Canton Klein Custom Electric Guitar
Tats Ohisa is the proud owner of this Klein style electric guitar assembled and finished by a luthier in Japan from a Klein style body purchased from guitar builder Rick Canton. The guitar body was previously covered in – Canton Klein Guitar Body Upgrade on eBay.
The Canton Klein guitar body is a hollow body with alder back and flamed maple top. It’s just a bit thicker than 2″ with a small belly contour and more heel contouring than the original Klein.
According to Tats…
All the parts are from a Steinberger GLB2S. I love the natural wood grain look so the finish is clear nitro-laquer with no pickguard. The controls are – volume pot, tone pot and selector switch – placed in a horizontal line (the original Klein has the select switch at its pickguard under the neck pickup). The body doesn’t have the center-block so the sound is really deep. But I thought the power of EMG85s would kill its acoustical elements so now I think them to be replaced more jazz like passive pickups… like benedetto’s B6 etc. I use D’aquisto flatwound strings with the string adapter. Total weight is under 8 pounds.
The result: A Lovely Jazz Guitar!
Very nice — looks great! With that body thickness I bet it gets a nice sound.
I, too, prefer lower output pickups — you tend to hear more of the “wood” than with higher output models, especially with a hollow or semi-hollowbody. When I had my Klein, I had Tom Short make a pair of humbuckers for me that sounded wonderful! He spent time understanding the dimensions of the guitar (i.e., pickup placement with the Klein body and 24 frets, scale length, etc.) in order to custom wind a set that worked. They were an incredible improvement over the pickups that came with the guitar. Catch him at: http://www.tomshortshandmadepickups.com (and he’s a nice guy, too!)
Congrats on your guitar!
Marc
Marc,
thanks for the info about Tom Short’s pickups.
I never known about it, not so familier here (Japan).
I’ll check that sounds, yeah.
Tats
Very very nice.
The 85s are a classic choice, but if it’s jazz Tats is after, there might be better options. I wonder how well he would have been served by a pair of 89s instead? 😉
Great-looking piece of gear.
EMG89 set was interesting choice, the coil-tapped 89 sound was one of my favorite tone when I had used Steinberger GL2S (with replaced to pair of 89s). But this time I’d like to choose passive…
thanks,
Tats
Nice, but as someone with a deep-seated hatred of EMGs, I’d agree – swap ’em out!
…as for someone with deep seated joy of EMG’s… I’d keep them in…
beautiful guitar!
To keep this nice and simple (wood and black) looking, I’d like to choose pickups with Black Covers… yeah!
Tats
As someone with deep seated joy of letting the person himself, Tats, choose whatever pickup he may, I think since this gutiar belongs to neither Steven nor GLW, keep whatever pickups you like, Tats. EMG or Benedetto? Couldn’t care less, it aint my axe.
Agreed, personal taste, the pick ups are secondary to a fantastic guitar.
Sure, But I know, in Japan, there would be not so many choices as like US. (If we had wanted to buy Benedetto PUs, we had to order it to stewmac). So it’s really interesting for me to hear about the recommend choice of you..
Thanks,
Tats