8 minute read
‘I wonder if I can make that’
Story and photos by Brandon LaChance
Spring Valley man goes to a concert and decides to make guitars
It seemed simple. It would be fun and a creative project. It looked like something Jim Klein could do. So, he did. On a whim, Jim Klein started creating and building cigar box guitars and telecaster electric guitars.
“I saw a guy playing one of the cigar box guitars. They have a really cool sound to them,” said Klein, 59, who was born, raised, and still resides in Spring Valley. “I saw them on a YouTube video. I thought, ‘I wonder if I can make that.’ So, I made one. Then I started making teles (telecasters). I just got into it.”
There was some trial and error involved, though.
“I watched a lot of videos and did a lot of reading on how to make guitars. I messed up a bunch of them,” he said. “I’ve made necks before and took them out to the fire pit to use them for kindling because I screwed them up. But you learn, and next time you don’t do it that way and you try something else.”
The YouTube videos and reading led him to find a process that worked for him and his skill set.
Klein had worked in construction for most of his life until a couple of back surgeries led him to drive a semi-truck for the last 12 years. The construction background makes it easy for Klein to create and build, and the truck driving job gives him time to make guitars in his garage.
“The first thing you have to do is have a template,” said Klein. “You take the template, put it on the wood, and then route out all of the cavities. Then you put on whatever kind of finish you want, whether you want to paint or stain and varnish.
“The neck is the same way. You have to use a template to copy it. You use double-stick tape and put it on a piece of wood to cut the
See KLEIN page 6
Jim Klein, born and raised in Spring Valley, saw a band eight years ago, and one of the guitarists was playing a cigar box guitar. Klein thought he’d try to make one. Now, he makes those and any other type of guitar on request or simply for fun.
Klein
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neck out. You put the fretboard on, and then you have to put all of the frets in. Then comes the pickups, and you have to wire them all and add the volume and tones,” he said.
Klein made his first guitar (a three-string cigar box guitar) eight years ago and sold it to Chris Cowell, a musician out of Nashville. Since then, he has made 30 guitars, with all of them taking 6 to 8 weeks to perfect. Klein said if he didn’t have a full-time job, he could have a guitar done in two weeks.
The craft started with him making a few pieces for fun. Now, he has orders, and as soon as he gets one guitar done, it’s time for the next. On the rare chance a musician doesn’t have a request, Klein goes back to making one for fun that he’ll eventually sell anyway.
“I did give one guitar as a gift to Garrett Arwood. He was only 15 years old, and I saw him playing at Jamie’s Outpost in Utica. It was a guitar I made for myself. I was taking lessons and I couldn’t learn how to play. The guitar was in a case underneath my bed for a couple of years,” Klein said. “I saw him playing there that day, and I approached him and his dad to ask him if he wanted it. I just gave it to him. He uses it all the time in his band, Nutzy Mac.”
Instead of pretending he could play the instrument he’s infatuated with, it became a better idea to make guitars for people who had the talent to play them. Klein is also the architect behind guitars played by Chris Farrell, the lead singer of Nutzy Mac; Craig Gerdes, who has the first telecaster guitar Klein made; musicians in Nashville and Mississippi; and guitars auctioned off by the Toy Run to help it raise money.
“For me, it’s a good pastime because I’m doing something I want to do,” Klein said. “It’s relaxing. I’d rather do this than my job. It is satisfying when someone buys a guitar I make, and they play it. That’s the part that I like the best. If it’s a local guy, I always go watch them play with a guitar I made. When you see them playing, it’s pretty neat.”
This is one of Jim Klein’s finished three-string cigar box guitars. Klein saw a musician play a three-string cigar box guitar in person and decided he’d like to try to make one. Eight years later, after some trial and error, he makes them for musicians from all over the country.
Jim Klein uses templates to make guitars.
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How long does sunscreen last and what else protects
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Are self-tanner products safe? “Self-tanning lotions are lotions with chemicals that irritate our cells in our skin that produce brown pigment called melanosomes. When we get a tan from the sun, it is because we have sufficiently irritated our melanosomes. Whether it is a chemical irritation or a UVA/UVB irritation, both forms of insult create pigment in our skin. If you are a person trying to have fewer age spots or you are afflicted with a condition called melasma, you should avoid self-tanner products and the sun. I often tell my patients that being tan is over-rated and skin that is free of brown spots and wrinkles, whatever the color, is always in style.”
Are there some sunscreens that are better for our
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Dr. Norris went on to tell us that she and her team have researched many sunscreens and have what they consider the “best” in their office for purchase. Dr. Norris goes on, “Sunscreen prevents signs of skin aging and all forms of skin cancer. It is really the skin care product that you should invest the most money and time applying. It should be something that feels good on your skin and that you put on as soon as you wash your face in the morning. If you don’t have a sunscreen that you love and can’t wait to apply each day, call us and we can introduce you to sunscreen that doesn’t feel like sunscreen!” Call 815-780-8264 for more information on sunscreen and to schedule your antiaging consultation with Dr. Norris today!
