Kline Owners-Stand and Be Counted

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 23 Mar 2009 6:56 am

Steve and Paul,,,,not to worry,,,,I'm getting used to this "refrigerator" white,,,,,all the good qualities easily over shadow the color,,,,not that the color is THAT undesireable,,,,,just not REAL enthusiastic,,,but like I said,,,getting better every day,,,and I'll have the rest of my life to get used to it,,,'cause it's a keeper!

Don McClellan · Post by **Don McClellan** » 25 Mar 2009 2:29 pm

I am an S12 Kline owner too (orange bird's eye) since 1979 and now I have a self made canvas carrying bag for mine. Its a two piece thing. One piece for the steel and one for the legs, rods and pedal rack. Very nice. Don

Rick Nicklas · Post by **Rick Nicklas** » 25 Mar 2009 3:01 pm

Here's mine. Pictures are finally working.

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 26 Mar 2009 3:26 pm

Sent my pickup off to Jerry Wallace today for a rewind. I've played both of Jon's Kline's and remembered liking their sound better than mine so I told him to put right in between those two, around 17K!

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 5 Apr 2009 5:19 am

bumpity-bump

James Quackenbush · Post by **James Quackenbush** » 5 Apr 2009 2:29 pm

Here's mine .....

Will Rogers · Post by **Will Rogers** » 7 Apr 2009 5:01 am

hi kline guys,
so far as i know i have the last kline joe plans to build, i picked it up at his home last year, red universal, laquer finish. will rogers

olor=red][/color]

Will Rogers · Post by **Will Rogers** » 7 Apr 2009 5:02 am

hi kline guys,
so far as i know i have the last kline joe plans to build, i picked it up at his home last year, red universal, laquer finish. will rogers

olor=red][/color]

Jay Ganz · Post by **Jay Ganz** » 7 Apr 2009 5:51 am

I have one of the old original Kline Pak-a-seats from the mid 80's. Does that count?

Ryan McMahon · Post by **Ryan McMahon** » 7 Apr 2009 8:26 am

Are all Kline guitars keyless?Never seen one with keys

ebb · Post by **ebb** » 7 Apr 2009 6:07 pm

all klines are keyless.
all whitneys are keyless.
all anapegs are keyless.
all lamars are keyless (that ive seen)

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 8 Apr 2009 8:04 am

Hey Ed,,,,good to hear from you!!! Actually Lamar does make some keyed guitars,,,but we all know and appreciate his keyless models. Paul just finished setting up my Kline,,,great job!!! Can you give us a comparison between the Anapeg, Whitney and Kline? Do you still have all 3?

Jack Klein · Post by **Jack Klein** » 8 Apr 2009 9:15 am

James, did you totally strip it when you got it from me? good way to learn the mechanics, I guess. Jack

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 10 Apr 2009 12:49 pm

My rewound pickup arrived today. Sounds great at 16.9K, definitely an improvement as far as my ears can tell, and it came just in time for the show with Jr Brown tonight!

James Quackenbush · Post by **James Quackenbush** » 11 Apr 2009 12:15 pm

Jack,
I ran into some medical issues that I had to take care of ....I haven't done much of anything yet .....Soon though ....Jim

Ps....The underside of this thing looks a lot like my studio .....Things running all over the place , but it works just fine for me .....Sort of a "Controlled Mess " ...

Bruce Derr · Post by **Bruce Derr** » 12 Apr 2009 8:58 pm

I bought my Kline S12 in 1978 and it has been my main steel ever since, through hundreds of gigs. It's number 3991, the 38th made. I guess it's probably the only one Joe made from oak. (It was at my request.) I decided on a Kline after hearing Winnie Winston talk about them at a PSGA meeting. I ordered it through Harry Guffee's store in Connecticut. It sounds really good and is a joy to play.

ebb · Post by **ebb** » 13 Apr 2009 4:36 pm

sonny sorry i missed your ?s
currently i have the whitney and anapeg only.
i wish i had never parted with my kline but alas.

pros
the whiteney is the best built guitar i have ever played.
it has zero issues.
no cabinet drop.
no hysterisis.
perfect splits (probably due to the dual changer).
it has 2 custom lo impedance bill lawrence pickups that he made for this particular instrument while i stood there enduring lectures, liverwurst and 2 days worth of trial and error all the while becky silently suffered us both in bethlehem pa.
cons
over engineered.
too heavy.
impossible to change copedant unless you are paul.

pros
the anapeg has remarkable wood and tone.
the knee levers are perfect.
cons
i hear the slightest hysterisis on the 4th string lower/raise.

pros
the kline has tone tone tone.
all joes pickup.
if a kline doesnt have joes original pickup it will still sound good.
just not as fabulous.
best fretboard design with math symbols.
cons
stopping pedals at the endplate feels weird.
zb like yokes are not conducive to copedant changes.
not good with 3 whole step lowers or splits.

Paul Redmond · Post by **Paul Redmond** » 13 Apr 2009 11:10 pm

Yes, Ed, it probably is over-engineered!!! Remember, I was still building injection molds back then and used much of what I applied to molds, to the guitar. I tried to use off-the-shelf, commercially-available billet stock for as many components as possible, hence the "beefy" frame. My new S-10 with 4 FP's, 7 KL's, and a SS lock, weighs 31 pounds...its case weighs 18 pounds = 49 pounds.
Don't forget that your S-12 also has 8 FP's and I forget how many KL's...each of those adds to the weight. On this new one, I was able to get rid of almost one pound by making aluminum legs instead of Atlas mike stand jobs. All KL's moving left require a 2nd shaft to reverse crank motion...that adds to the weight. I haven't put my S-12 prototype on the scale yet, but given that it has 8 FP's, 7 KL's, 3 locks, and an accelerator on the 3rd string to allow it at will to drop from G# to F#, it ain't a fly-weight!!!
Had I been able to have extrusions made for the Whitney frames at the time, I'm confident that I could have lobbed off several pounds from the get-go.
My new one exhibits zero hysteresis, zero drop using the splits (a 5-string pull - 3 G#'s to A, 2 - B's to C#) checking #4, and 1/2 to one cent on the F change/1st pedal combo. If the extra "heft" contributed to that phenomenon, then I'll take it.
Since building Ed's guitar two decades ago, I gave up on making those cutesy spring clips to hold the rods to the cranks. They were novel then, but "E-clips" are so much smaller, take up no room, and fit nicely into the tiny grooves in the "hook" of each pullrod.
I don't intend to build any more of this "welded-frame" design in the future. They are, as ebb mentioned, over-engineered by today's standards. I designed and built them as a "machine" to perform a given task. Somewhere along the way I succeeded in doing that very accurately. If I helped raise the bar a notch along the way, for that I'm grateful. There are many fine builders out there today striving for the very accuracy that I sought in 1984. I wish them the finest on their efforts and hope they never stop "re-inventing the wheel". That's just what makes this steel guitar thing so exciting.
Hats off to Joe Kline for his daring introduction of a mass-produced keyless guitar at a time when keyless was thought of only as a gimmick, or a gadget. Kline guitars will forever outlast their owners and just keep on ticking!!! I will forever hold him in highest personal regards. It'll take a long time to top his act for sure!!!
PRR

Mike Meese · Post by **Mike Meese** » 3 May 2009 1:30 am

I've got two Klines. 3967 and 4081

This is the one I usually play.

Tamara James · Post by **Tamara James** » 3 May 2009 5:06 am

steve takacs · Post by **steve takacs** » 3 May 2009 5:23 am

Geez Mike is that blue Kline a lacquer model? Very other-worldy and fantastic looking. Reminds me of the background of some of those color 1950s sci-fi movies...... steve t

steve takacs · Post by **steve takacs** » 3 May 2009 5:34 am

Greg Simmons, how about a photo of your present guitar? The green D-10 that Greg displayed in this thread is now in the USA while the black U-12 that had the Paul Remond magic put to it, is with me in Beijing. Sorry, but I can't say anything about string spacing differences since the Pacific Ocean separates them. Who ended up with that blond one, Greg? That's also a stunner! Of course, Jonny Jenkins has my original Kline, the white one. I guess Kline owners like to "share the wealth" steve t

Paul Wade · Post by **Paul Wade** » 3 May 2009 5:35 am

hey kline guy's here is one at scotty's music
for sale

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 3 May 2009 7:54 am

Steve,,,I think the black one you have is the one I bought that Tom Bradshaw had stripped down. I think it was one that had belonged to Don McLelland.

I wish someone knew and would share the information about how many Joe built?

Mike Meese · Post by **Mike Meese** » 5 May 2009 2:55 am

steve takacs wrote:Geez Mike is that blue Kline a lacquer model? Very other-worldy and fantastic looking. Reminds me of the background of some of those color 1950s sci-fi movies...... steve t

Hey Steve, Yes it's a lacquer model. It used to be brown but Dave Decker did a splendid job stripping it down and staining it blue for me.

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