Klein S-Tele

My personal experience with Klein electric guitars goes back to the early-'90s when he sent me one of his then relatively-new headless designs. Playing such a design for the first time is an unusual experience (how could it be otherwise?). At the outset I had the odd sense that my hand would slip off the lower frets since there was no 'border', but that sense diminished quickly and became triumphantly overshadowed by the fact that it was like playing a guitar that felt like an appendage, making for a connectivity that was simultaneously unique and compelling.

Not long after I began working on the book about Steve and his life/work ("Art That Sings", Doctorow Communications, 2003), I was at his shop and noticed some 'John Lennon' Rickenbacker bodies with old black D'Armond Dynasonic pickups poking from a big cardboard box - it looked like a bag of 'guitar groceries'. Klein's earliest electrics were done while he was still in highschool, a foray invited by his enthusiasm to 'go electric' with his friends, and since he couldn't afford to buy one, he made one, and never stopped. Next to those was his first headless design, affectionately named 'Lumpy' by musical ace David Lindley - very comfortable, but looking too 'kidney-on-a-stick' for Klein. There were the electrics he'd done with Ronnie Montrose, and some of the recently-created examples that are what most would currently associate with a Klein electric. It was a porridge of Klein electrics spanning a quarter-century, which has now become a 50 years-plus journey.

Klein and I had been visiting about his S-Tele guitars since he first created them - instruments I found to be quite musical and comfortable. As his plans to have them made in Japan were unfolding, the pandemic hit and slowed the process somewhat; however, as I like to tell students, 'the ox is slow, but the earth is patient'.

After he got his first batch of 'these-are-the-ones' instruments from Japan, he was kind enough to send me one to try. Even before it arrived I knew the ergonomics would be appealing, but since the time I'd experienced the first handmade versions, he'd made a number of refinements (he's always doing that), most notably the diminutive headpiece - a miraculous bit of work both in design and function. Klein is highly sensitive about ensuring his designs are executed with the precision they require to maximize their effectiveness, so to hear he was happy with this new iteration was a big deal.

Within moments of playing it (unplugged at first), it was quite apparent that I was in possession of a highly musical character - individual notes were clear and had personality; chords were smooth, even, and had a uniquely pleasing breadth of sustain about them. The instrument was quite light in weight, exceedingly comfortable to hold, and was wholly influenced by an appealing atmosphere that said, 'play me some more'.

Visually, the highly-figured swamp ash body and the attractive-but-not-noisy maple neck/rosewood fingerboard wed beautifully with the shapes, textures, and natural colours of the instrument, making for a significant musical sculpture. And speaking of sculpting (don't mind if I do), did I mention the headpiece? I did. It

deserves to be mentioned again. This destined-to-be-iconic design is of the same family as Klein's magnificently-timeless acoustic guitar bridges - marvelously artful aesthetics that make for an exemplary expression of form and function as one - structurally, optically, and artistically. This is genius stuff. No hyperbole.

When I did my book on D'Angelico and D'Aquisto guitars ("Acquired of the Angels", 3rd edition - OHR Publishing, 2018), I noted that two of the things that made those instruments difficult to experience were their high cost and chronic unavailability. One of the wonderful things about Klein's new electric is that it is the least expensive guitar Klein has ever offered in his half-century as a pioneering maker, AND, with the production arrangement he's organized with Japan, they will now be available in greater numbers (and shops throughout the world) than ever before. Cool huh? I think so.

Paul Schmidt, M.M., M.Div Late-summer, 2021