CHRIS KROENLEIN K-LINE GUITARS
It’s perpetually fascinating how many guitar, amp and pedal makers have become successful with no formal training in their craft. Sure, a proper education in any pursuit usually pays off but it’s also worth noting that passion, curiosity and an apparently innate knack for figuring out how things work can yield surprisingly effective results.
That’s how it was with Leo Fender, a hobby-level tinkerer in electronics with a two-year junior college diploma in book-keeping who went on to found the world’s most famous guitar and amplifier company. And so it is with Chris Kroenlein, who established K-Line Guitars on the back of no formal training in luthiery but with an inherited mechanical nous and a passion for digging into what makes these obsessioninspiring instruments tick.
I first encountered K-Line guitars in the mid-2010s when a friend put into my hands a Strat-like Springfield model that Kroenlein had built for him. It played beautifully. It was made from light and extremely resonant woods, wore an immaculate nitro finish and flawlessly dressed frets, and sounded outstanding plugged in – and was acquired two or three years earlier, I was told, at about half the entry price of a new Fender Custom Shop guitar with similar appointments.
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