The first time I saw one of Steve Klein guitars I could not believe my eyes, I still feel that way!
Years passed until I had the chance to meet the man behind the guitars, acoustics, and basses. My wife and I planned a trip to the Wine Country for two reasons: Wine & Guitars (the principle of making both is quite similar). My plan was to meet the guitar maker that I have read about in books over the years – bits and pieces, here and there. On the day of the first meeting with Steve Klein, I brought with me a copy of Art That Sings: The Life and Times of Luthier Steve Klein by Paul William Schmidt. At that meeting, Steve autographed my copy and it is now a great addition to my archive/library.
That book opened my eyes even more. Before reading this book, I only knew about Steve Klein from the materials I have collected over the years: magazines, articles, flyers, advertisements, books, etc.
After meeting Mr. Klein, I realized that he didn’t have a website!!!!
Doing a web search one can find information scattered all over the internet, but there was no dedicated forum to bring all of these pieces together. Thus was born the motivation to create the Klein Community Project. When I shared this idea with Steve Klein (after visiting him for several years and calling him regularly) he was very excited about it, and has been an encouraging source of inspiration as I worked to pull this initial project together on my own.
As this site becomes more established, I hope to have regular updates to the materials here, including links to artists (Concerts – where you can see the Klein instruments played live and support the artists that use them through buying their music), note which guitar shops are offering Klein Guitars for sale, view photos, explore Klein-related websites, photographers, author websites (where you can buy their books), browse in the “Inspired By” section (world famous luthiers who are fans of Steve Klein), Steve’s Crew (where are they now?) and a long list of cool and interesting things related to the Master Luthier. You may even see what is brewing in his shop in Sonoma, California!!!!
So my intention with this project is to share what I have gathered and I am certain that others who may have additional materials which would help to grow and expand this initiative. Can you help?
If you appreciate his guitars as I do, and you enjoy having access to the materials on this site, won’t you please help support the Klein Community? There are two easy ways to help – you can contribute Klein related materials [magazines, articles, photos, posters, newspaper clipping, anything related] – or you can send a donation to help finance the web design, hosting, maintenance, etc. This project has been entirely self-financed up to this point – but I could use a little help to keep it going!
Finally, Klein Community will strive to give credit to the many artists, photographers, authors, and contributors throughout the site. Wherever we are able, we always ask permission to use images (photos), articles (text), and also accept corrections if a mistake is made. We welcome your suggestions to make this website better and for the enjoyment of the whole “Klein Community”.
Thanks for stopping by!
– Wilson