The Steel Guitar Forum

I hope this is the right section. I wonder if anyone can give me any more information on a Kline I am working on at the moment.
My first encounter with this guitar was back in (I believe) 1974 when George Jones came to the UK to perform at the Wembley Country Music Festival. The steel guitarist was Gary Boggs. I got to know Gary and spent a lot of time with him and got to play his guitar quite a bit. That guitar was a new Kline. Gary offered to sell me the guitar at the end of his tour with George but unfortunately I could not raise the money. However another steel player did buy it from Gary and now due to illness no longer plays and has sold the guitar to a friend of mine who has asked me to do some work on it which I am more than happy to do.
What I would like to know is if anyone out there knew Gary and Joe Kline and can possibly confirm if this was indeed the first Kline steel. Thanks Dave.

I believe Joe Kline is still alive. Someone here is bound to know how to get ahold of him.

I will ping my old friend Don Dixon, inventor of the Echoplex, to this thread. He's in contact with Joe. They both live in Florida, Klines are, by far, the best guitars I've ever played!

Same here, John. I wish I still had mine.

Just forwarded this to the last known email I had for Joe. Haven't spoken with Joe or Opal in a year or so. A Josh mentioned. . . wonderful guitar and both are exceptional people. Sure hope we hear back from them.

Craig

Thank you very much every one that has replied. It would be really great to find out more about the guitar. Again many thanks. Dave.

It sure looks like a Kline to me but the keyless unit differs from this one from The Forum. Maybe Joe changed his keyless mechanism a bit or maybe my eyes are just bad. This could be his first.

This was recently sold by Chuck McGill


Do you have any photos of the underside Dave? steve t

,,,,,,,and the pedal to pedal rod hook up is different than the 3-4 Klines I've owned

Steve the Keyless unit is exactly the same as yours. Here's some pics of the underneath, I have changed the springs on the C6 neck as they were well shot and the whole mechanism was seized. now I've got to work on the E9 which is not anywhere near as bad as this neck was used.

As a U12 player, a Kline is still on my bucket list. My dear friend Gordon Stone owns a U12 Kline. The changer design with its' stops at the changer endplate makes for a very stable tuning system.
I believe Joe made quite a few 12s.

My bad on the pedal rods,,,,,in the first set of pics they looked different

Dave, here is a post from member Geoff Cline from 2009. If he is correct and you have the serial number on your steel, you should be able to tell if yours was the first Kline made.

From: Geoff Cline
Now in Sin City, NV Wha? OOO!!!
Posted 15 Oct 2009 6:09 pm
My guitar is serial number 4046...making it the 92nd guitar from Joe's shop.

I read on The Forum somewhere Joe that the first Kline was with a serial number that matched his street address number in Joe's hometown in Ohio. stevet

Ok, it's my guitar and the serial number is, wait for it, 3955, you do the math!

Robert Stewart, if Geoff Cline's information is correct about his being the 92nd Kline, then yours is the first.
Math: (4046 - 3955) =91 + 1 = the 92nd guitar. i think this is the way one would calculate it.

I hope Joe Kine chimes in. steve t

I've wondered many times who had this guitar.
Gary Boggs sold it in England in 1974 as Dave said.
The Serial number would be 3955 making it the 3rd Steel that I built. The 1st one (Prototype) had no serial number.

Any chance of building again? Sorry... Had to ask. I remember when I bought my Kline, getting calls from you about knee lever placement and for me to go to Color Tile to get mica sample and choose a color. African Teak was my choice. Beautiful guitar.

Hi,Joe; so was the first Kline the one with a serial number 3954 and is there any truth the same number was also your street address number?

Your steels are the best! John Billings and others can confirm that. Thanks, steve

Once again thanks to all of you for your help, and Joe thank you for your information. Yes the serial number is indeed 3955. Gary sold it to Terry Packard of the Honkytonk Playboys who were based in Coventry U.K. Terry moved to Scotland some time ago and quite recently sold it to Stewart Johnson from Birmingham U.K. It obviously hasn't been played for some time and I doubt if the C6 neck has ever been played since it came to this country. Stewart is very much a C6 player so it will get a lot of use once it is sorted. Best wishes to you all Dave.

Thanks also, from myself, to everyone who helped trace this guitar's history. Thanks also to my friend, Dave Seddon - he does a great job! I can't wait to start playing this wonderful guitar - I feel very privileged and proud to be the owner! Thanks to Joe Kline for making these guitars!!
BTW - if any one has a couple of Kline fretboards I would be very interested in buying them.

If I EVER get my hands on another Kline,,,,it will go to my grave with me,,!!!!!

Robert,
There are no 10 string boards available. Joe has a few 12 string boards though.
John

Thanks for getting back to me John, what a shame because the deterioration of the two fretboards are only things showing any wear on an otherwise perfect looking guitar. There is one more thing, there is no Logo on the guitar, might there be logos available?
Thanks again, Stewart

I'm looking

Love mine.