What happens when aerospace engineers make guitars?

Technology

Custom high quality guitars
Composite material
Limitless customization options
Consistent experience through use
Sustainability

MEET RUFFAINE

Ruffaine is innovative, fully adjustable and unlimitedly recyclable composite material scientifically designed to achieve the perfect tone - your tone. We’ve conducted research that proved we can achieve a sound similar to different types of wood or - create a unique one. Ruffaine is fully adjustable which means you can choose what kind of sound you’d like to get - and we can make it! Compared with wood that is used for instrument production we observed perfect repeatability, without any differences between particular pieces of wood used for the neck, fretboard or the body.

Ruffiane and Richlite

SUSTAINABILITY

Currently, the production of electric guitars uses almost exclusively wood, of which a significant amount is exotic wood, endangered with extinction. A significant part of these species are exotic trees, some of them have already been imposed by CITES restrictions or complete prohibitions on harvesting, using and exporting. A typical electric guitar weighs approx. 3 kg of wood (2.5 - 3.5 kg), but it doesn't have to be that way.

Richlite
Our material of choice for fretboards is Richlite - incredibly durable and highly sustainable material made of resin-infused recycled paper. It’s a material used for 70 years in the aircraft and marine industries, as well as in luthiery. We value it for its acoustic properties, stability and ease of maintenance, which make it a perfect fit for modern instruments.

TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY FLUCTUATIONS? NOT THIS TIME!

Feature heading

Ruffaine is remarkably insensitive to changes of temperature and moisture in the air. The wood “works” which requires human reaction and when it comes to Ruffaine the reaction is non-existent, especially to the moisture - it simply doesn’t matter.

Feature heading

We also use modern lacquers that also provide sun resistance.
For our guitars we use aircraft-certificated epoxide which is a real top quality material.

REMARKABLE RELIABILITY AND SAFETY

Unprecedented ergonomics combined with the adjustable sound creates the most reliable and comfortable guitars for modern musicians. Add to that the improvements that were simply not possible 40 years ago, such as incredibly easy access to the last frets or the neck’s surface coated with nano-silver molecules that reduce sweating and bacterial growth - this is where science meets luthiery.

History

It all began when I was 13 or 14 years old and I was very interested in rock music. That’s how guitars caught my attention and I began to play first classical guitar, later electric. I also began to think that maybe I could build my own instrument, so I visited Mayones factory where I purchased some of the parts I needed. Later I began to collect instruments and around 2013-2015 I started my guitar channel and I also was servicing my instruments on my own.
Time passed and I was thinking more and more often about making instruments out of composites. I opened a project development company, focusing mostly on engineering, but at some point I found enough time to make my own guitar. Currently I am working at the university with machine construction being part of my expertise. Majority of people working in my company are my former students, some of them even current ones.

Our guitars do not come from a design perspective but from research and science. We wanted to create instruments with technology and materials being our starting point – we began from technology and later used it to experiment with an actual shape and design.

From the very beginning of my scientific career I used to work in the aircraft industry and being just an engineer was not enough for me and I yearned for more innovation in my work. On top of that I liked to teach and that’s why after a while in the work market I came back to the university. I was focused on crash tests and new technologies and vehicle safety as well as biomechanics. The point was to observe and research how a material is behaving when put under specific pressures. I spent some of my time in the Mechanical Department at the University of Virginia where I was conducting plenty of experimental impact tests for NHTSA, US Army and car companies.

Composites were part of my research, and guitars were my dream – the most modern guitars in the world are created from the combination of these two variables. Our story is just beginning and you can be a part of it.