Origins in Helsinki
Liikanen Guitars was a Helsinki based workshop and one of the more notable names in Finland's small tradition of handmade classical guitars. The workshop traces back to Kauko Liikanen, a Finnish luthier who started building guitars in 1977. His son or close relative Keijo Liikanen joined the work from 1986 onward, and between them the two generations produced a long run of handbuilt concert and student classical guitars over several decades.
The Lens Resonance System
Among the workshop's more distinctive contributions was an in house resonance design called the Lens Resonance System, which the Liikanens patented in 2000. Small, independent workshops rarely have the resources to develop and patent their own acoustic systems, which makes this a fairly unusual chapter in the story of a modest, family run business operating outside the major guitar making centers of Spain or Germany.
Double top construction and a Spanish collaboration
The workshop also built guitars using double top construction, where the soundboard is made from two very thin skins separated by a lightweight honeycomb core rather than a single solid piece of wood. The goal of this approach is a soundboard that is lighter and, in many builders' experience, louder than a conventional single piece top. Liikanen Guitars collaborated with the Spanish luthier Vicente Quiles, based in Valencia, and at least one of the workshop's joint models came out of that partnership.
Repairs and sales through guitarshop.fi
Beyond building its own instruments, the workshop also repaired guitars carrying both the Liikanen name and the Finnish Kantare brand. Finished instruments were sold through the guitarshop.fi retailer. Taken together, this is a small but concrete example of how an independent Finnish luthier operation built a reputation over roughly two decades of steady, handmade work.
About this site
This website, published as LG Guitar Guide, is an independent editorial resource about the classical guitar. We put this page together because the Liikanen Guitars story is a genuinely interesting and underdocumented part of Finnish music history, and we think it deserves an accurate account. To be fully transparent: we are not Liikanen Guitars, we are not affiliated with the former workshop or its founders in any way, and we are not a continuation of its business. We do not sell guitars, we do not take in repair work, and there is no order form or contact address on this site for purchasing an instrument. Our role is simply to document this history responsibly and to provide general, useful information about classical guitars to anyone researching the subject.
Related reading
For a broader look at the instrument itself, see our overview of guitar models. We also maintain a page covering new Liikanen guitars that have appeared on the secondary market over time, and a photo album with images illustrating different classical guitar designs and construction details.
Finnish luthier work of this kind remains a niche craft, and that is exactly why a story like Kauko Liikanen's deserves to be told carefully, with real facts rather than invented details or embellishment.
