The Flaxwood approach
We're open to any technology (ancient, medieval or new) that can help us make a great guitar.

What sets Flaxwood apart from many other great guitar producers is that we don't limit our options; the phrase "...because that's the way guitars have always been built" is constantly questioned at Flaxwood. Is there a better way to do things? Do the new technologies now available have something to offer that we are unaware of?

Yes, we're irreverent, we're curious, we're open-minded, and innovative technology does not spook us. But we don't love innovative technology for its own sake; we only use technology that delivers, that helps us get closer to that tone and that feel we crave for. If technology does not deliver, we stick to time-tested solutions.

 

Materials: flaxwood, our dream tonewood...
As much as we love wood, we wondered whether wood could be made more resonant, more uniform, and more stable.
In the process, using spruce as our base material, we created a completely new high-end tonewood in its own right - flaxwood.
 
This wonderful material gave us a combination of properties that we were unable to find in traditional woods, and this material is at the heart of the wonderful vintage Flaxwood tone. And yes, it really is probably the most environmentally friendly tonewood available today.

 

Technologies used in producing the parts
Rather than using CNC to cut the guitar parts as is normally done, we opted to mold our parts using hi-tech mold-injection technologies.

 

A guitar body coming out of the mold

 

 

Mold injection offers a level of uniformity, 3D detail and a practically uncapped production capacity that CNC cannot match. The molds needed are phenomenally expensive to make, of course, but once they're made, the quality is practically 100% constant.

 

Luthiers and traditional luthiery
Perhaps surprisingly to some, we are traditionalists too.

Once our guitar parts pop out of their molds, the assembly, finishing and setup are done the old way, with old school luthiery of the highest order.
Master luthier Veijo Rautia and his team bring decades of experience to ensure our guitars are impeccably set up and ready to sing.

 
 

 

 
Labour of love
Flaxwood has been an investment-heavy proposition from the start, both in terms of money, and in terms of the energy the people have put into this company. Developing the new materials and technologies took about 6 years, during which time hardly any guitars were sold. The belief that something important was being developed, pride in the local knowhow of the Joensuu area (in Eastern Finland), and a passion for excellence was strong in everybody, from the investors down to the people sandpapering the guitars.

In short, creating this guitar and the company around it has been a (very expensive) labor of love.

So now, when an ever-increasing number of quality-conscious guitarists (including a growing cadre of guitarists of world renown) strap a Flaxwood on to do their thang, or when we get a glowing review from quality-conscious guitar magazines, it is certainly a reward that has not come easy, but one that is therefore all the sweeter.

Open your mind, and let our guitar open your heart.
Try our guitar. It may soon become yours.

Its warm resonance, wonderful playability and vintage tone will give you that Feeling - somehow reassuringly familiar, yet with a new edge that just needs to be experienced.