About us

Kremona is a European company founded in Kazanlak, Bulgaria, by Dimitar Georgiev in 1924. Recognized for superb build quality and expansive tone, Kremona instruments have been relied upon by musicians around the globe for nearly a century. These handcrafted acoustic instruments remain one of the most incredible values in the music world.

 

OUR HISTORY

The history of Kremona begins with founder Dimitar Georgiev. He was a talented gunsmith and mechanical engineer, drafted into the Bulgarian army during WWI. Georgiev played the mandolin and brought it with him on deployments. Being mechanically inclined, he could repair and maintain his mandolin in the field. As the war dragged on, he observed the terrible effect of weapons on humanity and vowed to use his skills in another area. 

 

 

After the war, Georgiev returned to Bulgaria and began working on violins, mandolins, and guitars. He quickly excelled at repair and, in 1922, earned an apprenticeship with an expert builder in Germany. 

 

 

To master his craft, he went to Markenukirchen, a centuries-old luthier town. This village was the center of German musical instrument making, with dozens of violin and guitar builders. Christian Frederick Martin, the founder of C.F. Martin Guitars, was born in Markneukirchen and built his first guitars there.

 

 

After Dimitar perfected his skills, he returned to Kazanlak and founded a luthiery with his two brothers. In 1924, Kremona was the first workshop in Bulgaria to craft stringed instruments, including guitars, mandolins, and violins.

 

 

Kremona guitars quickly became so popular by 1931 that Dimitar brought two luthiers from Markneukirchen to help increase production to meet the growing demand. In the late 1940s, Kremona began making steel-string guitars, electric guitars, pianos, cases, and strings.

 

 

Kremona guitars have been in the hands of great performers. In the early 1980s, the legendary guitarist Ali Farka Toure happened upon one that became his favorite, and he played it in many concerts and appeared with it on album covers.

 

 

Building instruments by hand in the European tradition, Kremona has no outsourcing, with all the components put together in the same workshop. Plus, every instrument gets professional inspection and setup in the US before being sent to the hands of players.

 

 

Over the last 20 years, Kremona has gained increasing popularity, rivaling the groundbreaking start of the workshop nearly 100 years ago. These handmade instruments feature an old-world tradition that meets world-class production. The current lineup features premium and exotic tonewoods and models from the classics to the contemporary, such as nylon-string crossovers with cutaways and radiused fingerboards, a revolutionary 7-string nylon guitar, beautiful sounding all-solid ukuleles, and fantastic steel-string guitars.