Shark

Veillette-Citron Shark Baritone guitars are very rare birds today as only 15 pieces were ever made. 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.

Veillette-Citron was founded in 1976 by Harvey Citron and Joe Veillette, who met in architecture school. In 1979, the company 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.