Ukrainian Guitar Builders

Russian Bombing of Kiev

We are all concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the senseless harm that has incurred to all of the innocent citizens of this peaceful nation. I certainly hope the entire world recognizes the devastation and steps in to stop Vladimir Putin's spilling of blood by his unrighteous invasion and destruction. 

Russian Bombing of Maternity Hospital 

One tragedy of every war is that freedom of speech is totally obliterated. The press is controlled by government propaganda as is the media and social media.  Once this is accomplished, the arts are eliminated. 

After all Arts and Music are a method of expression. This was exemplified in yesterday's cruel and needless bombing of a theater that had been turned into a bomb shelter.  Someone had even painted the word CHILDREN on the roof. Despite this, the theater was bombed, destroyed by heartless soldiers. Many women and children were killed.  

As this is a guitar blog, my thoughts turned to the amazing guitar builders and luthiers that make their home in the Ukraine. In researching these builders I was struck with the fact that most of them have connections to Russia, either through training, mentoring, or from living in Russia. However these builders all live and make their living in the Ukraine. I pray that all are well and safe.

Alexander Momot

Alexander Momot was born at 22 of January 1971 in Kharkov in the Ukraine. In 1993, he graduated from the Kharkov Higher Military Engineering School of the Strategic Missile  Forces. He worked on telemetry station of a Russian commodore "Plesetsk", is a reserve officer in 1992, at the end of study in military university, 

Guitars by Alexander Momot

At that time he met a "world of guitar makers" in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov city. Prior to the current war he was still working in Kharkov.

 

Oleg Stefanyuk

Another guitar master builder is Oleg Stefanyuk. There is not much information about this excellent classical and flamenco luthier. However he certainly builds some excellent instruments. 

Berezhnoy Igor Vasilyevich

Guitar master luthier Berezhnoy Igor Vasilyevich worked in  Kharkov. prior to the war.  Vasilyevich was born on October 3, 1962 in the city of Kungur in the Perm Region, He grew up in the family of a serviceman. 

Until the age of 16, he grew up and studied in a closed military camp, where he built his first guitar  

In 1982 he came to live in his historical homeland in Kharkov, where he met the leading masters of the city, He became friendly and kept up communications with other Ukrainian builder which helped to improve his skills and experience. 

In addition to making acoustic guitars, he also makes folk instruments, such as kobza, and also carry out maintenance and overhaul of other stringed musical instruments.  In 2004 in the city of Odessa he became a laureate of the international competition of guitar masters with a classical guitar made of Indian rosewood.  

Evgeny Labunsky

Evgeny Labunsky, was born in Odessa in 1955. He graduated from high school, and then went to a polytechnic institute and worked as an engineer before the start of perestroika. 

At the same time in his youthful years, he became fond of playing guitar for tourists. He realized that it was impossible to play a guitar bought in a department store for 13 Soviet rubles without repairing it.  Therefore, while still a schoolboy he worked on carrying out "after-sales" preparation of several guitars. 

Guitars by Evgeny Labunsky

By 1980 chance meeting brought him together with the team of the section of guitar masters of the Odessa Club of Guitar Lovers. The section annually held competitions of guitar masters and participated in almost all competitions. 

By 2000 I became the chairman of our section. 

More Guitars by Labunsky

His first mentor in guitar production was Alexander Nikolaev. In future years he was consulted by masters from Kharkov Oleg Stefanyuk, Oleg Gints, Vladimir Alekseevich Oleinichenko, master from Chernigov Nikolai Ivanovich Yeshchenko and others. So far Labunsky says that he has built over fifty instruments.

His preference is to make instruments of traditional classical shape and sizes for nylon strings.  And he also uses traditional materials. Sides and backs in rosewood and maple, with the tops in spruce or Canadian cedar. 

About Lanbunsky's Guitars

He often make instruments for “bards” that sing, play and tell stories  For these instruments, he says that he uses fine wood veneer plywood for the body to avoid warping during outdoor performances. 

On rosewood instruments I install soundboards from Canadian cedar, on maple. For plywood instruments he builds the tops from Russian spruce. 

For his standard premium instruments he uses a traditional classical  scale of 650mm, 

He states that he also makes a "quarter size instrument with a scale of 555mm. He prefers using Rosewood, Canadian cedar on the bodies and sides, and ebony on the fingerboards He gets much of his wood, fretboards, and machine heads from Germany from the finest music stores.  At the request of the customer he will embellish his guitars with mother-of-pearl.

Viktor Alekseevich Syrovatskii

Viktor Alekseevich Syrovatskii was born in 1960 in Sumy. Here he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute and worked for many years worked as an engineer at a factory. 

Syrovatskii writes poems and songs and periodically go on stage with them, and often goes on various creative trips. 

Once, at a the festivals, fate brought me together with Kharkov guitar master Vladimir Oleinichenko. His guitar needed repair, and he took it to his shop in Kharkov.

Once in the workshop, he realized that he wanted to do this craft, and immediately asked for it as an apprentice. At that time his father was still alive, and he blessed me by allowing him to quit the factory job to study with maestro Oleinichenko.. Since then is has been making musical instruments for many years. 

Syrovatskii at work

Syrovatskii only builds guitars because he is a concert author and the head of his studio. However he also repairs and restores various instruments - violins, cellos, domras, balalaikas, mandolins, kobzas, banduras. But most of all he loves building new guitars.

Dmittry Yeremeyev

Dmitry Yeremeyev is the only Ukrainian luthier that builds electric guitars, and his Mera brand instruments are amazing.

In his own rather esoteric words, "Everything in the Universe is a trinity of Matter, an Information(eidolon) and a Measure(MERA in Russian). A MATTER is TRANSFORMING according to a MEASURE. The measure of a guitar (MERAGUITARS) is the SOUND, the ERGONOMY, the RELIABILITY, and the LOOK. These four criteria forms a conceptual Measure(MERA) of a guitar. 

Mera Guitars

MERA incorporates all the component measures, required for transformation of a MATTER.

 TRANSFORMING a MATTER according to the matrix of MERA (considering all the partial measures ) one can get an exclusive innovatory instrument that have an unusual awesome characteristics improved a lot grades up. 

This fact makes a musician to feel delight as much as a listener and also opens a totally new possibilities in Creation and Creativity." Check out his amazing creations.

I hope and I pray that this unjust war comes to a swift end and does not escalate.

Click on the links below the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.

©UniqueGuitar Publications 2022 (text only)

I am including this video by one of my favorite cover bands, Leonid and Friends. The lead singer is Serge Tiagniryadno. While most of the band is made up of Russian citizens, Serge is from Kiev, Ukraine.