The Steel Guitar Forum

Found a Kline Double-12. What's a fair price for this beaut, in excellent condition?
JB

It should be worth at least $2500. if not more. Maybe up to $3500. I'm just guessing. What color is it? Don

Based on my experience and a friend of mine's experience with a Kline, they are one fine guitar and I would highly recommend them to anybody. I have an S-12 on eBay, if anybody is interested.

I got an email from Joe Kline today telling me he never made a D12 and wondering who made the Kline D12 mentioned in this thread(?). So there is a obviously a little misunderstanding here somewhere.
Just in case there was someone out there going, "See, I told ya Kline made a double twelve!" Nope.
But on the other hand I know Joe Kline is at least as old as I am so he may have forgotten that he built it.

Why don't someone ask “Winnie” about this matter? Maybe he would know, since he was with Kline for a while.

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“Big John” Bechtel
http://community.webtv.net/KeoniNui/BigJohnBechtels

I was with Kline?
Well, If I WAS, then I guess I still AM. Still playing the S-12 he made for me in 1979, and have touched the tuning screws on the end-plate maybe five times in all those years. A Great guitar.
If Joe says he never built a D-12 then he never did. He knows every guitar he ever made. I once asked him-- maybe 15 years after I got it-- about making a change to something on mine and he recalled exactly how he had hooked it up.
He says he didn't? He didn't!

JW

During the time I worked at Kline Guitars, we never made a D-12 guitar.

Being a 'Kline' fan for many years, we are probably all just busting to see a picture of this 'Kline' Joe didn't build?? I know he built quite a few S-12's, I have one of those myself. Go ahead & post the picture of the ol D-12

Ernie Pollock

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Dang it! Can't you guys who know Joe get him to start building guitars again. They are such great guitars. I'm sorry I sold mine to Ernie now.

The seller sent me some pictures via email, but I'm unable to drag them out onto the desktop. I tried to send them to Don, and all he got were empty grey(gray?) boxes. Don suggested it might be a Lamar, but when I did a search and found pics of a Lamar, it doesn't look like the guitar in question. Similar. It looks more like a Kline, but not quite! The undercarriage certainly does not look my Kline U-12 guts. Did Joe have different designs that he may have changed over time?
The guitar is black with the horizontal alum trim bars found on Klines. Fret markings are very close to Kline's. Mathematical symbols. White X multiplication sign on third fret, red division mark in white circle on 5th. White + sign on 7th. Red - in white circle on 9th, etc.. The endplates are definately thicker than the plates on the Lamar. The keyless tuner looks much more Kline. So does the changer end, but mine has 3 screws in the alumminum casting in front of the pickup, this one has only one.
The crossrods are set into white nylon bushings, my Klines aren't. One thing that catches my eye is that both the right and left rear knee levers, fold flat into notched-out areas in the rear apron. I've asked the seller to try and send the pics in a different format, so I'll have to wait and see what happens. There are no nameplates or decals on the guitar. At least none that show in the 3 pics he sent me. It looks like a very fine guitar. I recall seeing a Kline that was all black with no decal. Belonged to Jerry Simon, I think.
Thanks guys, JB<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Billings on 17 December 2003 at 01:14 PM.]</p></FONT>

One more thing,,,,, It comes in 2 cases! One for the guitar, and one for the legs and rack.

The only changes made to the changer was how it was made. From a picture they would all look alike underneath. This guitar without even seeing a picture of it is not a Kline. And you are right there was one made all black with no name on it for Jerry Simon.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David Decker on 17 December 2003 at 06:26 PM.]</p></FONT>

I just got some more pics from the seller. It ain't a Kline! But what is it? The keyless tuner looks like a Kline. But the rest of the mechanism bears no resemblence to my U-12. It has those plastic adjustment screws-ends on the rods like some Shobuds did. I don't know, did Joe make any keyless tuners for anyone else? Got me stumped.
JB

John can you E-mail me the pictures you got of this guitar? ddecker1@neo.rr.com

I have a brochure from Klein (circa 1975), and I've made a link so you can get a look at this page w/pictures and models offered...Click here

As you can see, they weren't offering a D12 at that time.

All this talk about Joe Kline intrigues me. Anyone have his email address? I haven't seen him since the 70's. To confirm I knew him, his wife's name was Gladys. I wouldn't mind saying hello. Thanks

I'm not sure we should let Joe's wife Opal know about Gladys but I just looked at photos of this D12 "Kline" and obviously someone used Kline keyless tuners and Kline fret boards (the later model with the white circles around the red symbols) and made a hybrid sort of thing. The changer system is from an MSA or something like that. Not Kline. It looks like a good guitar to me but photos can be tricky. Its black mica.
If someone can walk me through the process of posting pics I'll do it but right now I don't know how. Don<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Don McClellan on 17 December 2003 at 07:40 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Don McClellan on 17 December 2003 at 09:57 PM.]</p></FONT>

Perhaps it's a parts guitar , being passed off as a Kline ....A bootleg Kline ??..hmmm ??

If it doesn't have a name on the apron, it's more than likely a home-made (parts) guitar. Most players are as proud of the lineage of their guitars as the makers were, hence the nameplates or decals on the front.

(Now, I s'pose we'll hear from some doofus that <u>intentionally</u> removed the name from his guitar because "it looked better without it".)

An above-mentioned player would, In his words, "Give no one free advertising." None of his gear had a name on it! Great player, great guy. Just a kinda quirky attitude about that one issue.
Anyone who knows how to post pics, might get in touch with Don. He has the pics of this Kline Klone.

JB

Doofus!?! I resemble that remark. I have taken the decals off of both of my Klines because the guitars look better without them. I'm not sure we need to discuss this now but I have never seen a logo I liked on any pedal steel guitar. They're always TOO BIG and way too ugly for my taste. Thanks, Doofus<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Don McClellan on 18 December 2003 at 10:32 AM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Don McClellan on 18 December 2003 at 10:34 AM.]</p></FONT>

I was not happy with the Kline logo, but Joe insisted I keep it on. My guitar is dark stained curly-maple. What I did (and this will all be on my web-site when my web-guy pulls his finger out), was I got a black logo (which looked better) and then cut out the word "Kline" from a white logo, and put it on just a bit offset over the black name-- so it looks like a white name with a back shadow.
Not too bad!

JW

The decal on mine wore out after a couple thousand gigs and cleanings So I removed it. If I had a new one, I'd probably put it on. the guitar does look nice without it though.
JB

I got a kick out of all the comments about the so called Kline Double 12, but we never made a D-12.
I did sell a couple tuning heads and fret boards to a guy one time. We also sold Lenard Stadler some keyless heads but I don't know if he ever put them on a steel.

I am building a couple steels now for Rick Troyer (Hummingbird Studio).
Thanks guys for the great compliments
Joe Kline joekline@tnni.net

Hi Joe it's great to see you on the Forum. Are you and Opal enjoying the warm weather? For those interested in a New Kline contact Rick Troyer at 1-800-361-1770 or
rick@hummingbirdmusicstudio.com
Merry Christmas