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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 etc. 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 www.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 (Finland), funded by the European Union. Thermo Treated tonewood is later on to become a common feature in Ruokangas guitars. 1999 – Juha starts co-operation with fellow craftsmen Mika Koskinen, Jiri Kaarmela and Luthier Jarkko Lindholm. Juha designs and launches new variations of the Duke theme and introduces another uncommon 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. 2002 – Ruokangas Guitars publishes a new website design with online guitar builder tool (designed by Jarkko Lindholm), where one can visually choose colors, pickups, woods, parts etc. online and send price enquiries to the manufacturer. This same website design remains in use until 2009. 2004 – Luthier Tomi Nivala joins the Ruokangas team. The Ruokangas website wins the MindTrek Award for productive innovations. 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 national Ruokangas website www.ruokangas.fi is published. Ruokangas Guitars celebrates 10 Year 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 the web communities MySpace and Facebook. Juha and Emma start “The Project Unicorn” – new guitar design process open to public via YouTube. 2009 – The Unicorn guitar model is introduced. Juha receives his Master Luthier degree. Ruokangas is invited to exhibit at Montreal Guitar Show, 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). 2010 – The new Ruokangas website and iPhone application is launched in January. The website gets an Honorary Award in the Grand One 2010 competition – the Best Information Design category. Ruokangas exhibits again at the Montreal Guitar Show (MGS), and the show organization Salon de Guitare de Montréal orders a Ruokangas guitar to their Ste-Cat Collection. This is the first European guitar in the collection. Juha lectures at MGS about the Mythology Of Tone. The 4th employee, luthier Lari Lätti is hired. 2015 – Luthier Jani Rinta-Keturi joins the Ruokangas team. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ruokangas Guitars」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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