On June 12, 2020, Jan Pastoor and I drove to Danny Vera’s house in Middelburg with a few Homestead guitars. We had made a no-obligation appointment with Danny to show them our guitars. Danny tried them all out and at one point, as he later said in an interview with the magazine Gitarist (No. 357, December 2020), he got his hands on “a hideously ugly, poisonous green” guitar, “but it sounded like crazy. I said: if you can build something like that for me with decent colors, I’d love to,” said Danny.
We then agreed with Danny to build his own signature guitar for him with all the specifications and decorations he wanted.
My colleagues Jan Pastoor and Lex Kamminga then sat down at the drawing board and designed his signature guitar in close consultation with Danny. To start, Danny chose the largest model, the Jumbo. Danny also insisted that the guitar be sprayed in nitrocellulose lacquer instead of polyurethane. Nitro lacquer yellows, cracks and quickly becomes duller, but it simply sounds better.
Furthermore, the letter “V” is used as decorations all over the guitar (fingerboard, bridge and headstock). The bridge in particular has a very special shape because of this. Construction-wise that was quite a challenge. Several prototypes of the bridge were made before we had a suitable one. But the result is impressive. The guitars have a very unique look. The magazine Gitarist describes them as follows: “They look flamboyant, but the coordination of the decorations gives them a stylistic unity that is reminiscent of the design from the Art Deco period.” Incidentally, the Danny Vera guitars were tested in the same issue of the magazine Gitarist and rated with the maximum five stars (No. 359, February 2021). The conclusion of this test: “Simply masterful instruments”. So the sound was also completely right.
After designing the guitar came the building process. Our luthiers in Bandung always pay a lot of attention to the building of our guitars and that is reflected in the film we made about the building of Danny’s guitar
Wearing face masks, Jan Pastoor and I drove to Middelburg on the evening of October 15, 2020 to hand over the first model of Danny’s signature guitar to him. In his vlog “Viva la Vera #362” of October 17, 2020, you can see his reactions. “very beautiful”, “gorgeous”, “beautiful sound” and “sounds like a harmony”. It became clear very quickly that he was very happy with his guitar when Danny asked for a second guitar. He wanted a second one because he plays in different tunings. In mutual agreement we then decided to make a black model, so that he would not make a mistake when picking up the guitar.
From the beginning the intention was to build several of these guitars, so that other people could also purchase a Danny Vera signature model. These and other guitars are for sale in our webshop and at our dealers. That Danny plays almost exclusively on our guitars can be seen and heard on our video page
Danny has since acquired a third and fourth Homestead. He wants four because they are in two tunings and because a backup must always be present for live performances. This video shows Danny choosing his fourth custom guitar in our studio.
Are you interested in Homestead and would you like to try them out? Then come to our studio “De Kluis” in Heemstede (Zandvoortselaan 74). Of course, you can also put together your own guitar with us, so you get your own signature. Press the “Customize button” below to start the adventure.
Of course, you can also make an appointment to come by.
Robin van de Poll, 18 January 2022
