As a working musician and
former architect, which of the
two was the biggest inspira-
tion for your getting into
building guitars?
It’s actually very hard to sepa-
rate the two. I grew up being
interested in tools, working
with my hands, building things
since I was very little, playing
guitar by age 11, and loving
music completely. I attended
Brooklyn Technical High
School where I studied drafting
and engineering, and then stud-
ied architectural design at City
College School of Architecture.
I was incredibly frustrated as I
started out working as an archi-
tect, since I was not really doing
anything more than producing
working drawings of others’
designs. I was very young, but
had a fire burning inside to
create. I was creating through
my music—and my furniture
and interior design—but not
through my job. Then the
opportunity came to build a
guitar. Because of all my years
drafting and studying design, I
knew I could look at a guitar,
understand how it was built,
and could actually build it! I
could explore to my heart’s con-
tent. So what better avenue for
a musician and a designer? I was
able to meld these two areas of
creativity that I loved.
Which has had the biggest
influence on your work?
Again, it’s very hard to say
which has been the larger influence. As a designer, I have
always been seeking out what
hasn’t been done yet, or to solve
a problem. Each of my instrument models sets about creating
something new sonically and/
or physically—they are not just
pretty boutique instruments.
Because I am a designer, I can
play with woods, construction,
electronics, and shapes. Because
I am a musician, I can use those
elements to explore new tone.
What were your formative
influences insofar as guitar-
ists, bands, and instruments?
I started playing guitar in the
1950s at a very early age and
was listening to people like Elvis
Presley and Chuck Berry. But
I only had an acoustic guitar
at the time. We were poor and
my mom bought the cheap-
est Martin you could buy—a
00-17 with a mahogany top and
no binding. I did everything
with that guitar and amplified
it with a DeArmond pickup
and an Ampeg Rocket ampli-
fier. Even later on, I was using
that same guitar for soul music.
Developing my own style back
then, I was pretty much a
rhythm guitar player for a long
time, but later on became a lead
player, too.
Eventually you began build-
ing basses as well. Was your
attraction to the rhythm side
of playing part of the reason
for that?
I just love instruments and
playing. Building basses for
me was always part of the deal
from the beginning somehow.
Veillette-Citron’s first proto-
types were a 6-string neck-
through electric guitar and
4-string neck-through electric
bass. Our first batch of instru-
ments was also mixed, and
I’m sure we built more basses
than guitars over the years our
company existed from 1975 to
1983. With the exception of
Alembic, bass design had not
really been explored that exten-
sively in the mid-’70s. While in
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