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© Yellow Chick Studio
© Yellow Chick Studio
© Yellow Chick Studio
© Yellow Chick Studio
© Yellow Chick Studio

Kostadin Dimitrov

  • KD Basses
  • Guitar maker
  • Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Master Artisan
Kostadin Dimitrov Guitar maker
Contact
Bulgarian, English, Russian
Hours:
By appointment only
Phone:
+359 (0)877128583
© Yellow Chick Studio

Making music through woodwork

  • • Kostadin creates handmade electric guitars and basses
  • • Many of his tools are custom made
  • • He organises the luthier convention Bulgarian Music Workshop

Kostadin Dimitrov became a luthier by chance. He was working as a professional lathe operator in 1997 when a friend approached him about making the hardware for three different guitars. Kostadin agreed, but his friend abandoned the job abruptly to go to Portugal and Kostadin was left to finish it himself. When he started woodworking he fell in love with the craft. He experienced an international breakthrough when a German music producer noticed one of his basses and invited Kostadin to form a partnership, which helped him gain an appreciation of the high standards of the larger competitive markets. Nowadays, his modesty keeps him level-headed and open to new methods and ideas.

Read the full interview

Works

  • © Yellow Chick Studio
  • © Yellow Chick Studio
  • © Yellow Chick Studio
  • © Yellow Chick Studio
  • © Yellow Chick Studio
Photo: © Yellow Chick Studio
Picasso

To this day, the Picasso remains the most difficult and complicated bass that Kostadin Dimitrov has ever built. Every single part of this colourful puzzle represents an individual piece of stabilised maple burl, which he formed by hand and, with great precision, added to the puzzle. When using new materials, it is necessary to put them through numerous tests to determine their effectiveness. The Picasso's most outstanding feature is its use of stabilised wood.

Photo: © Yellow Chick Studio
Dymana

Kostadin Dimitrov would not exactly define the Dymana (Димана) as a semi-acoustic guitar, but rather as a hollow body, because he followed a more archtop guitar construction when making it. There is no centre wood block, and for the first time ever, he used a resonator centre arm, which he developed himself. The idea behind this new construction was to build a guitar able to obtain the strongest acoustic sound.

Photo: © Yellow Chick Studio
Earthquake

One day Kostadin Dimitrov came across a maple log, which he bought and immediately cut into. Upon opening it up, he saw how uniquely beautiful it was, with many different textures and qualities. In that moment he knew what kind of instrument he would craft from this precious material. A few years later, when the material was dry enough, he created this boutique guitar bass called Earthquake.

Photo: © Yellow Chick Studio
REV II Multiscale

This KD REV II 5-string multiscale bass was custom-made for Krasimir Yanakiev, a bass player with the Bulgarian band HANGAR 42. Krasimir contacted Kostadin Dimitrov to enquire about a 5-string bass that would be capable of handling a greater variety of music styles and would also be able to be drop tuned with ease. They discussed different model options, constructions and specifications and ended up choosing the Rev II model, which had already proven its quality.

Photo: © Yellow Chick Studio
Silvia Black Magic

The design of this guitar was inspired by the story of a princess, a musician and a guitar. The princess longed for a musical instrument, but it was not until her parents had a guitarist play at her birthday that she knew what instrument it should be. The princess and the guitarist fell in love but the family forbade the union. They could not separate them so the parents asked a wizard to burn the guitarist’s soul. The wizard cast a spell to burn the musician’s soul but his love for the princess was so strong that instead of burning, his soul moved into the guitar, so he could stay forever with his sweetheart.

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