On the Volga, key to rock 'n' roll sound faces ax

Guru for guitar greats
Before buying ExpoPUL, Matthews was already a legend among rock musicians. The inventor of the “Big Muff” guitar pedal, he has been recognized by guitar greats like Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana.

“Almost every rock star has used one of our pedals somewhere along the way,” said Matthews, a keyboard player and one-time promoter of Hendrix.

So the rock and roll world joined in a chorus of protest last fall when a Saratov company called Russian Business Estates, or R.B.E., made an unsolicited attempt to buy ExpoPUL for $400,000. “That’s less than I invested when I bought the factory,” Matthews said. “I wrote them a polite letter saying no.”

That’s when the trouble started.

“They’ve used jackhammers to stir up dust in the facility,” Matthews said. “They shut down the elevator where we remove toxic waste. And they illegally turned off the electricity.”

Attempts to get R.B.E.'s side of the story proved difficult. One company director, Vitaly Borin, ordered security guards to remove an NBC News team from an R.B.E. office in Saratov. Another representative, Alexander Bandarov, said by phone that the fire department, not R.B.E. turned off ExpoPUL’s electricity, citing safety problems. “We have no problem with ExpoPUL,” Bandarov said.

ExpoPUL’s director, Vladimir Chinchikov, says the tactics are typical of some Russian businesses, which pay off government officials and judges to help them “steal” companies by employing heavy-handed methods.

“It’s corruption, plain and simple,” Chinchikov said. “They want us to vacate the building. We hear they want to build some kind of entertainment complex. They are not interested in the production line.”

Rock and roll livelihoods
Though few of ExpoPUL’s 930 workers have ever met Mike Matthews, they are keenly aware that the survival of what was a dying industry — and their jobs — depend on a graying American rocker’s ability to fight off what he calls “racketeers.”

“We know Mike will fight for us,” said Svetlana Shlyatsin, who has assembled tubes for 36 years at ExpoPUL.

Matthews is preparing for battle. He has ordered a $100,000 transformer and an independent natural gas supply to prevent further interference from Russian raiders. And he has rallied his music industry friends and clients to turn up the volume of protests. Fender, Peavey and Korg have written to the Russian government while U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns and Saratov’s governor have pledged their help.

“Now these racketeers are going to face the music,” Matthews said.

Peter Stroud, who plays guitar for singer Sheryl Crow’s band, said in an interview from Atlanta that the music industry sees Matthews as “a very unique, eccentric genius. If this tube plant closes in Russia, tubes will become very, very scarce.”

Russian rockers are also voicing their support for Matthews.

“The tubes are a real, actual Russian product that many companies in the world use,” said Vitaly Dubinin, bass guitarist for heavy metal band Aria. “It’s nice for Russia that we don’t sell only oil and gas,”

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