FLAXWOOD GUITARS - Throughout history, the best guitarists have always been associated with the best sounds. At the heart of their signature tones lie a variety of high quality instruments built from the best tonewoods in the world. Now, suppose it were possible to mold wood - to enhance and improve upon its acoustic properties to make it more consistent? To create a new tone material in the process - in a controlled environment where its every most subtle nuance could be measured, monitored and fine tuned? In Heinävaara, Finland, at the heart of our northern country's vast timberland areas, a group of experienced guitar luthiers and wood material experts have been doing extensive research and experimentation for years, and have accomplished precisely this: they have created a revolutionary new tonewood.

Flaxwood Guitars were born of a dream of making a better guitar. A guitar with all the characteristics that make a difference to the most demanding player: full, rich tone; extended sustain; wide frequency response and dynamic range; trouble-free tuning and flawless intonation.

Rethinking wood as an instrument-building material. Experienced luthiers and experts possessing decades of knowledge in both traditional guitar building and modern, advanced material technology put their collective expertise together to create an alternative to traditional tonewoods that near extinction. After years of research, experiments and good, old-fashioned hard work, Flaxwood Guitars has created a high quality, stable, and ecologically friendly molded wood material that can stand up to the high standards today's players have come to expect of boutique instruments. Now, we proudly present the fruits of our labor -- the new line of Flaxwood Guitars.

Characteristics:
Consistent acoustic properties and tone Soundwaves travel best parallel to and in the direction of the grain in wood. Due to each piece's unique grain structure, its knots and other irregularities, traditional tonewoods vary greatly in their acoustic properties, and hence, their tone. Flaxwood is a new, innovative wood-based tone material that has been created by breaking the grain structure of wood, and injection-molding it into shape together with an acoustically sensitive binding agent. It is manufactured in an environment where its acoustic properties can be monitored, controlled and optimized to fit the exact demands of a high quality guitar. The result is a tone material that is homogenic and consistent in its acoustic properties and one that resonates with equal force in all directions and gives an even frequency response throughout the guitar's entire range. Flaxwood is an ecological, recyclable alternative to wood species that are slowly nearing extinction.

Dynamics
Due to its unique acoustic properties, flaxwood lends itself to an exceptionally wide dynamic range. This, combined with the pickups we use on our guitars (Seymour Duncan and EMG), makes for a versatile instrument with few peers, and one that is sensitive enough to truly reflect the smallest nuances in the touch and personality of the player.

Extended sustain
In developing the Flaxwood line, one crucial characteristic that was paid extensive attention to was their sustain. Again, the material was tested and optimized to provide an even, singing sustain throughout the guitar's entire range.

A brand new Flaxwood plays and sounds like a vintage guitar.
Flaxwood is a molded wood material that is acoustically 'open' from the outset; you won't have to wait for years for the wood to settle and be broken in to get a good tone from your instrument. The sound is vibrant and rich, straight from the workshop.

Flaxwood is practically immune to changes in humidity.
Once the guitar is adjusted and fine-tuned for a given string gauge, further tinkering is not necessary. Wherever you travel, a Flaxwood maintains consistent playability and flawless intonation in all climates.

Weight balance
Sturdy, but not heavy. The body and neck on a Flaxwood were designed to be a perfect medium for the vibrations of the strings without unnecessary extra weight. Flaxwood guitars weigh between 3.1 and 3.3 kg (6.8 and 7.3 lbs).

Consistent quality and playability
Every Flaxwood guitar is assembled, adjusted and fine-tuned by hand by experienced luthiers with over 30 years of experience in traditional instrument building. This, together with the stable natural material from which they are built, guarantees that every Flaxwood guitar is a high quality instrument. Each guitar is meticulously inspected and tested before it leaves our workshop to ensure consistent quality and playability.

Personality
Visually, every Flaxwood guitar is unique. The exact textures and patterns of the timber on the body and neck are unique to each guitar; no two Flaxwoods look alike.

Features:

Flaxwood neck
The satin-finish flaxwood neck on our guitars has a smooth, fast surface that is pleasant to handle, feels natural, and guarantees easy playability.

3-D glued neck joint
Sturdy, stable and reliable, the 3-D Glued Neck Joint is a new standard for the glued neck joint. Combined with the neck and body materials' immunity to changes in humidity, the neck joint further ensures optimum reliability regardless of circumstance.

Tune-X Tuning System
Flaxwood guitars are fitted with a Tune-X Tuning System nut. Made from a self-lubricating hi-tech material, the nut provides accurate tuning and flawless intonation at all positions on the fretboard. The Tune-X Tuning System was especially developed for Flaxwood Guitars exclusively.

Flaxwood resonating back plate
In fine-tuning the tone of the Flaxwood, our luthiers came to a resonator-style solution to optimizing its sound. The unique back plate of the Flaxwood was designed to enhance both the amplified and unplugged sound of the guitar.

High quality electronics and hardware
We are proud to work with some of the best suppliers of electronics and hardware on the market. Depending on the model, our stock guitars come fitted with Seymour Duncan or EMG pickups, Schaller switches and electronics, Schaller or Gotoh bridges, and Gotoh tuners. More options are available through the Flaxwood Custom Shop. Refer to the Models page for details.

Technology:

Wood Re-designed
The brainchild of Heikki Koivurova, an industrial designer from Joensuu, Finland, flaxwood was born out of a desire to create an environmentally friendly, recyclable wood-based material to substitute for the exotic tonewoods normally used in building instruments. By definition, the new material would have to be acoustically sensitive and responsive, and be able to produce a tone that would be on par with the best tonewoods in the world.

Wood, by nature, is one of the best materials for acoustic purposes; it carries soundwaves well and has a warmth to it that other materials do not have. However, wood is not a homogenic material entirely, as its natural composition and texture has irregularities that can be tricky to work with.

The grain of wood is naturally arranged in a specific direction. Soundwaves travel best parallel to and in the direction of the grain. Wood also has knots and other irregularities in its composition that can cause a change in the flow of sound. In a best case scenario, the knots may work to an advantage to produce a particularly wonderful instrument with a unique personality, but in the end, they are unpredictable elements of chaos which cannot be controlled.

Humidity is another factor. If wood has not been properly dried, in time instruments built from it will prove imperfect; they may crack or even break entirely, rendering them useless. Even with instruments built from properly dried woods, humidity is always a concern for musicians, often requiring them to finetune their instruments depending on changing hydro-atmospheric conditions.

In other words, in working with traditional tonewoods, while the possibility of creating truly unique instruments is always there, so is the possibility of producing instruments of inconsistent quality.

Heikki Koivurova reasoned that if wood could be rendered into very small particles, floating randomly in a binding agent, it would then be rid of its grain and its knots; and, as the particles would face randomly in all directions, soundwaves would resonate with equal force in all directions. This would also make the material impervious to humidity, as the binding agent would seal the wood material hermetically.

Enter master guitar luthier Veijo Rautia. A veteran instrument builder with decades of experience in handmade guitars, Veijo persuaded Heikki to research the possibilities that the new material could offer the electric guitar. As the experiments progressed, a wealthy local industrialist and former saw milling magnate offered to put up some venture capital to take matters further. Antti Vilenius also came onboard with years of specialized mold-injection production experience. After two years, a new tone material was ready to be introduced.

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