Hello Guitarz,
Here are some pictures of my 1978 Veillette Citron. It's a shame that not many people know of this company as this is one of the finest instruments I've ever had the pleasure of owning.
Everything about the guitar is top notch. I'm not much for quilted woods, but this one is more subtle and isn't a quilted maple cap - the body wings are solid quilted maple (the pattern carries across the front and sides to the back). All the hardware is custom made; the brass knobs, strap buttons, control cavity cover, bridge and tailpiece are all deliberate, non-mass produced design choices. The electronics (which appear to be simple) are actually quite sophisticated as each of the volume knobs is a push-pull coil tap affair whereas the smaller switch is a phase reversal switch; however, unlike other manufacturers (B.C. Rich comes to mind) the control layout is still very clean. All of the sounds are genuinely usable.
The neck has a 25 & 5/8" scale length. The action is very, very low and there is absolutely no buzzing; if you hear any buzzing you are playing sloppily and the guitar will let you know.
You can't help but think Alembic when you look at it, which is unfortunate as it really should be considered on its own merits. These guitars are still changing hands fairly cheaply; if you find one you owe it to yourself to try it.
The Veillette Citron company is no longer in business as far as I know, but Veillette still makes instruments, usually with non-standard scale lengths/string arrangements. Some history on the company can be found here:
Best Regards,
Derek Bell
© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
Harvey Citron is also still making guitars.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.citron-guitars.com
He also used to make the pickups for the Veillette guitars.