ToneSmith, 316 Custom, 2003 – Jason Tucker (KLEAN)

Tabs

Specifications
Builder: 
ToneSmith
Model: 
316 Custom
Year: 
2003
Color: 
Silver and Gold
The Story Behind

 

About the Maker:

Kevin Smith has been doing guitar work for more than 20 years. He grew up around guitars.

Many in his family were musicians, including his mother who sang and played guitar.

Kevin Smith remembers:

“I remember being five and my mom and uncles would be jamming in the living room, it was so awesome to watch. I was always around guitars. As I time went on, I started plinking around a bit but it wasn't until my uncle said “Here, this is a bass, do this.” This is when I felt like I was able to play (at least in my mind). Years later my uncle left a bass, a Norma, (ooh! lol) but he had pulled all the frets out. I played it anyway and didn't think much about it. So all thru high school, I played that Norma until I bought my first real bass. It was a Rickenbacker 4001. I had saved to get that and I still have it! “

After high school he attended technical school in Red Wing, MN for Electronic Musical Instrument Repair. He eventually started doing repairs on the road with a Midwest bar band in 1984 and was doing refinishing in the hotel rooms and other modifications to guitars.

After leaving that band and as time went on, he had more and more people coming to him with their guitars. He started a business named GLF (for Guitar and Light Fabrication). He was doing many restorations for people and stores. Of course you could find old guitars fairly cheap and restore them, but he felt these guitars were missing something. They were cool and all, but still they seemed narrow in their range of tone. That's why you had a Strat for one song, Les Paul for another and a Rickenbacker for another. He felt there was room for improvement.

He started his own line of guitars in 1991 called ToneSmith by GLF guitars.

In 1997 he changed the name of the business to ToneSmith. He decided to go with the semi-hollow body style and a softer wood on the back and harder on the top. The first body styles were the traditional 412 Strat and 510 Tele Styles. The first original shape was a 316, and last was the 320.

More information on: http://www.tonesmith.com/

About the Guitar:

These two guitars were made by ToneSmith for the band Klean and that they used for recording etc. These guys broke up a few years back after the recording of a CD. These are their original endorser guitars. The two were played by the band as "Silver and Gold". Both are fantastic guitars both in appearance and in sound.

Both have the logo of the band inlayed into the fretboard. They are equipped with different pick up variations to give both guitars distinctive sounds.

http://www.myspace.com/kleanband

If you have any questions, please contact us