K-Line
CALL FOR IN-STOCK INFO.Every guitar is built and finished by hand by Chris Kroenlein in his workshop in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. As an active musician and pawn shop guitar junkie, Kroenlein has spent the past ten years traveling the Midwest and scouring the Internet for six-stringed diamonds in the rough. It didn’t take long for Kroenlein to learn that oftentimes, complete guitars were worth more than the sum of their parts. Eight years ago, Kroenlein began deconstructing his pawn shop and eBay finds, horsetrading for parts, and mixing in some choice new stock to build custom guitars for St. Louis-area musicians whose specific guitar preferences couldn’t be (affordably) met by vintage guitar jockeys — much less by the “big box” musical instrument chain stores and catalogs.
A craftsman who understands that building “relic style” guitars is as much an artform as a science, Kroenlein is quickly emerging as a notable custom guitar builder. The son of an auto body shop operator, Kroenlein’s lungs contain a permanent layer of paint overspray, and can distinguish brands of lacquers by smell. He maintains a reverence for classic guitars, but balances that with the opportunities to incorporate top-notch modern electronics and components and offers guitarists everywhere the opportunity to own the guitar of their dreams.