Danny Vera and Homestead

On June 12, 2020, Jan Pastoor and I drove to Danny Vera’s house in Middelburg in the south-west of Holland with a few Homestead guitars. We had made an appointment with Danny without any further obligation to show our guitars. Danny tried them all and at one point, he said in an interview with Guitarist magazine (No. 357, December 2020): “I got a dreadful ugly poison-green guitar in my hand, but the sound was amazing. I said: if you can build something like that for me with decent colors, then I’d be very happy”. We then agreed with Danny to build him his own signature guitar with all the specifications and decorations he wanted.

Our designers Jan Pastoor and Lex Kamminga then sat down at the drawing table and designed his signature guitar in close consultation with Danny. To start with, Danny chose the largest model, the Jumbo. In addition, Danny insisted that the guitar should be painted in nitrocellulose lacquer instead of polyurethane. Nitro-lacquer yellows, crackles and dulls quickly, but just sounds better.

Furthermore, the letter “V” appears as decorations over the entire guitar (fretboard, bridge and headstock). As a result, in particular the bridge has acquired a very special shape. It was quite a challenge from a construction point of view. Several prototypes of the bridge were made before we had a suitable one. But the result may be there. The guitars have their own special look. The magazine Guitarist describes them as follows: “They look flamboyant, but the combination of decorations gives them a stylistic look that resembles an art deco design.” The Danny Vera guitars were also tested in the same issue of the magazine ‘Guitarist’ and rated with the maximum five stars (No. 359, February 2021). The conclusion of this test: “In short: true masterpieces”. So everything was okay with the sound.

After the guitar was designed the building process started. Our luthiers in Bandung always pay a lot of attention to the construction of our guitars and this is reflected in the film we made about the construction of Danny’s 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 guitars are for sale in our webshop and at our dealers. The fact that Danny plays almost exclusively on our guitars can be clearly seen and heard on our videopage

Danny has now purchased a third and fourth Homestead. He wants four because he plays in two tunings and because a backup of each tuning must always be available during live performances. In this video you can see how Danny chooses his fourth custom guitar in our studio

Are you interested in Homestead and would you like to try them out? Then visit our studio “The Vault” in Heemstede (Zandvoortselaan 74). Of course you can also customize your own guitar in order to get your own signature.

Press the “Customize button” below to start the adventure.

For all your questions or to make an appointment, do not hesitate and call or email us: +31.23.5431750 or info@homestead-guitars.com

 

Robin van de Poll, 18 januari 2022