Bruce Lukoskie's Doubleneck Acoustic 2011
We're no strangers to "odd" instruments, and special custom instruments have been one of our niches for quite a while. Even with that background, building and designing this instrument was both a challenge and a delight — the perfect combination.

The longer neck is a standard-tuned 6-string with a 25.5" scale, intended for DADGAD and other D-based modal tunings. The shorter 12-string neck is our classic "Gryphon" 18.5" scale, with unison-tuned double courses, tuned up to D. The central soundhole spans under both sets of strings, unifying them visually and sonically.

Both necks have piezo sensors under the saddles, which flow together into a Wavelength pickup/preamp. A side "soundport" gives the player a little extra direct response, which is especially useful with an instrument like this. We all had to really pay attention when playing this guitar — it has a lot to say.

Designed from the ground up, inside and out, this instrument truly embodies the custom-shop flexibility and adventurous spirit we try to maintain here at Veillette Guitars. Challenges like this invariably lead us in new and stimulating directions, and the results are always worth the effort.

When Bruce Lukoskie came up to the shop to pick up his new guitar, he was kind enough to record this little video while he was getting to know it — the huge range of textures, tones, and possibilities make this piece incredibly intruguing.

Rick Shoda's custom 4-string acoustic bass 2011
Often, we have an instrument in mind that just seems like a great idea, but just can't justify building it just for fun. Sometimes, though, we get really lucky and someone comes along and orders exactly what we had in mind (or close).

That's what happened with this acoustic bass. Our customer's concept lined up perfectly with ours — a medium-scale 4-string based on our 16. Grand acoustic shape. The compact size and comfortable scale made for a extremely playable and very comfy instrument. The medium scale also produced lower string tension, which let us lighten up the bracing a little, to give this instrument a respectable low end response — it sounds like a real bass, not just a big guitar.

This was great fun to build, and Ande and Martin both wanted to keep it when it was done — always a good sign!

Neal Schon's double Doublenecks 2011
Legendary guitarist Neal Schon has been a client and friend of Veillette Guitars for years, and has featured his 3 (!) electric Gryphons on stage on the most recent Journey tours.

After seeing and playing Joe's doubleneck, Neal decided he should get on board with some new customs — in this case, a pair of very exotic Doublenecks. The red guitar is a standard-tuned 6-string, with a locking tremolo and dual humbuckers, combined with a D-tuned Gryphon 12-string up top. Custom wiring including a sustainer and Neal's special circuitry finish it off.

The black guitar takes it even a step further — a 7-string electric neck with locking trem, and a 14-string Gryphon with added low A pair! A custom milled 14-string stop tailpiece is just one of many specially-made or adapted parts that came together to make this guitar happen.

Both instruments have mahogany bodies and necks, killer flame maple tops, and Indian Rosewood fingerboards. Lightweight, easy to handle, and stunning, these guitars are sure to catch the eyes and ears of Journey fans when Neal takes them out for the next tour!

Mike Pleska's Lefty Baritone 6 2011
An amazing guitar for a truly amazing musician
Doing what we do, it's not unusual for us to meet musicians whose needs are different from those of most guitarists. Well... even those guys are pretty normal compared to "Amazing" Mike Pleska, the proud owner of this beautiful left-handed baritone 6-string.

"Amazing Mike" lives in Chicago, and can make music with just about any object you could imagine. Envision someone jumping mid-song from tuned bottles, to dual trumpets (simultaneously!) to guitar behind his head, throw in a kazoo and a rubber band, and you start to get some idea of what he can do. We've never seen or heard anything like him. His incredible talent has landed him spots on Jay Leno and other TV features, as well as a steady gigging and performing schedule.

This killer piece features every option — dual magnetics and a piezo bridge, and a 'drop top' over an arm bevel. We've never been more sure that someone will use every feature and option the guitar has available — he'll probably discover things we didn't even know could be done with it!

Joey Weisenberg's custom 6-string electric 2010
This guitar was custom-made for Joey Weisenberg, a renowned klezmer guitarist from New York City. Joey needed something truly different to fit his very eclectic, high-energy playing style and very specific needs. Here's what we came up with:

• Custom body shape
• 27 frets
• Hipshot "Trilogy" bridge, with 729 different possible tunings (3 different notes per string!), along with pedal-steel type bending effects
• Special knob locations for 'rolling' volume and tone while playing
• GraphTech "Ghost" piezo bridge
• Dual Duncan Vintage Rails pickups
• D-Tar Eclipse blender preamp with Blend control

The multiple-tuning bridge and super-flexible electronics let this guitar do just about anything, including things other guitars could only dream of.

Two Necks For The Weight of One 2009
This is our second doubleneck 6/12, and the first to be fully completed and get past the 'prototype' stage. The first was set up with no finish to "try" and Joe got so attached to using it on gigs that he had to wait for this one before he could put it down for "completion". It got very grimy after 24 gigs. There is a whole lot going on inside this guitar! Each neck has:

• a pair of Fralin Split-Blade pickups
• a piezo bridge
• its own preamp
• its own set of Volume, Blend, Pickup Selector, and Tone controls (several stacked).

As if that's not enough, there is also a built-in TriColor tuner with a fiber optic display, hidden in the 12-string bridge adjuster.

Weighing in at 9.8 lbs, this is the lightest and best-balanced doubleneck any of us has ever laid hands on. It also happens to sound incredible. There is a lot of subtle design work that make this guitar much more playable than one would expect. The light weight and neck placement just make it really pleasant and comfortable.

We'll probably make some more. Got any ideas? We're taking inquiries ...

Yukihiro Saitou's Custom Baritone Nylon 2009
This Baritone Nylon is loaded with RMC piezo pickups and a Poly-Drive preamp with 13-pin output, ready to drive synths, modeling processors, and all other flavors of high-tech signal processing gear.

On the low-tech side, it sports a gorgeous, heavily quilted maple top with black binding in a deep-red finish, and an ebony fingerboard and bridge with a very custom neck shape. To accommodate his playing style, this guitar was built with a conventional nut (no zero fret). The mahogany body and neck made this always deep-sounding instrument go even deeper.

Akira Kobayashi's Veillette "Violin Bass" 2009
We've known Mr. Kobayashi for some time, and he has even come to visit our shop while in the States. He was the first to ask for an Archtop bass, and it has become one of our most successful models.

He also has a fine collection of vintage 'violin basses', and approached us about building a custom instrument that combined the classic "Beatle bass" style with some special features, in a 5-string. After some design work and many, many emails, we finally came up with this piece, and we're all very pleased with it. It fits it great with his collection, and has a sound and style all its own.

Groove Shoppe Custom 'Paris' 5
This custom fretless 5 represents several special features, brought together for David Beasley at the Groove Shoppe. They add up to a pretty special bass:

• Two color Katalox fingerboard and bridge, with contrasting 2-color fretlines
• Nordstrand pickup in wooden cover
• 35" scale
• Reverse 2+3 Headpiece
• Built-in TriColor tuner

Custom 9-string Bass for Steve Nishimura
"What is that ?!?!" ...That's the first thing most people said when they saw this... Well then, what is it? Custom 9-string Bass: Solid maple body, flame top, 36 fret ebony fingerboard, Full 3/4" (19mm) bridge spacing, RMC piezos and custom Nordstrand FatStack pickup, Aguilar and RMC electronics.

This bass was built for Steve Nishimura, a phenomenal touchstyle bassist. Think Bach and Schubert, played note-for-note, and you start to get the idea of Steve's playing... The bass weighed in at around 14.8 pounds, and Steve said it balanced better than his old 6-string. 1st string action at the highest fret was just over 1/64". This bass amazed us by being really quite playable, and sounded even bigger than it looks.

Custom Arched-top 6-string bass
This Arched-top bass, built for a customer in Japan, was full of special custom features: offset dot markers, matching wood pickup cover, and ebony thumb rest (which can be unscrewed without leaving any visible screw holes...holes in that top would just be such a shame!).

Our Japanese distributor said this bass had the "voice of God". It was certainly huge-sounding, and one of the most striking-looking basses we've ever made.

JP Marchetti's Custom B6
This Baritone 6-string, built for JP Marchetti of Chicago, includes a full chamber and soundhole, and a hidden surprise - inside the soundhole, visible only to the player, is a fiber-optic display for the TriColor tuner. The deep red finish, ebony fingerboard, and quilt top give it a really rich and classy look...we were really pleased with this one.

Garrett Stanton's Koa Archtop
If there's one guitar we've built that can do just about anything, it is probably this one - the dual magnetic pickups feed through a 5-way pickup selector, and then blend with a piezo...the result: straight-up acoustic tone, thick, fat jazz guitar vibe, and everything in between. The flamed Koa top, matching headpiece, and ebony fittings complete the package.

Peter James' Nylon 8-string
Built for West Coast guitarist/songwriter Peter James, this 8-string Nylon Acoustic/Electric delivers some serious range - it's tuned from Low B to a high A. The demands of Peter's highly original music have led him to a pretty unique guitar.

Custom Electric Tres built for Ben Lapidus
This tres (Cuban 3-course guitar with a 22.8" scale) was built for Ben Lapidus, an accomplished Latin and Afro-Cuban musician who needed an authentic tres sound, but couldn't amplify his acoustic instrument without feedback. After owning this instrument for over a year, Ben tells us that he doesn't even travel with his acoustic anymore.

David Fruchter
Photographer/musician David Fruchter approached us with this challenge: he'd been playing a regular mountain dulcimer, but holding it like a guitar and reaching around the body to fret it. Could we help? Here's what we came up with:
26.1" scale Scalloped wenge fingerboard with diatonic frets, Duncan Cool-Rails pickup, matching wenge volume knob built into the tailpiece...we were completely charmed by this instrument once it was finished - it brings out chord and song ideas almost effortlessly.

Randall Wallace
These are just two of the unique guitars we've built for Randall Wallace, owner of Allaire Studios in Shokan, NY. Randall is a very imaginitive customer.

This guitar is a C-tuned Baritone 12 with a Rickenbacker-style magnetic pickup option. This bass is an 8-string octave-tuned acoustic/electric bass.

Eddie Van Halen's MkIII Bari 12 with 2 extra magnetic pickups, volume control, and stereo outputs. A pretty massive sounding guitar!

Lorah Yaccarino This spectacularly quilted Baritone 12-string was built for Lorah Yaccarino. Lorah's music is heavily based on overtones and drone tones. She tunes this instrument to alternate D's and A's, with the 2nd course tuned to a 5th interval. The whole face of the guitar (including the fingerboard) is figured maple, with a high-gloss finish over a deep blue stain.

Lynne Gordon's 14-string guitar
This instrument is tuned in all-octaves - that is, all 7 courses are a fundamental-octave pair. There are no unison pairs. The strings on this ranged from a .007" 1st octave, to a .095" fundamental. The custom signature decal was a request from the customer.

Scary to look at, scarier to play....scariest to listen to!

Billy Sheehan asked us to modify his older MkIII Bari 12 for a more rock-and-roll vibe. Now it's a magnetic-only monster with a DiMarzio bridge pickup, tune-o-matic bridge, and stop tailpiece. What more do you need?

Brad Caudle's Mark IV Acoustic/Electric 9-string bass
Ordered as a surprise birthday present, this beast is tuned from a high Bb to a thundering low F# (at 22Hz!). The factory-installed string set went from a plain, unwound .015" to a whopping .150". A custom-wound humcancelling pickup in matching wenge cover, piezo-equipped bridge and onboard tuner rounded out the specs.

Despite its size, this bass was surprisingly easy to play, and was useful and musical in both extremes of its range.

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