Although it's the smallest acoustic Joe Veillete makes (and one of the smallest we've seen), the Acoustic Gryphon is no decorative bauble. Tuned to high D (2 frets lower than the 12th fret of a standard guitar) and tuned with mandolin-style unison courses, the Acoustic Gryphon's celestial, sparkling highs and punchy mid-register give it unique punch and cut, and an unusually versatile range of performance possibilities. Guitarists will welcome being able to play mandolin-style parts in a high new register, and even guitar-mandolin doublers will find new applications, like the ability to play guitar-like or fingerstyle patterns in a mandolin tonality. The acoustic Gryphon's unique range comes from its 18.5" scale length and custom Gr-12 strings (gauges .008" to .042"). The total length is 32.5", the width at lower bout is 12.5", the depth ranges from 2.75" to 3.375" and the weight is 4 to 5 pounds depending on what it had for lunch. The Honduran mahogany back, sides, and neck, Sitka spruce top, and Pau Ferro bridge and fingerboard result in a responsive, tonally balanced instrument. We invite you to click on
www.veilletteguitars.com to be able to read much more about the construction, benefits and the advantages that we didn't have when we were children.
This guitar is equipped with the D-Tar Timberline preamp with added volume and tone (treble roll-off) on the bass side. This 18v System has enormous, clean headroom and proffers very long battery life. You will enjoy faithful, high-fidelity reproduction of the instruments true acoustic tone. The custom battery compartment at bottom side is accessible any time, without tools. It houses the twin 9v batteries that power the onboard preamp. This guitar is made with a gorgeous highly figured rosewood fingerboard with a 2" nut width. The carved, belly-down 12-pin bridge is both beautiful and practical in ways that many are yet to fathom. There is an ebony nut and also a zero fret so that the action can be as low as humanly possible, and there is a carved and compensated bone bridge saddle. The string spacing at the bridge is 2 ¼". Twin asymmetrical soundholes are boomerang-shaped but this is great because the sound flies through the air and then comes back to the player leaving the audience wondering if they really heard the music or not. Tuners are Gotoh sealed-backs with beautiful dark amber with a recessed Phillips screw at each end. The action is supremely low but your affect and outlook will be eternally high when you play and hear this diminutive delight.