Fedor Chuchalin

Fedor Chuchalin is a jaw harp maker from Serov in Sverdlovsk Region. His first encounter with the instrument and the beginning of his craft practically coincided. On 14 November 2014, Chuchalin posted a recording of his first jaw harp, and the following day explained that only two weeks earlier he had not even known what the instrument looked like: he studied the materials available online and immediately made one himself. Thus, the first jaw harp he ever played was one he had made himself.

Chuchalin became interested in the jaw harp after hearing Aksenty Beskrovny play Sergey Pyzhov’s “Composite” online. He also learned how the instrument was constructed and the basic techniques of making it from a published masterclass by Pyzhov. In his early posts, Chuchalin documented his experiments in detail: selecting metal, adjusting the gaps, finishing the decks and reed, polishing the reed and fine-tuning its pitch.

His second jaw harp had an unusual frame resembling a wolf’s head and was named “Wolf”. In December 2014, Chuchalin sent it to the Oberton Pro museum. Upon arrival, the instrument was described as carefully made, clean-sounding and already fully playable; the main comments concerned further reducing the gaps and shortening the reed’s knee. This early exchange became part of the maker’s practical training.

About six months after his first experiments, Chuchalin achieved reasonably consistent manufacturing quality. He subsequently worked with instruments spanning a very wide range of sizes and registers. The “Carnation” and “Ural”, introduced in 2016, represented opposite directions: a compact, high-pitched jaw harp with a sharp, bright voice and a large bass instrument with a deep sound and long sustain. The catalogue archive traces the further development of this line, from sensitive high-pitched models to massive low-pitched jaw harps requiring an especially precise stroke.

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