Veelah La Vita

Say hi to La Vita!

This is a Veelah V1-GACE. GA stands for Grand Auditorium and CE means that there is a cutaway. So let's say for a Dreadnought with a cutaway, it will be V1-DCE. Now I prefer the sound of the Grand Auditorium than a dreadnought. A grand auditorium, to me, sounds more open, bright and clear. Dreadnought has a darker and warmer tone. I would go for the brighter tone. I don't know how else to explain. I just like grand auditoriums or jumbos.

Veelah has 4 different series, V1, V2, V3 and V4 with V4 being the most expensive tier and V1 (of course) the most affordable tier. 

One way to bring down on the cost and making the V1 affordable and yet not compromising quality specs is to strip down on cosmetics. If you've seen my guitar, V1-GACE has no bindings at all. None on the fretboard, none on the top or the back of the guitars. Binding can be expensive. There is no fancy roselette as well and not even inlays. Inlay-less fretboards look attractive to me. How much simpler could a guitar get? Oh yes, this pores on the wood are open and this is no gloss finish. Sonically, it adds up more to the mids. Imagine speaking through a mask and without one. That would be the difference between open and sealed pores.

What I get in return is a solid top and the following:

Graphtech NuBone Parts

I think having a quality nut and bridge is as important as changing the strings when they go dead. Graphtech Nubone synthetic bone bridges and saddles. If I'm to get the separately, at cheapest, they would cost me SGD 40 or about a thousand bahts.  So this is a plus for Veelah, for providing even its V1 range of guitars with these parts instead of plastics. You will also find that Swing acoustics do come with Nubone parts as well!

Fishman iSYS-T

 This is a very simple yet useful preamp there. iSYS-T (T stands for tuner). It isn't a ground-breaking awesome preamp but for a default preamp, this is definitely awesome. I played this through a VOX AGA70 and I was sold. That was when I decided to buy the guitar. You don't see any EQ knobs or sliders on this so the colour of the tone is fixed. Well, of course you can readjust the EQs on the acoustic amp or the mixer if you want. It comes with phase and contour buttons to add some colours to the tone. Simple enough? 

 The fretboard of the guitar is dry, a condition you would expect to see for a guitar stored away in the warehouse. So I'm not surprised.

 So I pampered this baby with some Ikea SKYDD. For anyone who's new to this, it is a wood conditioner. And yes I got that from Ikea. Safe to use on instruments? Safe enough to use on open pore fretboards like rosewood and ebony. Maple? I don't know. Most maple are finished and the pores are all sealed up and thus doesn't require reconditioning.

One problem is yet to be solved though. The action is too high. For acoustic guitars, I normally wouldn't adjust the truss rod myself. I would find someone experienced in this. Acoustic guitars can get really messy.


Price: THB 6300
If you are looking for this guitar in Singapore, check with SV guitars!