Aska Factory

Since the company’s establishment in 1977, we have concentrated on small-scale manufacturing with a basis in handmade products. This is, we assert, the most important factor in creating quality musical instruments. Our experienced builders understand and respond to the nuances of different tone woods, processing them accordingly.  
In today’s acoustic guitar industry, most guitar manufacturers fall into two distinct categories: extensive mass-production factories run by corporations and small boutique workshops run by individuals or small groups of builders. Our Aska workshop, where Headway custom shop, ATB, and standard series instruments are made, is different. It operates on a model in between these large and small scales, which is what makes us unique and allows for our excellent cost-performance ratio.

General mass-production factory

Advantage: It is possible to produce a large quantity of instruments in a short time, resulting in low per-instrument cost.

Disadvantage: It is difficult to pursue top quality, and the size of the operation limits flexibility because any changes to production must happen on a grand scale. 

General Boutique workshop

Advantage: Quality is thoroughly controlled by experienced builders and flexible custom options are often available.

Disadvantage: It takes more time and costs more to produce each guitar. This tends to restrict production to expensive instruments that only a limited number of customers can afford.

 At our Aska factory, most production is executed by hand, without the use of CNC (Computer Numeric Control) routers. This means that we pay close attention to every detail along the way, just like a boutique workshop. However, while maintaining boutique-level quality, we boost productivity by dividing production into multiple stages of building, with experts assigned to each segment. Our workshop features multiple booths, each of which is designated for a particular guitar building task, including woodworking, painting, and assembling stations. Aska’s chief builders supervise the entire production process, ensuring consistently excellent quality.

Features and techniques of Aska factory  

• Seasoning
• Tonewoods
• One-piece neck
• Bracing 
• Neck Joint
• Bridge