.

Great guitars,great company.

What do you have in your chain - amp> OX> apollo ? this guitar sounds incredible and i liked the pick up it rings and rings man

Great guitar! Did you already swap the pickups? Cheers Alex

Hi Paul, I have a Nik Huber Dolphin 2 with the same bridge problem and replaced it with a low wound P90 and all is absolut fantastic now.

So many reviewers would big this guitar up. But not you Paul. You give honest reviews regardless of brand or cost. This guitar is tremendous but those pickups didn't tick your box and you stand up and say. Brilliant 👏Same with the Chapman review recently.👏

I'm not a wraptail bridge fan, but generally the added brightness acousticly, is caused buy the string load being dispersed less on only 2 posts as opposed to 4. Whether it transfers through the pickups any differently is debatable.

I must be hearing things, because those pickups sound glorious to me. Awesome guitar. I want one.

How is the weight balance on these guitars? Does it have neck dive? This is my main concert, other than that, it sounds killer! I also like the bright character of the stock PUs.

Might want to get a Custom build Gordon Smith for less than half the price and very similar look and supply your own picks if you like,,although their own a really good. Built in Northampton, UK.

This guitar often comes with a 59 PAF from Haüssel, and god it's a brilliant PAF. Have tried other PAFs in this guitar for year, never found a better match. People buy it and make reviews of this model with the higher output pickups options proposed by Huber and then complain. If you want a PAF, buy a model with a PAF in it, good lord... Also (watching more of the video), my first replacement was a Cream T BFG and NO, it was not a good replacement. These guitars are brighter than Les Pauls, and the BFG was way too bright and aggressive (it's a hot, very bright PAF). Alnico 4 or 2s are better at home in this guitar, except for the Alnico 5 Haüssel one that I mentioned in this comment.

Awesome Vid - Awesome Guitar! 😎👌 This is the thing.. when you get to your level of experience, unless it's custom shop.. The Manufacturers pickup choice is likely never gonna be your first choice. Same with the budget guitars 😜 I'm not in the room, but reckon the resonance could be coming from that unique neck/body coupling 🤷‍♂

I fucking love Lee! Just comes across as a humble dude that doesn’t get bought into hype stuff or the belief that because gears expensive it must be great! You can deffo tell you are a gear snob Paul, much like myself 😂 sometimes he gets dead excited over a bargain hes purchased and you can tell it’s genuine. I love that quality and wish i was more like that

Had to stop myself from buying a sire yesterday crazy spec for the money 😂

Had one in gold finish…but finally sold it (sadly) because of the too thin nut for me ! The guitar I had dreamed of and never took the time to feel it….awesome guitar 😢

I think you would like seth baccus guitars Paul. Top uk builder 👌love to see you try one!

I didn’t get on well with the pickups once I first got my Krautster but then it clicked. I almost never play the bridge pickup in HB mode with fully on volume and tone. Please give it a try with tone and volume rolled back. It stays clear and you can get nice crunchy and clear tones. E.g. tone 4-5 and volume 5-7.

I love my Collings 290 (with Amber P90s), the only problem with that guitar is that I love it so much, I don´t dare to bring it outside of the house. Bought a Reverende Sensei 290 for $565 including a case. Best of both worlds!

I've got a Krautster 11 and I agree about the pickups. It's a great guitar otherwise and I went to my preferred pickup people who are 'Bare Knuckle - no affiliation.

I decided to buy an Oswald guitar instead of a Huber because I got to pick all the specs and it was less. That’s a beautiful guitar but I think the Oswald was the right choice.

check the volume pot.nick might use 250k pot in order the humbucker sound more like single coil when you use the push/pull switch.

I love when you buy a new expensive guitar. Enjoy it Paul. Please continue to do so. Don’t forget if you go to say GuitarGuitar to take us through video. 🎸👍

Interesting comment about stability of thick necks. My Musicman JP15 has a very thin neck (suits my Arthritic fingers. !! ) and it is the most stable guitar I've ever owned .

Best sounding guitar you have

Man i hear strong mids but im just not hearing the bad nasal that i hear on some les pauls? I dont know im loving the tone of this guitar it's looks are ok but i love the tones you guys are pulling!

I don’t like the Häussel pups either, so I changed them out of my Krautsters. I’ve got a Monty’s PAF and a Monty’s Underspun in them now and it’s a million times better.

From my experience, overwound humbuckers sound good on since coil tap! While good Paf humbuckers have a very thin sound on single coil tap.

Cool guitar. On another note, does it make it slightly easier to tolerate negative comments knowing that their efforts are helping the algorithm of the channel? 😅

What makes Lee a great guest is he plays an expensive guitar but just says “yeah”. He has such a practical perspective. Some high end guitars are just the brand and are way over priced, you can get a lot for your money nowadays with mid range guitars IMHO

Interesting why LP Junior style guitars can be so resonant. You should try my Fano Alt De Facto TC6 non bolt on mahogany neck/body with TV Jones Supertrons & tele style bridge… might be just the ticket for a tele inspired LP junior style guitar ;-)

I’m sure the craftsmanship is A+, but aesthetically it looks a bit like a modern Gordon Smith model. Not sure if that is a good thing given the price differential?

Since you change out every pickup on every guitar you acquire, I need a middle and neck pickup for a Strat.

Lee, you’re not fat. Like me, you’re a gentleman of superior build.

that bridge sounds like a SD JB and if i remember right you chnaged the JB in another guitar a while back because you didnt like it: too nasal, hot ...etc.

Lee legend 👍

Yes, a 4k guitar should be totally flawless. Actually, already a 2k guitar should be flawless. The extra 2k should go to fancier woods and such.

If i had that guitar, i wouldnt dare take it out of its case - it is that Nice. Phenomenal wood working on that specimen

Andreas Kloppmann „profiles“ pickups since more than 20 Years. He has one of the biggest data archivs of pickups in the world. So it is not really a new idea……You should have mentioned if the Krautster has a mahagony or a cedar body. I don‘t like Häussel Pu‘s at all, but if you order the guitar I think it is not a problem to order different Pu‘s.

Well that looks dangerously close to PJD Carey but with more than a double price tag

I think that your guitar could be Weight relieved. With resonance cavities. Could be why you have a 👍 great 😃 sustain. Helmholz once again.

its the old argument . i have a jet Telecaster . its got 3 basic sounds . its about 80% of this guitar . my feeling is its a better spend at £160 .

Naaaaaaa! Give Paul a little more time and it’ll be gone 😆 The man will never be satisfied. Me? I would block off the humbuckers to never come on until I was playing something that needed that gain performance. Pretty easy fix. I thought the P90 sounded great not to mention the coil split. Tell him Lee!!! I’m so mad I can’t say anymore 🤣

A handmade archtop, classical ... could justify their price. Solidbodies, especially the Strat and Tele variations, going for $3000 and up drives me absolutely insane. Some overseas manufacturers are going toe to toe with the "big boys" and in some cases, besting them - For less than half the price! Quality materials and construction throughout and if you believe they're gonna' be landfill at some point well then ...

The prices on some of these guitars is crazy high. I know cost is subjective, but there are so many more guitars out there now that are less expensive and just as good (if not better). It must be great being able to purchase these high end guitars, but they don’t play any better than guitars at a fraction of the cost. They just don’t.

Pickups are probably the weakest part of the guitar, with some nice characterful Throbaks like Collings does, all this should be over. The same applies to older PRS guitars really: beautiful build, not so great pickups.

Simple, yes, a 1500 dollar guitar should be perfect, especially with the machines used today

4k for a guitar is just overindulgence. There's just no need these days in my very humble opinion.

4k guitar and the pick up sucks🤣

In 2024 a $1000 guitar should be perfect. $ 4000 is stupid to pay. If anyone wants to believe the ' hype ' go for it. Don't even get me started on Gibson!

I own three Nik Huber guitars (Orca, Surfmeister, Piet) and I bought them for the quality of the woods, the wood work, the fretboards and necks. These are the areas where NH bests PRS (and subsequently everybody else). On all three guitars I had to change the tuners, the entire electronics (noise and completely dysfunctional treble bleed) on all three guitars, and we are talking about a 23k Euro investment here) and, immediately, the pickups. This overwound Haeussel crap is complete junk and destroys all dynamics and detail these guitars are capable of. To be fair, the Filtertron-style pickups in the Surfmeister are not that terrible, just meh and lack character. The Haeussel humbuckers and P90s are not even a match for those in a 600 USD Sire guitar... no idea why NH is so obsessed with this garbage. I replaced the humbuckers in the Orca with proper Throbaks, the P90s in the Piet with Lollars, and the FIltertrons in the Surfmeister with Mojotrons (by Mojo UK)... all three guitars improved by several 100%.

Today in 2023 the guitar building technology is all over the world..I have seen $500.00 guitars that are just as good in quality as a $4,000 guitar and if you say no you're lying through your teeth...

The guitar snake oil strikes again why do you buy these guitars ? 4k and you don’t like the pick ups ? Is it a vanity thing ? I love your channel but come on go to the shop spend a day there pick a guitar job done .you don’t even gig do you Paul ?

Allways the same. One trick ponyng. Always the same sound, allwajs the same lick, always some overpriced guitars. And everything should sound like telecaster.