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Interview with Peter Sawchyn

by Joe Mendel

In the fall of 2001 I was searching for an octave mandolin and my friend Russ Godfrey from Victoria, British Columbia, suggested that I check out Peter Sawchyn's work. Through the mandolincafe.com builder's database, I located Peter's website and contacted him about building an octave mandolin.

Peter lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada (eh!) and has been building guitars and mandolin family instruments for nearly three decades. Mandolin music was literally in his ears from birth. He was drawn to repairing and building early as his siblings and other family members belonged to a mandolin orchestra. The orchestra has been operating in Regina since the 19-teens and his godfather; Peter Lapchuk was the orchestra's concertmaster. Sawchyn's experience was limited to playing bass in a jug/bluegrass/jazz band approximately 25 years ago. While he does not play guitar or mandolin he considers himself a decent noodler on both instruments. He has a very good ear for tonal characteristics and the mechanics of an instrument. He likens himself to the builder on an Indy racecar team. He can probably drive the car down the street and knows every square inch of it, but he doesn't get in the car and race it. He knows the car back to front and can make a perfect vehicle, but he really doesn't get in and drive it.

During and after high school Sawchyn ran a folk club for a number of years and he says this was exactly when he became involved with repairing and building instruments. He made a cheap guitar into a dobro (resonator) style instrument for the band and realized (eh!) you can build these things! Then he started making mandolins and dulcimers and sold a dulcimer to someone from Kentucky. He thought it was pretty neat that someone from Kentucky would come up all the way up to Canada to buy an Appalachian Mountain dulcimer. These early instruments started him on his way and his career evolved from there.

There were no schools in North America in the late 60's and early 70's and the only available book was Irving Sloane's Classic Guitar Construction.

He learned what worked and didn't work by examining individual instruments he was repairing and this proved to be a great learning experience. Sawchyn never actually decided to make a career as a luthier, he just got the bug for it. He knew he could do it if he just kept working at it. Luckily his family provided the space and tools for him to perform the job until he was able to acquire his own. He did a lot of repair, as this is the bread and butter of a beginning luthier's career. He was able to build the odd instrument on the side right from the start and his career evolved from there.

Initially he built more guitars than mandolins, but in the last 3 or 4 years the ratio has become 75% mandolins to 25% guitars. Orders for mandolins are roughly divided 50/50 between oval hole and F-hole styles. As his archtop mandolins have become more popular there has been a natural shift in business. To date he has built 392 instruments; not including the first 10-12 instruments which he didn't number. Instruments are built in small batches of 3 to 4 archtop mandolins or 3 to 5 flattop guitars with instruments in slightly different stages of construction. Over time the instruments have evolved due to process changes and there is always a little bit of improvement made with each instrument built. He always learns something everytime he build and instrument.

Before taking an order Peter tries to determine what music style the instrument will be used for and the customer's playing style. His theory is that instruments can be built for particular sounds and music styles and his experience allows him to build an instrument to the sound the customer wants. He has a sound in his head that he tries to achieve which is a very open, responsive, even sounding instrument. The instrument is tailored to the customer's preference and if there is a specific customer request he can focus in on it.

Sawchyn Mandolins feature Schaller tuners and Allen/Monteleone tailpieces. All other parts are made in his shop, including the bridge, which is adjusted with a 5/16 " wrench rather than the traditional thumb wheels. Instruments are finished with nitrocellulose lacquer and hand rubbed to a high gloss finish.

I ordered an octave mandolin from Peter with several custom features. My AO-2C arrived in the fall of 2002 and the fit and finish were flawless. After only one phone call and several e-mail correspondences Peter achieved the sound I was in search of and exceeded my expectations.

[For more of Peter's beautiful work, check out sawchyn.com]