2024 Mark Usherovich "Romantic" SP/MP

Mark Usherovich has increasingly become fascinated with the work of the "romantic" era builders, most notably by the work of René François Lacôte (1785-1868), considered to be one of the great heroes in the history or guitar making before the time of Antonio de Torres. The challenge Mark sought to satisfy was to re-create the authentic sound for players interested in performing period works (Giuliani, Sor, Legnani, etc) on an instrument that even resembled (visually) these old guitars yet has the power and projection of a modern, 21st-century instrument. And it is striking just how well this feat has been accomplished. This guitar has all the muscle of a contemporary guitar yet has the charming old romantic sound that pitches the listener (and player) into another historical epoch. For this guitar, Mark used some aged sitka spruce for the top, beautiful striped ebony for the head veneer, fingerboard and bridge, with koa bindings and applied a violin spirit varnish to the entire instrument. Fitted with Whittner "ukulele" machined pegs for an old-school look but with the ease of modern tuning. Canadian guitarist Drew Henderson is performing and recording on one of Mark's "Romantic" guitars and we expect to see more of these in the hands of other great players in the future as well. Overall a fantastic instrument and exciting alternative to the post-Torres era guitars we are all so familiar with.

Photos of this guitar taken during construction

Mark Usherovich is an Israeli luthier currently based in Canada. He was born in 1975 and started making guitars, self-taught in Jerusalem in 2004. The timbre of bowed (violins and cellos) and percussion instruments have influenced him tremendously in terms of his preferred guitar tonal characteristics. Before Mark started building guitars, he made wooden skin drums as a hobby that helped him to feel the rhythm and dynamic nature of musical sound. Later on, he was able to build these qualities into his guitars. All guitars Mark builds have their own distinguished sound personality. Interacting with a diversity of people and extensive travel through different parts of the world have given Mark a feel for the rhythm and folkloric nature of all people. Guitar building for Mark is a personal expression of life. Mark's more serious studies of the guitar began when he was able to meet and get to know Tom Blackshear from San Antonio, TX whom he is indebted to greatly for sharing his knowledge and experience with Mark. Tom passed on his unique fine tuning technique, and in many other ways helped Mark understand the acoustic nature of how guitars work - how to tune the body resonances, and how to control the direction and quality of the sound as its produced. As a result, Mark was able to use this understanding to develop his own construction by combining the sound of traditionally built instruments with modern ideals of power, dynamics, and playability. To this day, Mark and Tom remain good friends.