The Avante Gryphon has a solid spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides. The fretboard and bridge are rosewood and the neck is mahogany. It’s fitted with a piezo pickup with volume and tone controls that are adjustable through the soundhole. The nut measures 1 15/16” , a comfortable width for playing the doubled strings. The Gryphon is light-weight and it’s well balanced in your lap or on a strap. Includes a hardshell case.

The Avante Gryphon is one of our favorite guitars around here, and not just because it has a well chosen name. This small instrument has a unique tone with a natural chorus effect that recalls mandolin, bouzouki or the high strings of a 12-string guitar. Designed by Joe Veillette, the Gryphon has a short 18 1/8th-inch scale length and twelve strings that are tuned in six unison pairs. The Gryphon is designed for D tuning, basically the equivalent of capoing at the 10th fret of a guitar in standard tuning. When played with a flatpick, it’s easy to play mandolin-style parts and when fingerpicked it has a lovely,chiming bell-like sonority. You can put a capo on the second fret, which puts it a full ocate above standard tuning, making it perfect for doubling or layering parts in the studio or in jam sessions..