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1981 Veillette-Citron Fretless Bass
Estimated price for orientation: 2 900 $
Category: Bass Guitars
Class:
Description Condition: Used: An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. See all condition definitions- opens in a new window or tab ... Read moreabout the condition Brand: Veillette-Citron Body Type: Fretless String Configuration: 4 String Dexterity: Right-Handed Style: Jazz Bass Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Up for sale my 1981 Veillette-Citron VC-1 Fretless 4 string bass. The Serial Number is 407, and comes with the original hardshell case. I bought it from the original owner recently. The bass has typical playwear, and the ebony fingerboard is only slightly scarred, but not grooved, from playing. The only cosmetic damage consists of a ding on a knob, as well as one on the lower bout. See the pics although it’s hard to show in a pic.The bridge pickup shows playwear from fingers hitting it, along with scars from the strings. The pickups are anchored by screws that go through the back into springs which are molded to the pickups. Both pickups function perfectly. The bass is quiet and has a full pallet of great sounds. I have medium gage round wound strings on it now.Veillette-Citron was formed by Joe Veillette and Harvey Citron and they produced instruments from 1975 through 1983. This bass features two dual coil hum canceling handmade pickups, Schaller tuners, Veillette-Citron brass bridge, fine quality flamed maple, ebony fretless fingerboard, two volume controls, two tone controls, three-way toggle switch, brass nut, and a 34.5 inch scale.In 2012 George Gruhn appraised the bass at $2500.00 to $3000.00. This appraisal comes with the bass. This is fully professional instrument and the finish like no other. Feel free to ask questions, I’ve posted a load of pics to show the features of the bass.Here's an article detailing the history of VC guitars and basses..Sculptured BeautiesThe Age of Veillette-Citron Guitarsby Baker Rorick. Guitar Shop, November 1997. Veillette-Citron guitars are very rare birds today. Veillette-Citron was a pioneer in neck-thru-body construction with highly-figured maple and exotic hardwoods, sophisticated electronics, and other trend setting features, especially in modern, high-end electric bass design. They also created the first-ever production baritone guitars. Today, their hand crafted instruments are highly sought after by collectors, but lack of knowledge about this small company (many people think they're French) makes it possible to occasionally find over looked V-C's languishing in stores and pawn shops for only a few hundred dollars. Grab `em.For star power, members of Orleans, Blondie, the Waitresses, and the B-52's played Veillette-Citron guitars and baritones, while Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth used a V-C bass, and Kasim Sultan (Utopia), Rutjer Gunnerson (ABBA), and Van Halen's Michael Anthony used their 8-string basses. Eddie Van Halen got a Shark baritone, and other V-C ban players include Jorma Kaukonen, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Devo's Robert Mothersbaugh, and James Taylor. Not a bad list of players, eh?Veillette-Citron was founded in 1976 by Harvey Citron and Joe Veillette (pronounced "Vay-ette"), who met in architecture school. Citron had been playing guitar and performing since age 12, while Veillette had studied acoustic guitar building with luthier Michael Gurian. Eventually, both Joe and Harvey gave up their architecture careers to collaborate on guitars. They displayed a guitar and a bass in the Vinci Strings booth at Summer NAMM `76, and stunned the guitar community with the beauty and elegance of their designs. With a distribution agreement and orders in hand, they bought equipment and opened their own shop in Brooklyn. The first V-C catalog, from 1977, shows 6- and 12-string guitars, and a long-scale bass, all made of incredibly flamed maple, with laminated maple and ebony necks, ebony fingerboards, lacquered solid-brass and gold-plated hardware, deluxe Schaller tuning machines, and two "high clarity" humbucking pickups with coil taps, phase switches, individual Volume and Tone controls, and a Master Volume. Their basses had 24 jumbo frets, and the guitars had... 25! From the start, most of their instruments were custom-built and came with a variety of configurations and options, like 2- and 3-stage pickups, stereo wiring, and various body woods, including koa, walnut, or East Indian rosewood. Their 8-string bass became one of their most popular instruments. V-C evolved in friendly convergence as an East Coast equivalent of Alembic, with similarities in design and approach.In 1979, v-c moved upstate to Kingston, NY, on the Hudson River not far from the Catskill mountain town of Woodstock. By 1980, V-C was making three series of instruments, most with just 22 frets: The Standard (black or sunburst finishes, basic electronics, rosewood finger-boards, chrome hardware), Classic (figured maple, two-stage pickups, ebony boards, gold hardware), and Limited Edition (exotic woods, deluxe electronics with 3-stage pickups, special carving and detailing). They had also tapped into the Woodstock music community, and, in conjunction with John Sebastian, V-C developed the first "Shark" baritone guitar, with a body shape similar to the Guild Thunderbirds that Sebastian and Zal Yanowsky had played in the Lovin' Spoonful. Harvey developed a new single-coil pickup for the Shark, and in 1982, V-C introduced their new S Series guitars, baritones, and one or two-pickup basses, with maple bodies and set-neck construction, which retailed for under $1,000 (other V-Cs were priced from $1,250 to well over $2,000). Unfortunately, an expected infusion of capital for expanded production capability fell through, and increasing frustration with the business-end and daily grind led V-C to disband in 1983. They never had more than a half-dozen employees, and V-C's insistence on maintaining the integrity of their designs, quality, labor-intensive hardware and hand-wound pickups were not cost effective. Where other companies moved to mass-production techniques to meet demand, Veillette-Citron emphasized craftsmanship, making each instrument a labor of love. In all, Harvey and Joe built approximately 500 instruments in their seven-year run, about half of them basses, and including no more than 15 Shark baritones.Earlier V-C instruments are distinguished by hand- tooled brass knobs and strap buttons, engraved brass control cavity backplates, and intricate details of workmanship too numerous to mention here, while later ones used commercially available endpins, plastic knobs, and plastic backplates. They continued throughout to fashion their own brass tailpieces and fully adjustable bridges. They're scarce today, and are more common on the East Coast and in the Midwest than out West.
Description
| Condition: | Used: An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. See all condition definitions- opens in a new window or tab ... Read moreabout the condition | Brand: | Veillette-Citron |
| Body Type: | Fretless | String Configuration: | 4 String |
| Dexterity: | Right-Handed | Style: | Jazz Bass |
| Country/Region of Manufacture: | United States |
Up for sale my 1981 Veillette-Citron VC-1 Fretless 4 string bass. The Serial Number is 407, and comes with the original hardshell case. I bought it from the original owner recently. The bass has typical playwear, and the ebony fingerboard is only slightly scarred, but not grooved, from playing. The only cosmetic damage consists of a ding on a knob, as well as one on the lower bout. See the pics although it’s hard to show in a pic.The bridge pickup shows playwear from fingers hitting it, along with scars from the strings. The pickups are anchored by screws that go through the back into springs which are molded to the pickups. Both pickups function perfectly. The bass is quiet and has a full pallet of great sounds. I have medium gage round wound strings on it now.Veillette-Citron was formed by Joe Veillette and Harvey Citron and they produced instruments from 1975 through 1983. This bass features two dual coil hum canceling handmade pickups, Schaller tuners, Veillette-Citron brass bridge, fine quality flamed maple, ebony fretless fingerboard, two volume controls, two tone controls, three-way toggle switch, brass nut, and a 34.5 inch scale.In 2012 George Gruhn appraised the bass at $2500.00 to $3000.00. This appraisal comes with the bass. This is fully professional instrument and the finish like no other. Feel free to ask questions, I’ve posted a load of pics to show the features of the bass.Here's an article detailing the history of VC guitars and basses..Sculptured BeautiesThe Age of Veillette-Citron Guitarsby Baker Rorick. Guitar Shop, November 1997. Veillette-Citron guitars are very rare birds today. Veillette-Citron was a pioneer in neck-thru-body construction with highly-figured maple and exotic hardwoods, sophisticated electronics, and other trend setting features, especially in modern, high-end electric bass design. They also created the first-ever production baritone guitars. Today, their hand crafted instruments are highly sought after by collectors, but lack of knowledge about this small company (many people think they're French) makes it possible to occasionally find over looked V-C's languishing in stores and pawn shops for only a few hundred dollars. Grab `em.For star power, members of Orleans, Blondie, the Waitresses, and the B-52's played Veillette-Citron guitars and baritones, while Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth used a V-C bass, and Kasim Sultan (Utopia), Rutjer Gunnerson (ABBA), and Van Halen's Michael Anthony used their 8-string basses. Eddie Van Halen got a Shark baritone, and other V-C ban players include Jorma Kaukonen, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Devo's Robert Mothersbaugh, and James Taylor. Not a bad list of players, eh?Veillette-Citron was founded in 1976 by Harvey Citron and Joe Veillette (pronounced "Vay-ette"), who met in architecture school. Citron had been playing guitar and performing since age 12, while Veillette had studied acoustic guitar building with luthier Michael Gurian. Eventually, both Joe and Harvey gave up their architecture careers to collaborate on guitars. They displayed a guitar and a bass in the Vinci Strings booth at Summer NAMM `76, and stunned the guitar community with the beauty and elegance of their designs. With a distribution agreement and orders in hand, they bought equipment and opened their own shop in Brooklyn. The first V-C catalog, from 1977, shows 6- and 12-string guitars, and a long-scale bass, all made of incredibly flamed maple, with laminated maple and ebony necks, ebony fingerboards, lacquered solid-brass and gold-plated hardware, deluxe Schaller tuning machines, and two "high clarity" humbucking pickups with coil taps, phase switches, individual Volume and Tone controls, and a Master Volume. Their basses had 24 jumbo frets, and the guitars had... 25! From the start, most of their instruments were custom-built and came with a variety of configurations and options, like 2- and 3-stage pickups, stereo wiring, and various body woods, including koa, walnut, or East Indian rosewood. Their 8-string bass became one of their most popular instruments. V-C evolved in friendly convergence as an East Coast equivalent of Alembic, with similarities in design and approach.In 1979, v-c moved upstate to Kingston, NY, on the Hudson River not far from the Catskill mountain town of Woodstock. By 1980, V-C was making three series of instruments, most with just 22 frets: The Standard (black or sunburst finishes, basic electronics, rosewood finger-boards, chrome hardware), Classic (figured maple, two-stage pickups, ebony boards, gold hardware), and Limited Edition (exotic woods, deluxe electronics with 3-stage pickups, special carving and detailing). They had also tapped into the Woodstock music community, and, in conjunction with John Sebastian, V-C developed the first "Shark" baritone guitar, with a body shape similar to the Guild Thunderbirds that Sebastian and Zal Yanowsky had played in the Lovin' Spoonful. Harvey developed a new single-coil pickup for the Shark, and in 1982, V-C introduced their new S Series guitars, baritones, and one or two-pickup basses, with maple bodies and set-neck construction, which retailed for under $1,000 (other V-Cs were priced from $1,250 to well over $2,000). Unfortunately, an expected infusion of capital for expanded production capability fell through, and increasing frustration with the business-end and daily grind led V-C to disband in 1983. They never had more than a half-dozen employees, and V-C's insistence on maintaining the integrity of their designs, quality, labor-intensive hardware and hand-wound pickups were not cost effective. Where other companies moved to mass-production techniques to meet demand, Veillette-Citron emphasized craftsmanship, making each instrument a labor of love. In all, Harvey and Joe built approximately 500 instruments in their seven-year run, about half of them basses, and including no more than 15 Shark baritones.Earlier V-C instruments are distinguished by hand- tooled brass knobs and strap buttons, engraved brass control cavity backplates, and intricate details of workmanship too numerous to mention here, while later ones used commercially available endpins, plastic knobs, and plastic backplates. They continued throughout to fashion their own brass tailpieces and fully adjustable bridges. They're scarce today, and are more common on the East Coast and in the Midwest than out West.