High-tech guitars?
A diary of the founder - Rafał Perz.
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.
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.
Ruffaine
The material used to build our guitars – Ruffaine – scientifically developed and unlimitedly recyclable resonance material. Its structure, and thus the sound, can be freely created, achieving any sound that we can imagine, and one of its greatest advantages is that it is infinitely recyclable. Other synthetic materials degrade with every processing so at some point they no longer have the original properties anymore, but with Ruffaine the processing is done by machine and without heat treatment, so it can be recycled for eternity.
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.
Extensive experience in the composite materials industry allows us to plan production so that it is as sustainable as possible. It is extremely important to us and we believe that modern musicians will appreciate it as well.