Meet the Members: Sawchyn Guitars

Welcome to Meet the Members, our series where we profile different businesses from around the Warehouse District and chat with the folks who run them. This week we sat down with Peter Sawchyn who owns Sawchyn Guitars with his wife, Kendra Walker.

Peter Sawchyn holding one of the 800 guitars he’s made.

Peter Sawchyn has been building instruments in Regina for almost fifty years. In that time, Sawchyn Guitars has built almost 800 instruments. “It doesn’t seem like a lot, but then I envision them all in one room [laughs],” Peter said.

Previously working out of his home, he opened a shop in the District ten years ago with Kendra. “She’s the reason our business is successful. It’s not me. I jokingly say, ‘I just work here.’ She’s the brains behind the business and runs the ‘business’ end of the business, which is really the most important factor. People think of me as Sawchyn Guitars, but she is a really important part of the business,” he said.

Peter described the process of building instruments as “quite rewarding,” especially once you “put some strings on and suddenly hear it and have someone who’s quite a better guitarist or mandolin player than you are play it and say, ‘This is a nice instrument.’ That’s still true today.”

Peter Sawchyn with his wife, Kendra Walker, in their guitar shop at 2132 Dewdney Ave, Regina, SK.

While his instruments are known for the painstaking detail and attention that goes into them, these days Peter’s favourite instruments to build are more unassuming while still retaining the professionalism he’s known for. “These days, and over my career, I kind of like building very straight, not plain, but unadorned and very good steel string guitar, maybe for bluegrass or folk or something. I like that a lot. I used to really enjoy building archtop scroll-model mandolins, the high-end mandolins. That was a nice thing to achieve, that level of skill,” Peter said.

“I just like the community feel.” – Peter Sawchyn

Along with the fulfilment his work brings him, Peter also mentioned how much he enjoys working in the District among the diversity of businesses the area boasts. “I really like the area of course. There’s lots of traffic; we have a good spot right on Dewdney Avenue which gets a lot of drive-by traffic. I think we picked a very good location. I like the funkiness and the nice old buildings we have in the District, and I like the sort of attitude of the people who work here and shop here [...] I just like the community feel,” he said.

Having moved into the District a decade ago, Peter also noted the positive changes he’s seen here in the past ten years. “I like the fact that it’s changing now, and we’ve been here long enough to see some of the changes, and it’s going in the right direction for sure,” he said.

Still, he knows further changes to the District can improve the area’s vibrancy. “I think what I’d like to see is a mix of some kind of housing, a park, and businesses [...] I just hope they’ll put something that will connect this area to the downtown,” Peter said.

Sawchyn Guitars is located on the corner of Dewdney Avenue and Cornwall Street. Pop in today and say hello!

Visit Sawchyn Guitar’s website.

See Sawchyn Guitar’s gingerbread replica in the 2020 Gingerbread Building Contest.