Now every Homestead, like all other acoustic guitars, has a metal pin mounted in the neck. You can’t see this pin, called Truss Rod, but it can be easily adjusted from the sound hole with the supplied Allen key.

When turning counterclockwise, there is a little more concavity and any resonance or buzzing disappears. Turning clockwise lowers the action and makes the guitar easier to play. First turn it half a turn, tune your guitar again and check whether the neck is the way you want it. If you are still not satisfied, turn it another half turn. Continue until you are satisfied.

New Netherlands

It is interesting to know that, in the 17th century, this region was once colonial territory of the Netherlands (named: New Netherland) and that gold was searched. Our distant ancestors behaved very violently there, with regard to the original inhabitants. For more information, read the article: “The gold of Adirondack”

Homestead uses Adirondack on all models

Because the sound is so much better than other spruce, Homestead uses Adirondack wood as standard on all its models. Our American supplier, John Griffin of Old Standard Wood, regularly travels to the Adirondack Mountains to pick out the very best wood.

In our selection of the available tops, we only settle for the highest (AAA) quality and we pay attention to various quality aspects. For more information on our selection criteria: Adirondack

In short: Adirondack standard on all our models, that’s one of the reasons why a Homestead sounds so good.

Robin van de Poll, 26 april 2022

Which lacquer is best for a guitar?

There are basically two types of lacquer when building guitars: Nitrocellulose (Nitro) and Polyurethane (Poly) or Polyester. Nitro was the standard lacquer for guitars until the 1970s. Polyurethane has become more and more common since the 1970s.

Opinions on the best paint vary widely among connoisseurs and luthiers. There are clearly proponents and opponents for the lacquers used. Below is an overview of the advantages and disadvantages.

Polyurethane

Polyurethane is a synthetic compound of two polymers. Poly has become the standard in guitar building since the 1970s, mainly because of the environment. The fact that Poly is easier to process and therefore cheaper has also played a role in the increasing popularity of this lacquer. Finally, Poly guitars look better and last much longer, often decades. However, the sound of Poly guitars is slightly more neutral than that of Nitro guitars.

While Nitrocellulose lacquer is more commonly used on premium guitars, that doesn’t mean Poly is of lower quality. Poly can be found on both cheap and high-end guitars.

Some guitar brands combine both types of lacquer, whereby the base layers are applied in Nitro and the top layers in Poly.

Conclusion

Choosing remains difficult and it is all very personal. In summary, it comes down to the following: if you go for a guitar that looks good for a long time and also has a good sound, then you go for Poly. If you go for the most pronounced sound and if you accept a faster aging of your guitar, then choose Nitro.

As mentioned before, Nitro’s price is more expensive than Poly, but that makes little difference to the overall guitar price.

Homestead builds its guitars in both Poly and Nitro, so we can meet the needs of every customer. Our advice: take a look at our webshop. There you can find our guitars in both lacquers. Or visit our studio “De Kluis” in Heemstede and try out both types of lacquer and judge for yourself.

The steel-string Parlor clearly had much more volume and expression than the classical guitars and became the preferred delta blues guitar of the pre-WWII years. Iconic blues musician Robert Lee Johnson (1911-1938), like most of his contemporaries, played a Parlor.

This lasted until 1931, when Martin introduced the much larger Dreadnought and, although musicians like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez still played a Parlor in the 1960s, the popularity of the “parlor” guitar gradually declined.

Nowadays there is a growing interest in the Parlor guitars. The Parlor is back. In the first place because it is more pleasant to hold. The Parlor gives more space and rest to your right arm and due to the lower scale length, the left arm does not have to reach as far (off course with right-handed guitarists). This applies to both women and men. At the same time, the Parlor has an incredibly rich sound despite its small body and all nuances come out very well. Where a Dreadnought puts a lot of emphasis on lows and mids, with the Parlor you will find a more balanced balance between lows, mids and highs.

Finally, due to its smaller size, the Parlor is extremely suitable as a travel guitar. It can easily be carried in an airplane cabin and also fits better in many car trunks. And yes, the Parlor has even been in space. In 2013, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield played David Bowie’s Space Oddity from International Space Station ISS on a Parlor.

Homestead, of course, could not lag behind this development and introduced its own Parlor. You can try this Parlor in our studio in Heemstede or purchase it in our webshop.

If the price of a Homestead Parlor exceeds your budget or if you are only looking for a handy travel guitar, we can recommend a Javatar Parlor.

Robin van de Poll, 8 Februari 2022

Many people wonder what makes personalized or custom guitars different from a factory-made guitar and whether they are better. In this blog I try to answer this. Below I summarize the main differences.

Number of options 

The first difference lies in the number of options the musician has. Factory guitars are made to fixed specifications and in large numbers. Every factory guitar will be exactly the same in every detail, and if you want something different, you can’t get it. A custom guitar builder will provide an instrument that is specially made for you. So there is only one of them. Depending on your music style and playing technique, you can choose between different shapes and sizes, scale lengths, actions, neck widths, fret sizes, tunings, electronics, woods, etc. In addition, you can choose visual or aesthetic characteristics such as color, burst, inlays, etc. The custom guitar becomes your own signature guitar, completely tailored to your musical and aesthetic wishes.

Quality

A second important difference between factory guitars and custom guitars is in the quality. Factory guitar manufacturers regard quality as how efficiently their instruments can be manufactured. Their priorities are: automation and standardization of procedures. The musician, on the other hand, is interested in the comfort of playing and how good the guitar sounds. This is normally also the attitude of the custom guitar builder. The priority for him is to create a personal, effective and beautiful instrument for the musician. The collaboration with the guitarist is therefore central to the custom builder.

Attention 

A third difference is the attention your custom guitar gets from its builders. A custom guitar will require many hours more in terms of labor than a factory built guitar. In general, luthiers use a factor of 10 for this. In other words, on average 10 times as much labor time is spent on a custom guitar as on a factory guitar. This has the logical consequence that custom guitars are often more expensive than series guitars. Most custom guitars are built from € 4.000,–.

Luthier 

Furthermore, factory guitars are built by machine operators who manage and control certain procedures in the production process. The builder of a custom guitar, on the other hand, is an accomplished luthier (guitar builder) who masters every piece of the building process. The custom builder has to be good at everything. He often spends years mastering all the techniques and skills needed to build a perfect guitar. This attention is reflected in quality.

In summary, a large number of options, top quality and a multitude of working hours are the main differences between series and custom construction. A well-made custom guitar sounds great, plays almost by itself and therefore offers a lot of playing pleasure. The custom guitar is 100% tailored to the guitarist’s musical wishes and that is reflected in our statement: “Homestead: Your Choice, Your Sound, Your Guitar”.