“We’re on the ground floor of what could be the future for instrument making,” says Rick Nelson of Flaxwood Guitars. His bold claim isn’t far fetched. Flaxwood’s eco-friendly guitars prepare for a future in which tonewood--of all things--doesn’t grow on trees.
Flaxwood Guitars Makes Its Own Tonewood
Creating a new tonewood was first proposed by an industrial designer named Heikki Koivurova. Based in Finland, the Flaxwood team was surrounded by forest. “There’s a lot of wood there,” remarks Nelson, Flaxwood’s Director of Sales for North America, “but it’s not wood that has been traditionally used for making instruments. It’s what they call softwood.”
Conifers, the trees producing the material known as softwood, are far more plentiful but haven’t traditionally been utilized in instrument making. “The softwoods ironically aren’t that soft,” says Nelson. “But if you cut down a tree and mill it as you do a hardwood, it doesn’t stand up to the stresses required for making instruments in its natural configuration,.”
Koivurova saw past the natural configuration of softwood and began testing to see what he could bring to the table. During early experiments, his team tried several materials including flax seed. “The name stuck, but the material didn’t,” laughs Nelson.
Koivurova finally chose spruce, a renewable resource with consistent and musical properties. “The spruce is ground into very small particles,” Nelson explains. “It’s combined with a binding agent and the semi-liquid material, is injection molded at very high pressure. Spruce is the base material, but you end up with the perfect substitute for tonewood. It has a density almost the same as ebony, but most of the grain structure and moisture content of the wood is eliminated.”
The manufacturing process endows every Flaxwood guitar with a highly uniform neck and body. Traditional tonewood on the other hand, is subject to grain structure and slight imperfections. These result in different densities and affect an instrument’s tone. “Because the grain structure of the Spruce has been eliminated, the material becomes--I guess the best word would be—homogenous,” Nelson says. “You don’t get the inconsistencies and variations in tone that you get with traditionally made instruments. And unlike guitars made from traditional hardwoods, these are impervious to changes in temperature and humidity.”
How Do Flaxwood Guitars Look?
Aesthetically, Flaxwood Guitars are traditional. Their sunburst finishes, F-holes, and contoured bodies only hint at the innovation behind their design.
A guitarist unaware of Flaxwood’s manufacturing process would assume these guitars were crafted in the same way as any guitar of traditional hardwood. And for the most part, they’d be right. After carving up a tree for a traditional guitar and injection molding for a Flaxwood guitar, the instrument making process becomes virtually identical. “After the mold,” says Nelson, “you’ve made the neck and the body, but everything else requires the same level of handwork that goes into the very expensive instruments. We use the best quality components we can get—the best bridges, the best tuning keys, the best pickups.”
How Do Flaxwood Guitars Sound?
Conventional design was hardly accidental. On the whole, guitarists are a group who prefer tradition over innovation hands down.
Fortunately, good sound trumps preconceptions with many musicians. Innovative roots and all, Flaxwood guitars are making inroads even with hardcore traditionalists. The biggest bonus players are discovering when they pick up a Flaxwood is what they call vintage tone.
The older musical instruments get, the more vibrant their tone becomes. This musical phenomenon occurs as the wood of the instrument dries out and grows more resonant. A flaxwood guitar offers players that coveted tone from day one.
Are Musicians Going Green With Flaxwood Guitars?
An eco-friendly mission statement is great, but ultimately, guitar players care about the bottom line. Does the instrument look, feel, and sound head and shoulders above the rest? A growing list of endorsees--including Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Annie Lennox, George Michael, Bonnie Raitt, Phil Palmer, George Marinelli, Bugs Henderson, and James Burton--all give their nod of approval to the innovative axes.
Flaxwood scored even more recognition as Premiere Guitar Magazine honored the Liekki model with a Premiere Gear Award in 2009. Suddenly, a relatively unheard-of guitar company in Finland received a five star review from the preeminent magazine for guitarists. “That’s opened some doors for us,” Nelson remarks. “The awareness factor has gone up considerably. My first year was a year ago and people were saying, ‘Wow, what are these?’ This year people are saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve heard about these,’ or ‘A friend of mine has one.’ We’ve got a ways to grow, but we feel we’re on the right track.”
In related articles, musicians can…
- Find news on the new line of Flaxwood guitars with lower price tags coming soon.
- Read about the environmental crisis surrounding tropical hardwoods and what some guitar makers and players are doing to help.
- Discover how a new amendment to the Lacey Act of 1900 is joining the fight to save endangered tonewoods.
Quotes from Rick Nelson taken in conversation, March, 2010.
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