Fruni Guitars is based in Slovakia and its led by Michal.
How did you become a luthier and why did you established your guitar brand?
It was basically an accident but in the good way. At the time I was playing my 200€ Les Paul copy, and I began to feel that I need something more but it I didn´t have money at the time (I was 16). One night I was browsing some stuff on eBay and I saw some Ibanez Superstrat CNC templates for sale. Then it hits me – How about I make my own one? It wasn´t cheap solution but a lot cheaper than some new guitar with good quality. I started to study what it takes to make a guitar.
It took me almost 2 years to learn everything you need to know, mainly from YouTube videos, and beside that I was designing my own models and many different shapes. After I finished my first build, I was curious if people like my work, so I post some pictures on my, at the time new, Fruni Guitars Facebook page and possibly on every single guitar group on Facebook. And they liked it.
They send me enormous number of messages if I can make them fully custom guitar or if I can sell them that first one (in my opinion it was horrible guitar, so it was not for sale). At the time I was in my final grade at high school, so I didn´t have very much time. I had to refuse all possible orders. Attention for Fruni Guitars obviously dropped.
In summer after my final year, I started to work manually to earn some money for the next build and at nights I was designing them. It took me a couple of months more to build it because of pandemix but when it finally happened, and I released it to the world, my Fruni Guitars FB page just explode. Many people want custom guitars from me which is unbelievable for me.
They love my work and design. I will even have to reject some of them soon because in September I am entering 2nd year at STU – Slovak University of Technology and then I will be only part-time luthier but, in the summer, I am all in full-time guitar making.
How do you describe your guitar brand and which are the main features of your builds?
I would describe it by one sentence: “Fully handmade custom guitars with soul from the heart of Europe.” We are truly fully handmade. It is not just a phrase. The biggest machine in our workshop is stand drill and hand router because these are unnecessary for guitar making but everything else is made by raw hands.
It may be disadvantage but for me is it the main feature too. Guitars which exit our workshop may not be perfect in visual spectra as CNC ones, but they got soul and character.
There is blood, sweat and tears in our builds. Also, every one of them is unique – one it the world. That makes them special.
Do you have established models that are brand recognizable, or each guitar is built with its own specs?
We have couple main models which are like the base lineup of brand. It is mainly modern Superstrat and Telecaster style ones but in custom builds there is no problem to make some special or unique ones on the customer´s request.
Everything that is part of my guitars is made by me, even the knobs, excluding the bridge and mechanics, however, chosen from the best brands.
Do you take orders for custom guitars or do you prefer to work with your established models?
In terms of time and price for customer is better to order established model. But I love new challenges and new designs. It is maybe 50/50 for me.
What are the main diferences from your products to those out of a line of production?
A lack of character. I held many line production guitars in my life and for me they just feel like hollow pieces of wood. They can sound and look awesome, but there is something missing.
Our guitars may not be perfect in every single angle, as I said we are fully handmade workshop and human factor is a big thing but when you pick up handmade guitar, it can be ours or it can be from many different and awesome workshops form around the world, you can just feel something more.
You can feel the connection, you can say that “Wow! This thing is only one piece in the world and nobody else will possibly never have the same one. It´s mine! That is awesome!”. And we want to deliver that feeling to our customers. To feel special. As your brand – we don´t want to be necessary big but we want to be special. And we surely are, especially in our region.
Do you sell your instruments exclusively on your website or do you also sell on other platforms like facebook or reverb.com?
We sell them mainly on Facebook. When it comes to custom builds, there is different procedure. If someone is interested in custom guitar you can contact us through Facebook page, Instagram and also through our email.
There we can talk mainly about model, if it´s established or custom one, then we can send you document where you can choose from woods, hardware, electronics, etc., or you can describe there as many details or ideas as you want. Then we will discuss your choices, if all of your ideas are possible to make in our workshop and after agreement, we will send you the price calculation and visualization. If it´s all good, we will start crafting your dream guitar.
Can you share with us what are your plans for the future?
Our main goal is to build a high quality handmade custom guitars which will have character and soul and will last you a lifetime. We choose quality over quantity. It´s not about big sales numbers. It´s about number of happy and satisfied customers.
