Our latest 426 from Steve Klein and Steve Kauffman is hands down a knockout. Gorgeous Myrtlewood back and sides with lovely dramatic figure, paired with a Torrefied Sitka Spruce top, makes for a quick, lively, and expressive guitar that’s equally at home with a pick as fingers. The 426 body fills the niche between their 396 and the full tilt 457, and that middle ground gives a great balance of projection and note definition. Add a soundport to the mix, plus all the usual Klein innovations like the integrated nut, access panel, and engineered bridge, and you’ve got a one-of-a-kind modern guitar on your hands.

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Now here’s an instrument to scare away the Martins and Gibsons: a Klein M43 from 2003. It’s a big boy! With a big personality to match. This guitar was commissioned by a client who hand selected a gorgeously figured Indian Rosewood set for the back and sides, which is here paired with a Bearclaw Sitka Spruce top on Steve Klein’s M43 body. At 17 inches across the lower bout, this guitar has an unearthly growl and projection that fills the room, and the trebles cut nicely through the mix. It handles flatpicking just as well as fingerstyle, especially in fun altered tunings—and the slim neck makes for an easy playing experience. Additionally, this beauty comes installed with a Highland IP1 pickup system and a custom Calton flight case. This M43 features a single saddle, rather than the individual saddles that we see on many Kleins, and we feel that may lend something to the clarity and definition of the upper register.

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This is a first for Dream Guitars: a brand new Klein 396! From the two Steves that matter most (Klein & Kauffman, respectively), we have a gorgeous example of contemporary, freethinking lutherie at its razor’s edge. Where to begin? Let’s start with the basics: impressively colorful Myrtlewood for the back, sides, neck, and headstock backstrap; Sitka Spruce top; 25 1/2″ scale, iconic Klein bridge plus individual string saddles, nut integrated into the headstock with a zero fret; distinctive floating and carbon-fiber-reinforced braces.

To discuss the tone of this instrument, let’s first start with one provision: that Klein guitars just don’t sound (or look) like other flattop guitars. Klein & Kauffman have managed to find themselves an honest niche in this already niche market, and this medium-sized 396 confirms that. The trebles have at once a breathy quality and a wide range of response. Which is to say, there’s a dynamic overtone response that comes out in different places across the fretboard, and the upper register itself has great body and poise. That responsiveness is well-mated to the even-keeled middle register and the defined, crisp basses.

While powerful, this Klein 396 is hardly boomy; rather, the overall voice is balanced like only a Klein can be, with equal space for each string and register. It lends itself to lowered tunings, especially spacious arrangements with floating open strings–but let’s be honest, just about anything sounds wonderful on this new Klein. This, friends, is a guitar you need to experience firsthand.

Getting a Klein in your shop is like opening your birthday presents and finding exactly what you asked for: the gift of this Klein is, like all of Steve’s guitars, a gift of immense proportions. Frankly, we wonder were Steve manages to find so many gorgeous sets for his larger-than-life tops and backs, like the gorgeous Sitka Spruce and Flamed Maple here. Bound in yet more Maple and with Klein’s trademark asymetrical, pinless bridge, the body of this L45.7 is surprisingly lightweight (weighing in at 4lbs 3oz for the entire guitar), and features an access port by the endpin so you can take a glimpse into Klein’s complex and fascinating innovations in bracing systems, from the carbon fiber reinforcement to the flying X brace that shoots down to the sides from the center of the X.

As expected, the bass is cavernous, bone-rattling. Paired with crisp, agile trebles, that fearsome bass response creates a huge wall of sound with each strum–and just wait until you put this bombshell in altered tunings! Truly, the Klein guitar is a unique manifestation of contemporary guitar design; each Klein as powerful and complex as two or three lesser guitars combined. Plus, this L45.7 comes with a Calton flight case to ensure that no harm can come to it.