** okay. i gotta say if you love the klien, you love the klien - - not a copy. ten months is a long time but you'll be getting the real deal. if the guy's really gonna make a "copy" why all the equivocation about the woods and all that? did you fall in love with a roman copy of the klien? ever play one of roman's guitars?
having known some makers (and playing their stuff after 16 years), i think that the copy thing is lame.
the real thing is what you want in my opinion.
stig
(apologies to chris muir fro posting directly back to him due to lame e-mail program . . . )
I was thinking about getting a Klein guitar but soon after I
played one (and fell in love with it) I found out that their is
a ten month waiting list. So I thought about having Ed Roman of
www.world class guitars build me a copy. I told him I wanted a
Klien that has a rosewood neck, because the one I played had one
and he told me that rosewood didnt do anything but raise the
price and went on to suggest that I should get one of his
composite necks that have been formulated to sound like wood.
The klien that I played was also made of basswood and Ed said
that kind of wood was inferior to a something like korina which
is his suggestion. Ed also told that the addition of transtrem
would raise the price 1300 Dollars!? Can that be right for a
tremelo?
Thanks in advance reply on or off list which ever you feel to be
appropriate.
Wow, Lorenzo is busy!
I have a chambered swamp ash Klein with Joe Barden pickups. When I
ordered
it in the summer of 97, the wait time was four months. But about one
month
after I ordered it, Lorenzo called me and said he had a guitar returned
to
him - unbelievable, but the guy didn't like it - and it was a
natural-colored
chambered swamp ash, like I wanted. He installed the JBs and the custom
pots
I wanted, and it was my guitar.
To me, it's worth every penny I paid. It's the guitar that goes to
every
gig. I also own some vintage jazz boxes, and i love them, but they
don't do
what the Klein does. It usually takes me a year just to get used to a
guitar, and if me and the guitar can't agree with each other, I sell it.
The
Klein stays. So if you have to wait 10 months, I say "big deal".
All I know from Ed Roman is from the one phone conversation I've had
with
him, and that wasn't pleasant. His words didn't match his "policies" or
anything else his website promises. I don't trust him. But that's me.
Others may be perfectly happy with him. On the other hand, Lorenzo has
always been very helpful and truthful. I bet he doesn't have much time
to
talk these days. He doesn't need to hustle to sell guitars.
There are downsides to playing a Klein. Kids will gawk and ask
questions.
So will adults, especially if they've been drinking. (Ted Waitt, CEO of
Gateway computers, was the latest gawker, Friday night. He could afford
a
Klein, right?) People will ask stupid questions and wait for answers.
Oh
well.
Kevin