Summer NAMM '99 in Review: New Guitars

By Brett Ratner
ratocaster@harmony-central.com

August 5, 1999

A second excursion around Nashville's Convention Center Saturday revealed even more cool stuff for guitarists. In this article, I'll cover some of the more interesting guitars on display.

If you're looking for a cool sounding acoustic instrument, look no further than the acoustic-electric guitars of Joe Veillette.

"I call them ELECTRIC-acoustics because they're solid body," Veillette explains. "They're tools for musicians." Featuring Alvarez electronics, Veillette's creations use poplar bodies with maple caps and maple necks. The finish is a highly-durable polyurethane.

Sure he makes standard guitars. However, it's his fretless basses, 7-strings, and especially baritone 12-strings really set him apart. Veillette claims the 12-string baritone guitar is used all over the most recent Van Halen album and Skunk Baxter scored a recent horror movie soundtrack with the baritone 12. It's no wonder, strumming even standard chords sounds eerie on the thing. Other guitarists using Veillette instruments include Billy Gibbons, Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, and Stefan Lessard of the Dave Matthews Band.

The Veillette MK IV Baritone 12-String

Despite the fact the guitar is tuned two and a half steps below a normal guitar, each string had twangy definition. It wasn't really muddy at all. Plus the bridge design offers excellent sustain. Played through a Tech 21 Bronzewood 60, harmonics literally jumped out of the speakers and hung there for days.

Hear Joe Veillette playing the 12-string baritone (132K)

Any acoustic artist looking to give their sound a little something different really needs to check this thing out. Besides, if you REALLY need standard tuning, just capo up five frets.

Veillette Guitars has a new web site, but it wasn't quite ready as I wrote this. Their site will be located at www.veilletteguitars.com.

Other guitars worth noting are Vaccaro, MEG, and Hofner.

The Vaccaro V2 Series

Henry Vaccaro was one of the original owners of Kramer and currently holds the patent on the classic guitar and bass design incorporating aluminum in the neck construction. The design has been updated, using aircraft-grade aluminum (versus cast), so the guitars are lighter and reportedly sustain better. "What we've been doing for the last three years is validating what this neck really does," said Vaccaro product specialist Richard Stanley. "These guitars offer impeccable sustain, unique tone and better string clarity."

To help "validate" the necks, Vaccaro offers an American-made plus a lower-priced "V2" version of the guitars and basses. An official Hartke bass is also on the way. The joint effort between Vaccaro and Hartke will obviously feature the aluminum "neck extrusion" and distinctive two-pronged headstock.

Personally, I really wanted to like the Vaccaro guitar more than I did. I had trouble executing my standard five blues licks (I hope to know six by the end of the year). Plus chords seemed to fart out. In other words, they sounded muddy. There could have been a variety of factors contributing to my findings (like electronics or the amp) and NAMM isn't always the best environment to try stuff. Therefore I'd like more time with the instrument before giving a definitive review.

However, the unique looks alone make Vaccaro guitars worth checking out, especially if you seek something out of the ordinary. "We're about being something different," Stanley said.

You can check out the Vaccaro web site at www.vaccaroguitars.com for more information.