About me
I was born in 1969 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) of the Soviet Union. The guitar has been a part of my life since childhood, because my father played the Russian seven-string guitar and sang different songs. Among the various Russian romances, he also loved something with a Spanish or Latin American flavor - one of his favorite songs was “Cielito Lindo.” As I learned much later, this is a very popular Mexican song. My father introduced me to playing the guitar, teaching me mainly how to play accompaniment. Later I became acquainted with the 6-string guitar and began to learn to play it. A turning point in my life occurred when I accidentally heard flamenco music on the radio at night.
I still don’t know whose playing I heard on the radio back then, but this music captivated me immediately and forever.
And after some time, I was invited by one of my friends to join the ensemble of guitarists under the leadership of a unique musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger Aleksey P. Zubarev. It was an unforgettable experience, but the most important thing for me was that there I met handmade guitars for the first time in my life. And I realized that I wanted to learn how to make them. After a short time, I began my training under the guidance of the St. Petersburg master Alexey Nesterov. In 1995 I made my first guitar, then another and another, and this became my profession.
In fact, in St. Petersburg there was a community of guitar luthiers, a whole group of which worked at the "Accord" factory in the city center. And they all helped me. I should especially mention among them my friend Sergei Sandovsky, who experimented a lot with various classical guitar designs. He was the person who gave me the understanding that the sound of a guitar depends on how it is constructed - which includes working primarily with the structure of the top.
The next milestone in my luthier career was my acquaintance with the talented luthier from Moscow, Timofey Tkach. Tkach studied the designs of guitars of the great Spanish luthiers, had a library of books about guitars, plans for guitars by famous masters, which at that time were very difficult to find in Russia. Also, thanks to him, I got the opportunity to directly get in touch with some finest guitars that were owned by Moscow musicians. These were the guitars of Manuel Contreras, Jose Ramirez, Hermanos Conde, etc.
But the main thing Timofey taught was that each part of the guitar has its own resonance frequency, or, if you like, its own tone, like a string or a bell. And that these parts, like a string or a bell, can and should be tuned in a certain way. Which gives excellent balance, dynamics, sound purity and much more. In fact, using this approach, it is possible to design instruments with different sounds and behavior. This is what I am doing to this day, having already accumulated mu own considerable experience in creating guitars.
Since that time many different guitars were built - classical, flamenco and acoustic. I use only the top quality tonewoods (AAA, Special or Master Grade - depend of system used by suppliers), traditional Spanish techniques of assembly and finishing. The main task in creating my guitars I consider setting the resonances of all parts of the guitar the certain way which gives a rich, beautifully balanced, clear and easily controlled sound.
Guitars built this way gives to musician the wide spectrum of emotion he or she can express.
I consider my advantage to be that by setting certain parameters of guitar design and choosing certain woods, I can create unique instruments with different behavior and sound character, depending on what each particular player requires. There are no two identical players in the world, and there should not be completely identical guitars. Each guitar, like its owner, should be unique.
I am originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, but in 2022 I moved to Albania and established my new workshop in Durres, the city on the Adriatic coast. Here a new era in my luthier career began in the year 2023. And this fact is reflected on the labels of all my guitars made in Albania.
Since this beautiful little country has air connections with most European countries, it is easy to reach me (my studio is only 30 minutes by car from the airport).
You are welcome to my studio in Durres, feel free to contact me!
And let's make your own beautiful taylored guitar!
I still don’t know whose playing I heard on the radio back then, but this music captivated me immediately and forever.
And after some time, I was invited by one of my friends to join the ensemble of guitarists under the leadership of a unique musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger Aleksey P. Zubarev. It was an unforgettable experience, but the most important thing for me was that there I met handmade guitars for the first time in my life. And I realized that I wanted to learn how to make them. After a short time, I began my training under the guidance of the St. Petersburg master Alexey Nesterov. In 1995 I made my first guitar, then another and another, and this became my profession.
In fact, in St. Petersburg there was a community of guitar luthiers, a whole group of which worked at the "Accord" factory in the city center. And they all helped me. I should especially mention among them my friend Sergei Sandovsky, who experimented a lot with various classical guitar designs. He was the person who gave me the understanding that the sound of a guitar depends on how it is constructed - which includes working primarily with the structure of the top.
The next milestone in my luthier career was my acquaintance with the talented luthier from Moscow, Timofey Tkach. Tkach studied the designs of guitars of the great Spanish luthiers, had a library of books about guitars, plans for guitars by famous masters, which at that time were very difficult to find in Russia. Also, thanks to him, I got the opportunity to directly get in touch with some finest guitars that were owned by Moscow musicians. These were the guitars of Manuel Contreras, Jose Ramirez, Hermanos Conde, etc.
But the main thing Timofey taught was that each part of the guitar has its own resonance frequency, or, if you like, its own tone, like a string or a bell. And that these parts, like a string or a bell, can and should be tuned in a certain way. Which gives excellent balance, dynamics, sound purity and much more. In fact, using this approach, it is possible to design instruments with different sounds and behavior. This is what I am doing to this day, having already accumulated mu own considerable experience in creating guitars.
Since that time many different guitars were built - classical, flamenco and acoustic. I use only the top quality tonewoods (AAA, Special or Master Grade - depend of system used by suppliers), traditional Spanish techniques of assembly and finishing. The main task in creating my guitars I consider setting the resonances of all parts of the guitar the certain way which gives a rich, beautifully balanced, clear and easily controlled sound.
Guitars built this way gives to musician the wide spectrum of emotion he or she can express.
I consider my advantage to be that by setting certain parameters of guitar design and choosing certain woods, I can create unique instruments with different behavior and sound character, depending on what each particular player requires. There are no two identical players in the world, and there should not be completely identical guitars. Each guitar, like its owner, should be unique.
I am originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, but in 2022 I moved to Albania and established my new workshop in Durres, the city on the Adriatic coast. Here a new era in my luthier career began in the year 2023. And this fact is reflected on the labels of all my guitars made in Albania.
Since this beautiful little country has air connections with most European countries, it is easy to reach me (my studio is only 30 minutes by car from the airport).
You are welcome to my studio in Durres, feel free to contact me!
And let's make your own beautiful taylored guitar!
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