KLEIN BF-96 CHAMBERED ELECTRIC GUITAR:

By Jason Barker

One day in late summer 1996, I dropped by the Music Loft in Raleigh, NC to pick up some guitar strings. Little did I know that an event of great importance was about to take place for me inside the store. I walked in expecting to pay a few dollars for routine accessories, but walked out contemplating how to break into Fort Knox to fund an instrument that has greatly enhanced my musical enjoyment for the past couple of years: The Klein Chambered Electric Guitar.

I've been doing business with the Music Loft for a number of years, and have learned a lot about equipment from my "guitar guru" at the Raleigh location, Eddie Berman. As I walked in for my strings, Eddie uttered those ten words that send me running for my checkbook every time he says them: "Come over here, I have got something to show you."

He pulled out a small soft-shell gig bag from behind the counter. It looked as if it might contain a warped tennis racket or some sort of space-age weaponry. "You have got to try this," he said as he removed a strange looking piece of wood and wire from the case. "I'm not going anywhere near THAT thing, " I replied.

Let it be known, that when it comes to guitars, I am somewhat of a traditionalist. Over the years, I've owned many Strats, Tele's, and Les Paul's. I'm primarily a "Fender guy," so it is not often that a radical departure from Leo's designs appeals to my tastes. Of course, the Stratocaster was regarded as a strange futuristic instrument when it debuted.

Eddie convinced me to at least hold the guitar before dismissing it as a freak of nature. "This guitar is a Klein BF-96 Chambered Electric guitar," he informed me as I took it into my hands. I was immediately struck by how light the instrument was. Then I strummed the guitar acoustically, and was impressed with its clarity and resonance. If it sounded that good unplugged, it would probably be outstanding when amplified. "Alright, let's plug it in," I suggested.

Fortunately, Eddie had a large selection of amps to choose from, so we had the luxury of auditioning the guitar through a variety of setups. The first one we used was a moderately-priced new Fender tube amp. If running a $3000 guitar through a cheap amp strikes you as strange, consider that we wanted to hear the guitar through a wide array of rigs to get a good perspective of how the guitar performs.

As we waited for the tubes to warm up, Eddie explained that the Klein was made of a Louisiana Swamp Ash body, and a solid slab Guatemalan Rosewood neck with no truss-rod. Normally necks with no truss-rods make me wary, but the bolt-on Klein neck, featuring 24 frets, is so rigid and impervious to climatic changes, that it never needs an adjustment! This appealed to me because we have a large range of seasonal conditions here, and I usually adjust my guitars a couple of times a year as the necks shift.

The top-of-the-line Chambered Electric features invisible tone chambers, as the name implies, in the body for resonance and sustain. The model we were playing contained three Joe Barden's pickups, with a humbucker in the neck and bridge positions, and a single-coil in the middle. These were controlled by a 5-way Strat-style switch, one push/pull volume knob, and one push/pull tone knob. When the volume knob is pulled up, the neck humbucker becomes a single-coil. When the tone knob is pulled up, the bridge humbucker becomes a single-coil. This is a very thoughtful and versatile design.

The headless guitar uses a Steinberger vibrato system, with the tuners located towards the tail end of the instrument. A lever allows the user to lock and unlock the vibrato unit very easily.

We plugged into the Fender and dialed in a pristine clean sound. With all pickups set for single-coil configuration, the guitar's notes sounded almost three-dimensional. I couldn't believe that a guitar that looked so different than a Strat, could sound so similar when desired. The bridge pickup could nail the "chicken-pickin'" Tele sound easily, but was never harsh or piercing. The middle pickup sounded like one of my favorite old Strats. This quickly became one of my preferred settings, as the notes retained a percussive flavor reminiscent of the bridge position, but with more "roundness" normally associated with a neck pickup. I guess this would make sense, since it IS in the middle. I expected the neck pickup to have a little more bite than it did, given the articulation of the other settings. It still had a lot of clarity, but provided a very smooth tone. I don't think it "cuts" as much as most Fenders do in the neck position.

Next, we used the guitar's humbucker settings with a clean sound. The bridge pickup still had some bite to it, but it became smoother and noticeably louder. I heard a little more midrange in this position compared to its single-coil setting. Rolling the tone knob back provided a very warm, yet clear sound that could be ideal for jazz phrasing. The neck humbucker's sound was very full and fat, but not muddy. Personally, I felt that there was less contrast between the neck's single-coil and humbucking positions, compared to the difference of the bridge pickup's single-coil and humbucking tones. Some of these perceptions might change if the pickup heights were altered.

The guitar's overdriven tones will vary according to the amplifier or effect used. We tried a few choice overdrive boxes through clean amps, as well as running the guitar through rigs with preamp distortion. Eddie demonstrated the guitar through Budda, Mesa Boogie, Matchless, and Egnater amps, in addition to a Fender Custom Shop Vibro-King. These amps covered so many tonal bases and showed the true character of the Klein. I think the guitar sounded fabulous through all setups.

The humbucking positions really stand out when the Klein is overdriven. The single-coil positions are very bell-like when distorted, but the fullness and power of the humbuckers sound wonderful. I've heard very few guitars that retain their acoustic character when distorted as well as the Klein does. Even with heavy gain, chords are not muddy. There are substantial harmonic overtones present in the guitar through all gain stages. One setting used in conjunction with a Budda Twinmaster amp, yielded a harmonic overtone bordering on musical feedback at even the lowest volumes!

We compared the Klein to a new high-end Les Paul, and found the Klein to have all the power and girth that Gibson's are known for, but with the clarity Fenders are associated with. I keep using Fenders and Gibson's as reference points, because I feel they represent a tremendous range of tones, and they are the most imitated and influential schools of thought, where electric guitar design is concerned. Keep in mind that the Klein still has a very original voice, but it is able to approximate the sounds of a Strat, Tele, and Les Paul in one guitar. Many manufacturers have tried to accomplish this feat, but none have come as close, in my opinion, as the Klein. It is truly a session guitarist's dream, and would be my proverbial "desert island" guitar, if I could only take one.

I think a Strat has a very distinctive sound in its out-of-phase settings. The Klein's out-of-phase sounds are equally unique. Maybe the Klein's motto should be "familiar yet very different." They are very Strat-like, but sound a little different to me. It's very easy to approximate the sound of an out-of-phase (2nd & 4th positions) Strat with this guitar. In fact, most people will think it's a Fender. However, the Klein's take on this sound is a little more "nasal" to me. In recording, I've actually come to enjoy the Klein's out-of-phase sound because it says "close enough to Fender, but different enough to stand out." I mean this in a very positive way, as the guitar is a very nice complement to all my other guitars in the studio.

When I left Eddie that day, I was faced with a dilemma. The guitar sounded unbelievable and played effortlessly, but it cost about three grand and looked so avant-garde that it was unsettling to me. I had never played such a versatile instrument. Could I justify spending that kind of money for something like that? I rationalized that I was a working session and live musician who covered a lot of stylistic bases, and that I would love to have a guitar that could handle a lot of sounds in one unit. I also wanted something different than the typical styles of instruments that most people are using. I wanted my instrument to be unique. I eventually sold a couple of Paul Reed Smiths from my collection to buy the guitar, and now can't imagine living without the Klein. I have had it for about two years now, and can offer some useful observations that are reinforced by living and working with the instrument for a while.

First of all, the guitar is an ergonomic dream. There is no wasted space on the guitar. I will not say the Klein is an ergonomic guitar. I will say the Klein is THE ergonomic guitar. I really don't think it can be improved upon, as far as physics are concerned. I have lived with tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my fretting hand for years. These symptoms have almost disappeared by using the Klein! I can play a whole night's set with the Klein and not have to ice my wrist after the show. It is lightweight, portable, and totally unsurpassed in playability. It still has the organic feel of a Fender, unlike many high price guitars with fancy finishes that tend to play more like grand pianos. It provides the perfect balance for me between raw feel and effortless playing.

Secondly, you can approach all styles with this one guitar in convincing fashion. It will get a Tele twang. It will smoke like a Les Paul (no, I don't mean Ace Frehley). It can handle heavy-gain metal. It can produce Texas-style blues tones. Archtop's notwithstanding, I think the Klein can serve up most tones that jazz players might require. The most important variable is the player, of course, but the Klein doesn't make you wish you had another guitar for each style. This is amazing for live situations if you don't want to haul a bunch of guitars to the gig. I still take a semi-hollow body and a baritone guitar to the shows, but I don't need to carry a Strat or Les Paul with me now.

The fundamental idea I want to stress about this guitar, is that it really covers so many tonal bases. Nothing will sound exactly like another guitar except THAT guitar. The Klein, however, comes closer than any other guitar that I've played to approximating the sounds of many classics in just one instrument. All this, while still exhibiting its own musical voice. If all of this sounds too good to be true, well.....go play one if you can find one.

People routinely come to me between sets at shows and comment on the Klein. It attracts a ton of attention. I've never heard so many people say how great a guitar sounds. I could write a book on some of the entertaining things people have said about the instrument ("Did you make that thing?" "Where did the headstock go?" "Is that a guitar or a shovel?" etc....) I've determined it could serve not only as a guitar, but as a driveway or grave marker, tennis racket, shovel, pizza handler for wood-burning ovens, or boat paddle, among other things. One common reference is to a "lima bean on a skewer." These things may not sound flattering initially, but the Klein is actually a very beautiful and artistic guitar.

Finally, Klein's customer service has been outstanding. Lorenzo German, who built the guitar, has been wonderful to deal with, when necessary. After two years of use, I needed to have some work done on the locking lever of the vibrato unit. Somehow, a metal part had been worn down. Lorenzo said this was uncommon. Eddie shipped the guitar to him in California, where Lorenzo replaced the whole bridge free of charge and shipped it back to me in a matter of days. Lorenzo takes pride in the Klein guitar, and views it as not merely an instrument, but a work of art. I totally agree.