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The story of our workshop.
We are a family workshop where world-class instruments are created by the hands of masters, built on the foundations of a long history.
Our story
“Every customer who decides to come to us and places their trust in us is someone special to me personally. I value everyone who chooses an instrument from our workshop – because I know they are looking for something more than just a guitar. They want a piece of soul, handcraft, and a unique tone that will accompany them for years. When our instrument gets into your hands, you become part of the Sivčákguitars family. Our doors are always open to you – whether it’s for service, modifications, or just a chat about music. Your instrument isn’t just a product. It’s a story that connects us.”
Rudolf Sivčák, founder of Sivčák Guitars
The beginnings – from a dream to the first guitar
The story of the Sivcakguitars brand began in the early 90s, a time when music represented an escape from reality and a source of inspiration for many young people. Rudolf Sivčák, then a young student at a secondary wood processing school, discovered a passion for music, specifically the electric guitar. During the socialist era in former Czechoslovakia, however, there was a noticeable shortage of quality musical instruments. Rudolf therefore decided on a step that later proved to be fateful. In the family woodworking workshop, he made his first electric guitar. The year was 1987. The experience he gained with wood gave him solid craftsmanship foundations and allowed him to focus on precision, quality, and detail. This is where his journey in manufacturing electric guitars and bass guitars began, which later grew into building his own brand.
From hobby to career
As his talent developed, the hobby became a daily job that brought Rudolf both joy and new challenges. One of the many obstacles that had to be overcome was the availability of suitable materials and components for instrument production. However, this situation led to an important decision – to acquire more than just a self-sufficient amount of parts and offer some of them to local fellow builders or other musicians. At that time, he had no idea that this decision was creating the foundation for a future warehouse of exotic wood and guitar components. By the year 2000, he already had several handcrafted electric guitars and bass guitars under his belt and many successfully completed services. Therefore, he decided to start the new millennium “humbly” and from January 1st, 1. 2000, he began professional production under the Soller brand.
First big steps
In the small workshop, hundreds of instruments passed through his hands for service or production, which gradually revealed many strengths and weaknesses of the constructions and workflows themselves. The drive to work and constantly growing experience soon brought another significant change. In 2002, he managed to establish business relationships with well-known global component manufacturers. Together, they agreed on terms for exclusive representation of these brands in the then-developing Slovak market, which contributed to a stable supply of a larger volume of parts from abroad. This step meant a fundamental shift – in addition to guitar production and service, an official wholesale warehouse and sale of guitar parts and wood was established, which became an important part of the company, as was his wife Katarína, who began overseeing the company’s finances. A new, temporary addition, Peter, also joined the workshop to help handle the growing volume of work. The target market at that time was primarily Slovakia and neighboring countries, but dreams already reached much further.
Global contacts and first series
One of the key moments was participating in one of the largest music exhibitions in Europe in 2003, where the Sivčák team gained further important contacts with suppliers of components and exotic wood. At the same time, they had the opportunity to discuss with renowned world-class guitar and bass manufacturers such as Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, and Warwick, and compare their own ideas with current global trends. These exhibitions gradually became a natural part of the following years. In 2009, the Soller brand changed its name to Sivcakguitars. During the same period, the trademark was registered at the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic and the first presentation website was created. From this moment on, the team focused more on developing and producing their own model series. This led to the first model lines – Vintage, NDHS, BWGS, OSC, TB, and Longhorn. In 2013, new warehouse spaces were added and the first e-shop, shop.sollerguitars.com, was launched, allowing customers from all over Europe and the world to order wood and components for their projects. By this time, the Sivcakguitars brand had several local music exhibitions behind it, but the biggest one came in 2014 – the Musikmesse world exhibition in Frankfurt, where Sivcakguitars had its own booth and definitively made its mark on the world stage.
Family tradition and new generations
The brand’s solid foundations allowed their sons Dominik and Henrik to fully join Rudolf and Katarína after completing their studies at economic and technical universities. Their arrival brought a fusion of tradition with a young perspective on modern marketing, production, and customer communication. Through joint efforts, the brand constantly moved forward. In 2022, construction began on new production facilities, a larger warehouse, and administrative offices. Sivcakguitars thus definitively joined the ranks of manufacturers who combine handcraft, the latest technologies, and a strong sense of detail and family brand values.
Present day
Today, the Sivcakguitars brand focuses primarily on custom production of electric guitars and bass guitars from its own portfolio, which travel all over the world. It produces approximately 40 to 60 custom instruments annually. Each instrument is unique, has its own registration number and production sheet, which the company keeps in its archives. A great asset is the extensive warehouse of tonewoods and components, which offers musicians a wide range of choices. This includes the most commonly used woods like swamp ash, maple, alder, mahogany, walnut, and others. It’s the same with components – Sivcakguitars collaborates with leading global brands like Gotoh, Hipshot, Schaller, Partsland, DiMarzio, Graph Tech, Nordstrand, and many others. Based on growing demand, the company decided to discontinue routine service work on instruments of other brands – the priority became exclusively the production and exclusive service of their own Sivcakguitars. However, they remain helpful to musicians with a rich selection of components and accessories. The company supplies parts and wood to more than 200 manufacturers and service centers and thousands of end customers across Europe and the world, increasing the number of exported orders every year.
Future
Our vision is to keep moving forward, maintain a high standard of production, and further develop original guitar and bass series. We don’t want to become a large mass-production facility – our goal is to create unique instruments that have a soul and the personal touch of a master. We want to pass our experience on to future generations and build a brand that will carry the Sivčák name for decades as a synonym for quality, originality, and musical character.
Our values and pillars
Každý nástroj začína starostlivo vybraným materiálom, ktorý tvorí jeho základ a charakter.
Gotoh, Hipshot, EMG, Schaller a ďalší svetoví výrobcovia zaručujú našim nástrojom spoľahlivosť a presnosť.
Individuálny prístup ku každému nástroju je pre nás samozrejmosťou.
Vlastné technické riešenia, patenty a neustále zdokonaľovanie výrobných procesov s modernou strojovou technikou.
Rýchle nastavenia, opravy a odborné poradenstvo priamo od výrobcov.
Our team
The team behind every tone
Rudolf
Founder
Dominik
Marketing
Henrik
Production
Katarína
Accounting
Bart
Dog - head of security
Rudolf
Founder
Katarína
Accounting
Dominik
Marketing
Henrik
Production
Bart
Dog - head of security
What our clients have written about us
Configurator
Build your instrument using our configurator.
Build your own instrument your way – from body shape and wood type to electronics and details. Create a guitar or bass that sounds and looks exactly as you imagine.
