Hey Michael i always wanted to know how you found out about Shamray and how it came that you work for them?You are from Canada,but why you moved to Moscow?Was it because Shamray wanted someone to make better buisness around the globe?
If you like,tell us the whole story!

Well, technically I am a Canadian  - from the west coast (Vancouver). I went to university in Canada, dropped out of university to travel Canada with a Rock and Roll Band for ten years, later got a gig as a technologist for the Canadian government, (Top Secret security clearance even!) then I got back into playing music, worked as a session player, worked as a recording engineer, designed some early digital recording systems, worked as a multimedia engineer, edited films, was a radio producer, designed and built recording studios all around the West Coast, and eventually got very busy doing record production back in Vancouver. I even managed to play a little Canadian rock and roll music while producing other bands.

But I didn’t actually come here to Moscow from Canada. I was enjoying life in New York City, my ‘adopted home town’ (I moved there in 1999) and that is actually where I met my wife Lena, who happened to be there on a vacation (she likes to travel the world, she has been to 24 countries and counting…) It was only after I met her that I decided to move to Moscow (in November 2001).  Lena  has lived here all her life, and suggested to me that life in Moscow would be just as interesting as life in New York or Vancouver. She was right, of course…

I guess I should start by admitting that I have been a guitar-addict since an early age. Ever since I first laid my hands on one, it was love at first sight. In the almost 30 years since, I have owned more than 200 of the world’s finest electric guitars (mostly Gibsons, Fenders, Rickenbackers, Gretschs, but also pretty much ‘one of each’ of every high quality guitar made). And my obsession with guitars wasn’t limited to just collecting them, playing them, selling them… I used to study them avidly, collect all the manufacturer’s literature, and make my own designs. I  built my first instrument back in 1977, and have made one (from scratch) every decade or so since.

But I found out about Shamray entirely by accident. When I first moved here, I could only bring a few guitars, and so had to sell a bunch in the states. And when I got here, the first thing I decided was that I needed a “Les Paul” so I could finish up some recordings.

 I checked out every LP for sale in Moscow, but I wasn’t too happy with any of them. It seems to me that Gibson only sends their “B-stock” over here, and of those, a lot of them are badly shop-worn from hanging around the shops for years. So, in desperation, I decided to shell out 500 bucks and join the Gibson Custom Direct Club, so they could build me the guitar I wanted, and ship it over to me. This turned out to be a big mistake, a long, drawn-out exercise in futility getting the people at Gibson to understand what I wanted. I wont go into the details, but you can read all about it on the “history” page at my TV-LP Shrine website: http://rockandroll.dns2go.com/michael/guitarpix/

Anyway it was actually about this time when I saw some mention of Shamray guitars at guitarist.ru - but at the time I was only interested in having Gibson build me a new guitar, and I didn’t think much of it. But anyway, as you can read at the ‘history’ link above, I did eventually get in touch with Shamray and visited his shop. I only had to play ONE of his guitars, that was enough to make me cancel my Gibson Custom Club membership, and order a Shamray Custom Shop guitar for myself.

Later, I decided that my recordings needed a solidbody bass (I had only brought my “Beatle Bass” with me from the USA) and I contracted with Shamray to build one of my original designs, loosely based on the “Bebb Mk. I” that I had built myself from scratch back in the 1980s. (I have always been really fussy about basses) You can read all about the Shamray Custom Shop “Bebb Mk II” at the “bebb-shrine” ( http://rockandroll.dns2go.com/michael/guitarpix/bebb2 ).

Anyway, I was SO impressed with the amazing job they did on my “Bebb-II” that I decided the time was right for Russia to begin to move to the very top of the “high-end” bass guitar market. So I presented a proposal to Shamray to have him build and market a line of Custom Shop Bass guitars based on some of my own original designs & construction methods. He agreed, with the proviso that also I assist him in marketing Shamray Custom Shop guitars world-wide. For a guitar-addict like me, its rather enjoyable work helping other guitarists around the world  realize their dream-guitars

So now, I am officially employed here in Russia as a design and marketing consultant for the Shamray Custom Shop, and actually later this week we shall begin construction of the FIRST “ShamrayBass” prototype. We plan on building six prototypes, which  we will be photographing for the new website http://shamraybass.com that will be coming online in a month or two, so that prospective Custom Shop bass clients can see for themselves some examples of the  sort of wonderous new instruments we can create for them.

The ‘big deal’ about these instruments will be simply that they are designed to be ‘the best in the world’ – with new original pickups, electronics, and hardware designed and built right here in Russia. The best woods, the best construction methods, all the tone in the world, and no noise! Each bass totally hand-made, to fulfill precisely the desires of the customer. Full-custom, No limitations!


Oops - it seems that my story has turned into a bit of an advertisement!   Anyway, its all true...

The subway rocket is an original one (not the reverb rocket, nor the stripped-down "subway blues").

It has a great "parallel" effects loop, so i got around the lack of reverb by using a tiny Pandora PX-2 stashed in the back of it.

Its a nice little amp, which i bought it on impulse a couple of years ago.

The only complaint i had originally was that it eats power tubes really fast. But i think i solved that by putting in a set of russian made EL-84 (the special "L" version thats rated 50 volts higher!!). At the same time, I also replaced all the preamp tubes with NOS Mullards from 1960 (nice!)

I actually havent even turned it on in about a year... ever since i got my Tonelabs,  i have no use for it (probably there are about 4 hours on the new tubes!). I should really put it up for sale.. all it does nowadays is use up valuable floor space!