Double the fun at Veillette!

[Joe Veillette]

It's been a great few weeks here in Woodstock - thanks to everyone who came and visited us at the Woodstock Invitational show!
It's always a blast, and a great "excuse" to build something new and different...

On that note - here's my latest personal guitar:



Based on my "Flyer" design, this instrument has 1/4" thick bent maple sides and a solid maple back. Here's an inside look of the rim in its early stages:


The top is 'radiused' - curved across the width of the guitar face. This adds strength without extra weight, and also comes close to being a built-in arm bevel - the right arm lays across a very comfortable curved slope.

The necks are a 25.0" scale standard 6-string, and a 24.1" standard 12-string. Both bridges are equipped with D-Tar Wavelength pickups, summed together into a single preamp with Volume and Tone controls.

My favorite thing about this is the weight - an amazing 6.25 lbs!
On top of that, it really balances just right...no neck(s) dive at all.
A lot of that is thanks to the amazing Gotoh "Stealth" tuners, which are 11 grams each (vs. 22+ for the lightest Waverly!). Titanium truss rods also help.

This is my new gigging guitar, and I think it's my favorite working guitar I've ever had. It's got a beautiful blend of Stella-like honk with a more modern sweetness.

I'll almost certainly have this at Healdsburg, or else the next step in its evolution. Thanks for looking!

-Joe

[Jeff Scott]

Welcome to the AGF!!!

Wow, very cool, Joe!

Say Hi to Martin for me.

[sachi]

Welcome to the AGF! Nice design – there's a gent here by handle of DoubleNeck who will drool over it!

[ZekeM]

1/4" thick sides I bet that was fun to build. Do you have a reason for such thick sides??

[Martin Keith]

Just had to chime in here - this guitar's weight is really pretty amazing.
There's a real disconnect when you pick it up, between what your brain expects and what your hands report back.

This is one cool piece, without a doubt.

I'll let Joe chime in on the full concept behind the thick sides, but I know some of it is about making the guitar rugged enough for real travel. Also, super-rigid sides help get as much as possible out of the relatively small top, since there's not much energy loss to the rest of the box. The rim tends to reflect string energy rather than damping it.

Smallman has been thinking this way for years, and I know some other builders have been laminating sides for similar results.

(Hi Jeff! Good to see you in here. I bet it's been a busy two weeks in Ohio...hope you won't feel lonely after all the robo-calls stop tomorrow!)

Cheers,
Martin

[Jeff Scott]

Surprisingly, I had none of those phone calls!

How'd you make out during Sandy (so to speak )? I was thinking of going to Woodstock until I saw what was coming up the coast.

[Joe Veillette]

Martin pretty much summed it up, but I'll chime in also.

The thick sides are incredibly rigid and strong.
This makes the guitar quite rugged, and travel-friendly.

However, it also has a lot to do with how the guitar sounds.
These instruments have radiused tops (curved across the width of the body), and ladder bracing.

Because of the relatively small span of the top, we wanted to get as much sound as we could from it. The bracing is pretty light, thanks to the radius shape which gives added strength.
The extra-thick sides make the overall box stiffer, so it moves less and absorbs less energy from the strings.

Finally, the thick sides let us build these without kerfing/lining. The edge of the rim is well wide enough to make a solid joint with the top.

(We made out pretty well with Sandy - lost power for a couple of days, but nothing major...thanks!)

Cheers,
Joe