Custom Guitar Building – Guitar and Bass Service & Repair in Tampere
Guitar Building and Service – Always with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee!
GAS Guitarworks is a one-man custom shop located in Härmälä, Tampere, dedicated to building and servicing instruments with uncompromising craftsmanship.
I have worked as an artisan since 1989, with the past 20 years as an entrepreneur, luthier, and a trusted service and repair specialist for guitarists and bassists.
GAS Guitarworks has two goals: the best-sounding guitars and the most satisfied customers.
Carefully selected materials, long experience, and proven tools and methods come together to create something truly exceptional.
Some of the most dedicated players have commissioned multiple instruments, with collections of 5–10 guitars built here.
Professional Guitar and Bass Service & Repair
GAS Guitarworks offers comprehensive guitar and bass service and repair:
- Electric and Acoustic Guitars
- Bass Guitars
- Setups, fretwork, electronics, and structural repairs
All work is carried out with great care and finished according to the player’s needs — always with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Does your instrument need service?
Handcrafted Custom Guitars – Built to Inspire
The foundation of your custom guitar can be chosen from GAS Guitarworks’ own models,an existing guitar design, or something created entirely from scratch..
Our workshop stocks a wide selection of premium tonewoods, from the most established traditional species to truly unique reclaimed and submerged woods that are hundreds - even thousands - of years old. These are materials with a history you can genuinely feel in the finished instrument.
Together, we will find the combination that sounds best for you.
GAS is a workshop where strong emotions and moments of discovery are part of everyday life. Seeing how a custom-built instrument can become a powerful source of inspiration for its player is one of the most rewarding aspects of the work. You are warmly welcome to explore the tonewoods, try finished instruments, and discuss your ideas in person.
You can explore custom guitars currently for sale in the GAS online shop:
Subscribe to the GAS Guitarworks Newsletter for a Chance to Win a Brand-New Viva La Prima Custom Guitar!
A Handcrafted Custom Guitar - for Free?
I recently came up with an idea for a new guitar model line - Viva La Prima by GAS Guitarworks. As a small anecdote, the name traces its roots back to a timelessly elegant car model released in the 1960s.
As the saying goes, a name doesn’t make the man — and in this case, thankfully, it doesn’t harm the guitar either. The reception for the new offset guitar has been excellent, and discussions are currently underway regarding the model’s international distribution.
As a small marketing initiative, I decided to launch a giveaway with a brand-new Viva La Prima offset guitar handcrafted in Härmälä workshop as the prize.
Joining is easy! Subscribe to the GAS Guitarworks newsletter and you’ll automatically be entered into the draw to win a brand-new Viva La Prima guitar. You’ll also receive the latest news, special offers, and tips straight to your inbox.
You can read the giveaway rules here.
Official True Temperament Partner in Finland
Gas Guitarworks is now the official True Temperament partner in Finland. Here in Härmälä, you can also experience this revolutionary fret technology already used by artists such as Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, and Sarah Longfield.
Welcome to Visit the Workshop in Härmälä
You are warmly welcome to explore the tonewoods, try finished instruments, and discuss your own project. Let’s create the instrument of your dreams together.
You can find the contact details for the GAS Guitarworks workshop here.
You can also visit the website of my other company, R-Go Instruments. We have filed an international patent application for a highly ergonomic neck profile based on individual anatomy.
Kind regards,
Pekka Mäkinen
Luthier & CEO
GAS Guitarworks
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about handmade custom guitars
Here are the questions we're asked most often about commissioning a custom guitar — materials, pricing and build times. If your question isn't answered here, get in touch!
A custom guitar is an individual instrument built to the player's specification. Everything is open to choice: body and neck woods, neck profile, pickups, electronics, bridge, frets, colour and finish.
At GAS Guitarworks a custom guitar can be built on one of our own models, in the spirit of a classic design, or entirely from your own idea.
The aim isn't simply to build something different — it's to build an instrument that feels and sounds right in your hands.
The price of a handmade custom guitar depends on the woods, hardware, electronics, finish and the amount of work involved.
Our own Viva La Prima custom guitar starts at €3,500 (incl. 25.5% Finnish VAT). Fully bespoke projects are quoted individually.
The scope and cost of the project are agreed before any work begins, so you know exactly what is being built and what it will cost.
The real advantage of a custom guitar is that you don't have to live with the compromises of a production model.
The neck profile can be shaped to your hand, the weight can be controlled through the choice of woods, and the electronics can be designed around the sound you're actually after.
At its best, the result is an instrument you keep reaching for year after year — not one that simply looks good on the wall.
Yes. You can arrive with a finished plan, or with nothing more than an idea of the instrument you'd like. Together we can decide on:
- body shape and woods
- neck wood and profile
- fretboard and frets
- pickups, electronics and wiring
- bridge and tuners
- colour and finish, relic treatment or a fresh surface
- any other details you have in mind
You don't need to know the technical side of lutherie in advance. It's enough to know what you want from the instrument.
Alongside traditional tonewoods, the workshop keeps rarer materials in stock. Depending on the project, the options can include alder, swamp ash, pine, poplar, mahogany, maple, birch, rosewood and ebony.
GAS Guitarworks also builds instruments from centuries-old, sometimes millennia-old reclaimed and bog woods..
The wood is chosen first and foremost for structure, weight, stability and intended use — not for the name of the species.
Yes. Every GAS Guitarworks custom guitar is built by hand in Härmälä, Tampere.
Instruments are built in the workshop from start to finish — selecting and working the wood, fretting, electronics, finishing and the final setup.
Yes. You're welcome at the workshop at Lentokentänkatu 49, 33900 Tampere, Finland to play finished instruments, look through the woods and talk through your own project.
We recommend arranging your visit in advance if you want to make sure a particular instrument is available to try.
Yes. GAS Guitarworks instruments carry a lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for the original owner.
Beyond that, the goal is simple: the finished instrument should live up to what was promised. Every job is backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
The easiest way is to get in touch and describe, as freely as you like, the guitar you're looking for.
Tell us about the instruments you play now, your favourite neck, the sound you're chasing, the music you make — or simply what doesn't feel right about your current guitars.
From there we can start working out materials, construction and components, and estimate what the project will cost.
Build time depends on the scope of the project and the current workload at the workshop. Our own model, the Viva La Prima, typically takes around 4–8 weeks to build and more extensive bespoke projects may take even longer.
The schedule is always agreed at the start of the project. In-stock instruments can be dispatched within a few working days.
Viva La Prima – Black Heavy Relic
GAS Guitarworks
How can we help?
Guitar & Bass Service
Professional setups, fretwork and repairs for guitars and basses.
GAS Guitars Available Now
Explore our selection of finished instruments available for immediate purchase in our online store.
Subscribe to our newsletter and enter the giveaway!
Newsletter subscribers are entered into a giveaway to win a new handcrafted Viva La Prima custom guitar!
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