Tor Henry Testimonial: Drea Armani with THS 55 Customization

 

This guitar, Pederson Drea Armani THS55C is really a stunning piece of work, hand made by Kevin L. Pederson, Forest City, Iowa, USA. The Pederson Drea Armani is specially ordered to the customer, Tor Henry Svarvaa, Levanger, Norway, after his specifications.

It comes in a G&G "The Original Vintage Case Co" guitar case, perfectly shaped for the Pederson Drea Armani, with a 5 cm deep colored red plush around the body, and this are taking very good care of the Pederson Drea Armani, completely tight and safe in the correct environment. The Pederson Drea Armani is stored in this guitar case, as a "King, surrounded by soft Velvet".

The first impression when you are looking and holding the Pederson Drea Armani is that this is a very special guitar, a high-quality craftsmanship, and quite unique. No copy made from Fender, Gibson, Gretsch or other guitar brands, but very special in its sound, shape and finish. Light sunburst on a gorgeous Sitka Spruce hand carved top. Sides and the hand carved back are made from Indian Rosewood, having a beautiful pattern.

The neck materials are Mahogany/Walnut/Mahogany including a dark Ebony fingerboard. The neck has the shape of a Hagstrøm Super Swede 1980 model, after the customer's wish, and have wide comparatively high EVO 055 "x 110" frets, making the Pederson Drea Armani extremely easy to play! The tuners are of the type Gotoh 510, smooth and precise, with beautiful Ebony "ears".

This Pederson Drea Armani is delivered with two Seymour Duncan humbuckers '59, bridge and neck, of course including the single coil split pull/push opportunity, plus one LR Baggs "Tune-O-Matic" T-Bridge Piezo mic/saddle. This makes the Pederson Drea Armani sounds like a dream, and it is extremely versatile in use. It can be used as a straight electric-, rock- and/or jazz guitar, but it also provides a very good semi acoustic sound, via the piezo microphone.

You can mix a combination of all three pickups and make a lot of interesting sound characters. With a separate stereojack you can separate the SD`s and LR Baggs. Use two amps and you have an electric guitar in one amp and an acoustic guitar in the second amp! The Pederson Drea Armani includes also a monojack output where you can mix these signals, or choose the signal you want, by using a balance potmeter. In other words fully flexible. The choice is yours!

And how is this beauty playing? As mentioned before, it is extremely easy to play. The powerful frets needs very little pressure at the strings to get a clean and pretty sound. My fingers are flying over the strings, and the guitar neck is very fast and smooth.

In addition, the Pederson Drea Armani has an extremely good sustain, which is very important for the acoustic sound, and the high notes "is a piece of cake" to reach due to the body shape.

Catch the Pederson Drea Armani (gently!) from the case and you will be amazed, again, that only three kilograms (!) guitar will give you so much tonality, musicality and flexibility. Strap it on, and you will be astonished over how well Mr. Kevin L. Pederson has estimated the equilibrium and playing angle. Throw up your left hand … and there is the fingerboard, just where you want it to be! No more stretching or shoulder-/neck movements to get the guitar in a perfect position. All in all a very versatile guitar that has many different sound characters and the guitar seems to be very happy to be played!

toralf lund musician

Tor Henry with the Pederson Drea Armani

 

The Pederson Drea Armani THS55C I have tested over a period is the only one in the world! It's like I said before, tailored by the customer and truly custom made. Perhaps I would have made some small changes with the neck thickness, width and choice of fret size and so on, but … this is what makes it so exciting with a custom made guitar: You get it delivered at your door, precisely the way you want it!

If I some day would like to order a guitar at this prize range, I seriously would consider to give Pederson Custom Guitars this task!

Highly, highly recommended!!!

Toralf Lund, Musician and teacher
Levanger, Norway
October 10, 2010

THS Music & Accessories >

Customize your own Pederson Drea Armani >

 

A note from the builder, Kevin L. Pederson:

kevin l. pederson with hand made guitar

Kevin L. Pederson with a custom arch top

 

 

Tor Henry Svarvaa from Norway sent me an e-mail about a year ago and was looking to order a nice hand made guitar. After searching around quite a bit and vetting a lot of builders through e-mails and phone calls, he finally came across my site and sent me an e-mail. Tor Henry said early on to himself “this will be the guy to build my dream guitar; there is something about this guy and what he does with his guitars (and he is so dang good looking ha-ha; {editor added this comment})”. So his intuition was confirmed once he spoke to me over the phone and we talked about the all the custom guitar work I do.

We bounced some ideas around and after some discussion I told him about a new model I was working on. I had a couple in progress and was tooling the model, which is making all the jigs to build future guitars with. I then sent him these in-progress photos and a basic line drawing of the eventual shape via e-mail. This arch top guitar, a genre-dominating instrument, quickly won him over and he was sold on this new model. The model was Pederson Custom Guitars Drea Armani Arch Top, a 15” lower bout, jazz/rock guitar.

He quickly sent me the money and talked to me on the phone about other details. He wanted to personalize it and it became the “THS 55”. We put a “treble clef” symbol at the 12th, the “birth date” on the truss cover, engraved JBS in the 9th fret block and inlaid “THS 55” on the tailpiece. These were all things personal and significant to Tor Henry.

With the excitement (and business decision) of restructuring a model so I could get promo photos of it and get the re-design listed on my site, I was able to deliver this guitar to him within 9 months or so. This is a pretty quick time frame considering what other guitars I had in progress and that I was still making tooling and jigs for the Drea model. Tor Henry did a good job of “not letting me forget he was waiting for his guitar” too (ha-ha). Actually I enjoy this pursuit and it was fun to see it all come together in such a short time frame.

I sent him the guitar and to make a long story short, his friend, Toralf Lund – who also spent extensive time playing this new guitar, wrote the instruments review. All who looked upon the guitar in the next few days commented on what a MASTER instrument it was, how well designed it was, how great it played and most importantly – how AWESOME it sounded.

At some time in all this, Tor Henry asked if he could be my NORDIC Representative and I said “sure”. So if you are from Norway and have any questions or interest in the Drea Armani THS 55, please make arrangements to stop by and see, hear and PLAY this very guitar with Tor Henry. You can order one of your own or personalize it to your needs. I will recommend all Nordic customers to order any of my guitar models from THS55 Music & Accessories. Any custom details can be discussed at the time of order. So please be sure to check out Tor Henry’s website, www.ths55.no and read his story in his own words, about this fantastic guitar!!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Peace and God bless you all.

Kevin L. Pederson