This instrument was made for my dear friend and guitar player Gene Deetz. Gene is like an Uncle to me. His custom-made Petillo 1966 theme 12-string electric (25 1/2 inch fingerboard scale) has deep meaning to him. This body shape was designed by my Father Dr. Phillip J. Petillo in the early 70’s. It was his answer to the Gibson Les Paul without simply copying that design like many other builders do. It has our trademark Petillo point, which reminds me of a fin on an old Cadillac. On this body shape I added a 45 degree side bevel which gives the illusion of perimeter edge binding, the brown/black burst goes right up to that bevel, as well as the cherry side burst highlighting the center edge piece. The body is book matched Louisiana swamp ash center and American spalted maple front, back, and electronics cover. On the front of the spalt I took razor blades and made my own vine/abstract pattern to capture the wood and make it come to life. The fingerboard is Nigerian ebony and the neck is Indian rosewood. The front headstock overlay is also American spalted maple with my Father’s Petillo 1970’s logo in copper and sterling silver foil. The headstock shape itself is very powerful to me and came from my Gothic art influence. The fingerboard, first to third fret: The Grateful Dead house in San Francisco 710 Haight Ashbury Street, the fifth fret: Hippie Van, the seventh fret: The Beatles, the ninth fret: Peace, the twelfth fret: Sunset Blvd, the fifteenth fret: the molecule for LSD, the seventeenth fret: Beach Boys Surfboard, the ninteenth fret: M-16 for Vietnam and the last fret: 1966. In the making of the inlays the following materials were used: green-red-blue abalone shell, Tahitian grey pearl, Green-pink-red-navy blue stone, copper/copper dust, sterling silver, 24k gold dust, petrified wood and aged bone.The selector switch tip is hand lathed Nigerian ebony with a mother of pearl sand-dollar carved on top. The pickups are Seymour Duncan Antiquity P-90’s with solid American hard maple pickup covers that were carefully milled and filed to fit. The one volume and one tone setup keeps it simple and straight forward. The metal Fender telecaster knobs were topped off with historic 1966 Jordache Jean buttons I bought on eBay to complete the theme. On top of that I inlaid into the Indian rosewood switch cover a real copper 1966 penny, just think of the travels of that coin to it’s resting place a Petillo 12-string guitar. The nickel hardware: The bridge is a Gotoh bridge where the octave strings are pulling through the back end of the bridge and the standard low strings are going through the body for thick sustain complementing the inherent brightness of a 12-string. Also, I would like to add that a bolt on neck often has advantages over a glued on neck that relies on the chemical bond of the glue rather than four strong stainless steel screws sustaining through wood with hand lathed bushings. The tuners are mini Schallers with ebony knobs to match the fingerboard. The frets are stainless steel triangle frets called the Petillo Precision Fret invented in the early 70’s and just one of 30 of my Father’s patents.
Gene Deetz’s Petillo Custom 12-String Electric (1966 Theme)
