On November 14 a presentation of Homestead took place in Minsk (Belarus). Several professional guitarists (among them Sergey Antishin/Сергей Антишин and Leonid Shirin/Леонид Ширин) have tried the Homestead and were very enthusiastic. Here plays Sergey Antishin, the first guitarist of the Belarusian State Orchestra, on the Homestead. His reaction: “Super, what a sustain”.
Henny sings and plays on his Homestead Bariton guitar.
It is well known that Homestead uses rosewood for the solid side and back of its acoustic guitars. Rosewood has been placed on the list of endangered species (CITES) since 2017, and consequently Homestead produces its rosewood guitars with the mandatory CITES certificate, Homestead wants to pay extra attention to the sustainability of this type of wood.
That is why Homestead gives every customer a young rosewood tree as a gift. On March 10 the first 100 trees were planted on the site of the Institute for Technology Bandung (ITB) in Sumedang on Java. The planted trees are about two and a half meters high. The provincial government was present during the planting of the trees and has expressed particular appreciation for this initiative. The educational institute will make the newly planted forest suitable for students who can prepare their lessons in the shade. Moreover, a plate with the name of the buyer will be attached to each tree. So all Homestead customers can visit and view their own tree. The number of trees will of course be further expanded on the basis of the number of sold guitars. The young trees are maintained and guarded by the staff of the educational institute. With this initiative, Homestead intends to make rosewood available for future generations.
“Huh, okay, you mean light Maple or …” “No, really white, but also the fretboard and the bridge … all white.” And he was gone after a black coffee. White, shit or a chance? I immediately made a sketch in Photoshop and forwarded it to our friends in Indonesia. At the same time investigating the paint options, which resulted in the use of a good two-component varnish for the fretboard. And for the body several thin layers of lacquer to preserve as much resonance as possible in the adirondack top. “Boudewijn, you are going to lose some noise, also adirondack Triple A cannot prevent that”, I mailed him. At the same time I realized that he mainly used the guitar on stage and that the white lacquer would reduce the sound with a maximum of 5%. No problem.
The nice thing is that this guitar takes the color of the spotlights on the stage. “A real chameleon!” said Boudewijn. That’s how it works and nothing is too crazy for us. But it must meet our quality requirements and stay within our concept. A white guitar? We agreed but it was on the edge and off course a man like Boudewijn comes away with this.
On Friday 5 January 2018, the well-known Dutch singer-songwriter Boudewijn de Groot received “the White” at the Zandvoortselaan in Heemstede. At Boudewijn’s request everything was made in white: body, fretboard, bridge and headstock, finished with decorations of mother-of-pearl. That’s how it became exactly what he wanted: a guitar that takes on the color of the spotlights on the stage, a real chameleon. Boudewijn tested the guitar extensively and had only one word for the looks and the sound: fantastic!
