Ruokangas Guitars builds solid-body and semi-hollow electric guitars, including models such as Duke, VSOP, Mojo, Hellcat and Unicorn. The company builds guitars using traditional methods – no modern computer-controlled machinery or serial production methods are used. Each guitar is built individually by a luthier.
Ruokangas Guitars is a privately held corporation, solely owned by Master Luthier Juha Ruokangas.
History
1995 – Juha Ruokangas founds the company as a sole trader and rents a small workshop facility in Finland, Hyvinkää at Wanha Villatehdas, building and repairing guitars.
1996 – Juha starts using moose shin bone as nut material in all his guitars and repairwork.
1997 – The website ruokangas.com is published, and the first Ruokangas guitar model – the Duke – is launched. Juha experiments with Spanish Cedar (Cedrela odorata) as the body and neckwood – a tonewood not commonly used in electric guitars. Spanish Cedar is to become one of the fundamental characteristics of Ruokangas Guitars.
1998 – Juha participates in a thermo treatment project (a Finnish invention), funded by the European Union. Thermo treated tonewood becomes a common feature in Ruokangas guitars. The method slowly becomes popular in other parts of the world, too. In the North America thermo treated wood is often referred to with such trade names as roasted, torrefied or caramelised wood.
1999 – Juha starts co-operation with fellow craftsmen Mika Koskinen and Jiri Kaarmela, who are to become part owners of the company two years later, along with luthier Jarkko Lindholm, who joins the team in 2000, but leaves a year later to work on his own Lindholm Musical Instruments. Juha designs and launches new variations of the Duke theme and introduces another uncommon local material – the Arctic Birch tops.
2000 – Juha designs and launches the second Ruokangas model – VSOP, built of thermo treated Alder and Rock Maple – and attends the Frankfurt Musikmesse for the first time.
2001 – Luthier Jyrki Kostamo joins the Ruokangas team. The company format changes from sole trader to privately held corporation. The first dealerships are confirmed and Ruokangas is reviewed in guitar magazines more regularly. Ruokangas proprietary pickups (manufactured by Harry Häussel in Germany) are launched.
2003 – Ruokangas Guitars publishes a new website design with online guitar configurator tool (based on an idea by Jarkko Lindholm) developed by graphics designer Junnu Vuorela, where one can visually choose colors, pickups, woods and parts online. Such configurators were rare at the time, the Japanese Kisekae Guitar Creator being the first internationally known commercial version (launched in 2000), but later on such tools have gained more popularity, as the technology has become more readily available and network speed has increased.
2004 – Luthier Tomi Nivala joins the Ruokangas team. Junnu Vuorela wins the MindTrek Award for productive innovations with the Ruokangas website design. Ruokangas launches a new guitar model – the Mojo. Ruokangas licences the Buzz Feiten Tuning System.
2005 – Ruokangas Guitars attends The NAMM Show for the first time. Master's degree becomes available for luthiers in Finland. The "domestic" Ruokangas website ruokangas.fi is published. Ruokangas Guitars celebrates 10th Anniversary.
2006 – Luthier Emma Elftorp, from Sweden, joins the Ruokangas team.
2007 – Ruokangas Guitars attends the Fuzz Guitar Show in Gothenburg, Sweden. Co-operation with True Temperament company starts.
2008 – The Hellcat, a new guitar model, is introduced. Ruokangas joins Facebook. Juha and Emma launch "The Project Unicorn" – new guitar design process open to public via YouTube.
2009 – The Unicorn guitar model is introduced. Also the first Ruokangas bass model - the Steambass - is introduced. Juha receives his Master Luthier degree. Ruokangas is invited to exhibit at Montreal Guitar Show (discontinued in 2013), the annual high end event for the finest guitars in the world. Juha becomes one of the founding members (and the first chairman of the board) of The Guild Of Finnish Luthiers (Suomen Soitinrakentajien Kilta).