Gryphon stringed instruments1/3/2023 ![]() ![]() In 1976 that educational background came into play again when Veillette teamed up with another architect, Harvey Citron. Using more expensive wood and a lot of mother-of-pearl or doing labor-intensive trim and decoration wasn’t going to make any more music.” I wanted to make things that did something to help people express themselves. And if I wasn’t spending time decorating a guitar, then I wouldn’t have to charge as much and I could make more guitars and get better. “But then I found I got such satisfaction out of hearing other people play the instruments that I wanted to make more of them and get better at making things that sound good. “I just wanted to get the techniques down and I figured I’d start doing the pretty stuff later,” Veillette says. In fact, his second-ever instrument was constructed from a piece of spruce retrieved from Gurian’s waste. His early instruments displayed a restraint and lack of adornment that continues to be a Veillette hallmark to this day. The treble side of the guitar is being held in place after being bent, the bass side will be added next, and then the end blocks. Martin Keith works on a hollow form for a Flyer model in the Veillette Guitars workshop in Woodstock, New York. ![]() “I just dove in and it was fun-it was kind of my way of making music, even though I thought I wasn’t good enough.” Veillette says that he really loved guitar building because it gave him a musical outlet, even if he wasn’t performing. He folded up his blueprints and drawings and left after a year and a half. Though Veillette described it as a “dream job” in terms of salary and unique opportunities, the work was unfulfilling. At this point, Veillette had graduated from college and was working as an architectural designer on Park Avenue. Over several months, Veillette learned about classical guitar construction, all so he could acquire the knowledge necessary to repair his Gibson. ![]() Luthier Michael Gurian, who had a shop in Greenwich Village and was beginning to receive praise for his classical instruments, led the class. And then someone told me about a luthier class being given in Manhattan at the YWCA.” “I knew enough about engineering to realize that just gluing the thing back together was not going to do it. The budding guitarist lugged the Gibson to a number of repair shops in Brooklyn and was dismayed by what people proposed. Just after he’d mastered five or six chords, the instrument took a tumble and the headstock broke. “Coming from an architectural and engineering background, I’m not going to do something because it looks good if it’s going to make something less functional.” -Joe Veillette “It happens to those old Gibsons all the time.” “It had a very narrow nut and a very large recess for the truss rod adjustor, which led to chronic breakage of the head piece,” he recalls. In college, Veillette was studying architecture when he received a Gibson J-45 as a gift. A random comment about his inability to hold a tune damaged his performing confidence. Veillette sang constantly, but always solo in his room. An older sister took him to Alan Freed shows, expanding his musical horizons. Jackie Wilson was a favorite, along with notable doo-wop and vocal groups like The Penguins and Dion and the Belmonts. I got a CAT scan and they rushed me up to Albany Medical Center and said I should’ve been dead with such a huge hematoma.”Īfter having a drain in his skull for five days, Veillette was eventually released from the hospital and returned to his workshop with new vigor and foresight.Ī Man of Function Joe Veillette (pronounced Vay-ette) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up obsessed with radio. “By late March, the headache had been with me for three months and it never went away. “I had a headache since NAMM in mid-January 2013,” Veillette says, referring to the annual National Association of Music Merchants trade show. Yet a recent medical scare inspired new focus and planning in the Veillette guitar shop in Woodstock, New York, and ultimately led to a new product line. For almost 40 years, he has produced unique stringed instruments unlike anything else in the marketplace. With so many beloved and acclaimed instruments to his name, Joe Veillette would never be accused of lacking ambition or vision. ![]()
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