PJSprog Build #1 - KH-1

I've wanted a Klein guitar since I first saw an ad for one back in the early '90s. Oddly shaped as it is, it's oddity somehow appealed to me, as did the ergonomic design. Of course, like most, the price of these guitars kept me from ever having the opportunity to even play one, much less own one. And the used prices these days? Crazy!

So, one day awhile back I stumbled upon the Pit Bull Guitars website while searching for guitar kits. Lo and behold, they have a kit for the Kleins! Awesome. I mulled the idea for quite awhile, and when I finally came back to give it serious consideration, they were gone. I sent a message to them inquiring about the kits, and Adam replied that they had some issues with a recent shipment of these kits, and had pulled them. They sorted the troubled ones, and still had several in stock. He told me there were potential issues with the neck alignment and locking system setup, but would sell me if I was willing to deal with it. I agreed, and he shipped me one on 05 December. It sat in Customs in Chicago for a couple of days while they determined it wasn't any manner of contraband, and it finally arrived here yesterday. Not bad at all.

When I got home from work, I opened the carton to check the contents. Everything seemed pretty well packed.
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Looks like everything I'll need to build a functioning guitar.
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Stock pickups, which I'll use and see if I like them. If not, pickups are easy enough to change.
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The bridge is the Chinese knock-off of the Steinberger system. I've read a lot of bad reviews of these in various places, but none by people who've actually used one. Again, I'll use it and see how well it works.
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Looks like there's a five picture limit per post, so continued in the next ...

The body is in good shape right out of the box. No serious repairs should be necessary. The one thing it doesn't have is the relief shaping for belly and arm. Doesn't look like that'll be too much trouble with basswood.
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I fit the body and neck together, and it's a very tight fit. From just eyeballing it, the neck alignment doesn't look awful either.
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I'm planning to build this as it came, from all stock parts. If something becomes untenable, I'll address that as I go. I already know I'll probably have to make some adjustments with the headless nut.

I may or may not get started on it this weekend.

Really, really looking forward to finally getting to play one of these.

Nice detail PJS, look forward to seeing how it all goes. What are your plans for colour scheme? Or are you going to leave us in suspense?

I’m curious about these guitars. I’ll be following your diary with interest.

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Nice detail PJS, look forward to seeing how it all goes. What are your plans for colour scheme? Or are you going to leave us in suspense?

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Nah, no suspense. I'm thinking of something in the medium to dark gray range for the body.

Not sure yet about the neck. I'm considering maybe staining it, then an oil finish.

They do look rather similar to the Ovation Deacon / Breadwinner except for the headstock & tuning system

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Never been attracted to this type of guitar but this thread will be one to watch

Nice report on the supplied parts. Not sure if it's the sort of guitar I'd play, but it certainly is interesting to look at! Whenever I play a headless instrument I start a tone sharp...

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

They do look rather similar to the Ovation Deacon / Breadwinner except for the headstock & tuning system

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Never been attracted to this type of guitar but this thread will be one to watch

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I think I read somewhere that the improved ergonomics of the Ovation guitars lead to the development of the Klein. That might be a furphy though.

That bridge does look the business. I'm sure it'll be fine

Such a weirdly shaped guitar, but I kinda dig it

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

They do look rather similar to the Ovation Deacon / Breadwinner except for the headstock & tuning system

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I have a friend who plays a Breadwinner as his main guitar. He loves it.

I've never played one. However, when I fit the body and neck together, I sat it on my lap ... and it already feels like the most comfortable guitar I've ever held. The balance is incredible. It feels like the neck is just fixed in mid-air. No neck dive in even the slightest bit. The neck itself has a pretty nice feel as well.

Tom Morello uses a Breadwinner for a lot of his studio work, purely for comfort reasons.

Very keen to see this one come together. It's a very different beast to your average, and different is good.

Opened the kit again last night, thinking I didn't remember seeing a tremolo arm. It was in the bag with the guitar cable. Started looking at some of the other hardware, and I'm not real impressed with the design of the locking nut. Looks like it will be troublesome to restring with that on it. So, I went on-line shopping. I once again found a 12-part blog I'd read some time ago by a guy who built a kit he got from Alibaba. Same hardware. He replaced the locking nut right up front, for the same reasons, and eventually went back and replaced the tremolo bridge as well. He said the spring lost tension after a few weeks. That lead me to look at the supplier he used called Headless USA. Seems they are all about the Steinbergers. A new locking nut and bridge will set me back about as much as the kit itself. However, if the goal is to build a great-playing instrument, then so be it. It's still going to be a fraction of buying a real Klein.

I'll likely wait until after the holidays to order them. I have four-day weekends for the next two weekends, though, and there's plenty to do before I get to mounting hardware.

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Originally Posted by PJSprog

Opened the kit again last night, thinking I didn't remember seeing a tremolo arm. It was in the bag with the guitar cable. Started looking at some of the other hardware, and I'm not real impressed with the design of the locking nut. Looks like it will be troublesome to restring with that on it. So, I went on-line shopping. I once again found a 12-part blog I'd read some time ago by a guy who built a kit he got from Alibaba. Same hardware. He replaced the locking nut right up front, for the same reasons, and eventually went back and replaced the tremolo bridge as well. He said the spring lost tension after a few weeks. That lead me to look at the supplier he used called Headless USA. Seems they are all about the Steinbergers. A new locking nut and bridge will set me back about as much as the kit itself. However, if the goal is to build a great-playing instrument, then so be it. It's still going to be a fraction of buying a real Klein.

I'll likely wait until after the holidays to order them. I have four-day weekends for the next two weekends, though, and there's plenty to do before I get to mounting hardware.

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I bought a locking nut for a Steinberger Spirit GT from headless so that I could use standard strings. It is good quality and you should have no problems, interested to see how the headless bridge stacks up against the kit one.

Yep, getting the hardware to for the dream upfront will save disillusionment later if the kit bits are problematic.

I've replaced some and not others and so far had no disappointments

Been doing a bit of body contouring as time allows. Got the arm and rear strap post areas roughed in. Need to get those cleaned up and start on the belly contour tonight. It's going much slower than I'd hoped. Perhaps I need a more aggressive rasp.

Been awhile, but finally dedicated some time to get some work done on this build. Got the body contouring roughed in with a rasp a couple of weeks ago, then did some smoothing with a sanding drum chucked in the Dewalt last weekend.

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This weekend, I started prep sanding with sponges ...

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... and painted with a rattle can (Krylon Colormaxx Matte Deep Gray).

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Had some runs to sand back off after the first coat, a couple on the front and a couple on the back. After that, it went pretty smooth.

I made a 2x4 hook hanger to hang it in the middle of the garage while painting.

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It's not perfect. There are some grain lines showing through, a couple of minor marks in the wood, and one spot at the edge of the belly contour where the rasp got a little greedy. I thought about stopping to fill that stuff, but the desire to get this thing done and playing won the argument. I suppose I can always go back later and fix it if it really bothers me that much. It's all minor, so I doubt it will.

I might try to start the clear coat process when I get home tonight. More likely than not, though, I'll just wait until the weekend when I'll have more time.

Need to get working on the neck now. Still need to check, level, and crown the frets, and figure out what I'm going to do with the back of the neck. Right now, I'm thinking of a gray-ish stain and maybe Tru-Oil.

Been letting this sit for far too long. Ordered a neck check straight edge and fret file, both found on Amazon. They both arrived Friday. Funny, several people here and on other forums suggested getting the 3-in-1 file from Amazon instead of StewMac because it's just as good and much less expensive. I chuckled when I saw the package with the file, as it came from StewMac. Apparently, the same Gurian set I bought on Amazon they are selling for much more on their own site. I'm OK with this.

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Going to try to get into the neck work this weekend. Need to order the HeadlessUSA part, too.

Man, am I slow. Really, it's more distracted by life.

I finally ordered the new head piece from HeadlessUSA, several weeks ago actually, and it arrived within a few days. I got the neck out Saturday evening and removed the stock head piece. Naturally, the mounting holes don't line up with the new piece. So, I filled and drilled. Actually, cleaned up the surface of the neck end on Sunday and drilled the new holes. The H-USA piece aligns perfectly with the end of the fretboard. The neck profile at the end does not quite match up with the new piece. However, it's less than 1/32" different, so I'm not going to try to reshape the neck there.

There was a small gouge in the back of the neck when I received it. No big deal, I thought, I'll just fill it and sand it smooth. I used a tube of Minwax stainable wood filler from a plastic tube. Super easy to use. Unfortunately, it also left a big, blotchy brown stain on the wood around the repair. I tried sanding it out, but didn't want to go too deep and end up re-contouring the neck there. So, I left it. I am also using Minwax Classic Gray stain, and was kind of hoping it would mask it. After taping the fretboard and staining the back of the neck, the spot is still there, but less noticeable. I was kind of hoping that the stain would be more ... well, staining. I guess I was looking for more of an even stain, and that's not at all what I got. It now looks like a seriously worn old neck, which is actually way cooler that what I'd planned.

Sorry, no pics yet. I'll snap some tonight.

Going to try to start the neck finishing process tonight after work, using Tru Oil.

I got four coats of Tru Oil on the neck this week, and after checking it last night, decided to stop there. I like the feel already, but don't want to make it too thick.

So, last night I mounted the neck on the body and started on the hardware assembly. The bridge was a little tricky to assemble once the base was screwed into place, but I finally figured it out after some trial and error. There's no good way to compress the spring to get the top in place, other than to put one end against the tension adjustment screw, the other against the top flange, and just push it into place. Turned out I was trying to make it harder than it really is.

I got the bridge mounted and rechecked the neck alignment with two strings. Still good. Got the selector switch and single coil pickups mounted to the pick guard, and mounted the humbucker.

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Still not happy about that brown spot on the back of the neck, but it is what it is.

It's coming along. Planning to do all the soldering this weekend, then some setup, which should give me a playable guitar.

I might actually finish this thing after all. :rolleyes:

Of course, it occurred to me as I was laying in bed last night that I haven't yet applied any shielding to the various cavities. So, that'll likely delay finishing it this weekend.

The aforementioned shielding arrived last Tuesday, courtesy of Amazon. I got that applied to the various cavities Friday evening. I was planning on getting to the soldering on Saturday, but life got in the way. Finally got to it Sunday evening. With everything soldered in place, a couple screws holding the pick guard in place, and the supplied EB Slinkys strung onto it, I plugged it into the Carvin V3M combo ... and it played!

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However, something was seriously wonky with the tone pot. A quick check revealed pilot error on my part, soldering one of the leads to the wrong connector. Having run short on time, and needing to get some sleep, I decided to save that for this evening when I get home from work.

I mentioned before that I wanted to give the stock bridge a chance, and so I did. As I was tuning it up for the first time, I noticed that the knobs were getting increasingly difficult to turn. A quick look revealed that the nylon (or whatever that material is) spacers between the knobs and the bridge body had torn and were in the process of destroying themselves. Looks like I'll be ordering the J-Custom bridge after all.

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One thing I noted when mounting the bridge is that the hole in the body for the ground wire was drilled right where one of the bridge base mounting screws go. Since it was all but impossible to get the wire soldered onto the bridge base, I left it where it would pinch between the body and the base, and reassured myself that the screw would likely bite into the wire as well. There is ground continuity, so it seems to work for now.

The action is horrible, and this doesn't look like an easy design to get set up (need to take the whole bridge assembly apart just to raise or lower the posts). I'm sure I'll be tweaking it for a little while until I can get it to play like buttuh.

It's almost done. Finally.

Also of note, the wiring diagram I downloaded for H-S-S (suitable for KH-1) has the incorrect switch connections for the 5-position switch provided with this kit. I found this when metering the switch to make sure the connections would be correct.

Well done, PJSprog. It’s obviously bit of an odd ball ergonomic shape, would like to know how you feel about it once you’ve spent some time with it in your hands. As I tend to sit playing this appeals to me.

Thanks, DM. It is definitely different. Both the looks and the ergonomics are what drew me to it. I honestly like the Strandberg body shape a little more, visually, as it still retains some elements of the traditional shape. But, this Klein design has no pointy ends to poke you while sitting.

As I said, still a little work left with swapping the bridge and setup, but I already enjoyed it just strumming some chords ... and, of course, that satisfaction of knowing I built this.

I'm intrigued by it, but i can't says i'd want to build one. Like you i think i'd prefer the strandberg shaped item, not that i'd ever fork out that much for one. It might be a fun "tribute" scratch build.
Would be interested to get your overall impressions of playing comfort over time.

Is it possible to replace the bridge washers with metal ones, or even a harder plastic type?

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Is it possible to replace the bridge washers with metal ones, or even a harder plastic type?

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Oh, I'm sure just about anything is possible. I already ordered the J-Custom bridge from HeadlessUSA last night, though. I may monkey with the Overlord bridge a bit. I believe the original Steinberger bridges had metal washers, so I'm not sure why the Chinese knockoffs went with nylon-ish material instead.

The quality of the J-Custom replacement head piece at the top of the neck is far more superior than the stock part, so I'm hoping for the same from the bridge.

The J-Custom bridge arrived from HeadlessUSA in yesterday's mail. Got it too late in the evening to do anything, so I'll take off the kit bridge tonight and compare the two. There are some noticeable differences.

Got the OofM bridge removed last night, and snapped some pics for comparison.

The finish is the most obvious difference, with the J-Custom being a bit flatter and smoother. This may be a result of a better powder coat process, or maybe a smoother finish to the metal, or maybe both. The corners of the Overlord bridge are angle cut, while the J-C's are radiused. Corners on the J-C tuner mechanism housing were left square. The saddles are different between the two. Not sure which is closer to the original Steinberger. The string hooks on the OofM are unfinished, while the hooks on the J-C are powder coated. Another obvious difference is the fit. The J-C is much tighter. The tuning knobs barely wiggle at all, while the OofM are all loosey-goosey. The J-C has metal washers under the knobs, where the OofM had those aforementioned nylon thingies, and a much wider gap.

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Some differences on the backside include the J-C being sanded to expose a large area for grounding, whereas I had to scrape away finish on the OofM for the ground. The hardware seems more substantial as well. The lock mechanism on the J-C is about twice as thick as the OofM, which seemed to work just fine. The mounting holes lined up perfectly with the existing screw holes from the OofM base. The HeadlessUSA website said that the bridge does not come with mounting hardware, but it did. In fact, it looks to be of better quality than the existing Chinese stuff.

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I dug out the stock head piece as well, and took some pics of it compared to the J-Custom part from HeadlessUSA. The stock part is a clamping style like the Floyd Rose locking nuts, and will only accommodate regular strings. The J-C part is slightly larger (maybe 50%), has a better finish, and is designed to accept either regular or double ball strings. The stock part kind of put me off in that if I have to deal with changing one string, I would have to detune the adjacent string using the same clamp. The J-C part has individual internal clamps for each string.

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When I strung it back up, I kept having issues with the bottom E string staying in tune. I finally realized that it had started to unravel at the ball end. This was a set of Ernie Ball 9s that came with the kit. I use D'Addario on my other guitars, but didn't seem to have any 9s (had a set of 10s, and a set of 11s, though, neither of which I'll probably ever use). I'll have to make a stop at Guitar Center on the way home tonight and grab a couple sets.

In the mean time, pending the completion of the set-up adjustments, I'ma call this one done.

Nice description and hopefully what should be a much better bridge.

Top E string unravelling is a common issue with my standard D'Addarios 0.010"s. I'm now trying to make a habit of soldering them up to avoid any chance of it happening.

Thanks. Here are some pics of the finished instrument. I'm not finished tweaking the set-up yet, but I'm already liking how comfortable it is to play. So far, it's everything I'd hoped it would be.

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*** ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT ***

Was searching the inturwebs today for something else, and stumbled across pictures of this guitar in a Google search. Clicked on one of the photos that was listed as GotM-PB, and thought that was pretty cool. Then I saw that there were other pictures attributed to a different site, so I clicked on one of those. Apparently, there is a website called Mall-22 that is selling various Klein guitar kits, and some are using pictures from the Guitar Of The Month thread. ;) I found that entertaining.

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Ha! You've got your 15 minutes of fame.

Obviously you can now sue them for breach of copyright for the photos.

I once came across one of my guitars while searching for inspiration on images. It’s a funny experience.