In the village “Messa Mouliana” of Crete Stelios Petrakis has created a workshop for manufacture of musical instruments such as : Lyra’s with Sympathetic strings, Old Cretan style lyra’s and lyra’s from the Aegean islands.  Lutes of Mainland Greece and Crete and certain types of the Turkish saz ,mainly the older types that are not being made anymore such as bulgari, kopuz and divan saz .
Mr. Petrakis has designed and manufactured musical instruments for well known musicians of Greek traditional music such as Ross Daly, Kelly Thomas, Zaharias Spyrjdakis, Giorgis Xyloyris, Pericles Papapetropoulos, Christos Tsiamoulis, Dimitris Apostolakis and also for many of their students.
The musical bodies are completely handmade and decorated with the most precious natural materials, so that the perfect balance between musical and aesthetic result has been achieved.

Some of the lyras that Stelios Petrakis has made.

For more info : contact@steliospetrakis.com

Ross Daly writes about Stelios Petrakis musical instruments:

          Stelios Petrakis is a multi-faceted personality. He is a regular member of “Labyrinth” as a musician, he has also released two CD’s of his own music (I dikoi mou filoi and he is a fine craftsman of musical instruments. Most of the Cretan lyras used by Ross Daly and the other members of “Labyrinth” are made by him, and many other of the best contemporary lyra players prefer his lyras. He also makes laoutos (Cretan, mainland Greek style, as well as lavta) and saz. The lyra he specializes in making is the type developed by Ross Daly which employs 3 main playing strings and 18 sympathetic strings. This type of lyra is rapidly becoming more popular as it gives the musician many new possibilities and a much richer sound than that afforded by other lyra types. The lyras of this type made by Stelios are definitely the best available. Stelios’ laoutos and sazes are also highly appreciated by many of today's best players. The Cretan laouto is often a heavy and rather cumbersome instrument which presents unnecessary difficulty to the player. Stelios has found ways to lighten its construction and balance it better, without however compromising its characteristic sound. This results in an instrument with a good clear sound and which responds quickly and efficiently to the nuances of the musician’s playing. Stelios also constructs  sazes. One particular style of saz which he makes is an older type of saz with 3 single strings, played with the fingers rather than with a pick, which resembles instruments played by the Turkish virtuoso Erkan Ogur. This type of saz was rarely found in previous decades but its popularity is increasing due to its very clear characteristic sound.

www.rossdalymusic.com