About Us
Thank you for your interest towards Stonelake Guitars. Our Company is owned and operated by seasoned business people with a musical background, love for music and love for good instruments.
The idea of the custom & boutique guitar manufacturing came 10 years ago but as with many similar ideas they tend to take their time to get tuned well and timing must be right to execute ideas. As manufacturers are building more and more guitars in high tech factories our mission became even more clearer: Time to execute is now - handmade guitars and basses for guitar enthusiasts aka “Serious stuff for serious players. Seriously”
There is still something exciting and not-from-this-earth feeling in handmade goods. Most of the time quality in tone and adjustments is better than high volume factory developed guitars as the last minute tuning is done by real experts who have a long experience in guitar designing and building. To ensure high quality and high value on all gear we sell, we do a thorough evaluation before deciding to take anything on board.
The team behind Stonelake Guitars is playing with the same instruments we design and build. Some of us have been playing since the end of 80’s but we still like modern tools with a touch of old style mystery built in them. What we use ourselves is what we are willing to recommend to our customers.
Team
Markus Raipio
A Dad, A Husband, A Business Professional, A Musician and A Finn Living in Singapore. Lots of my time passes by traveling around Asia Pacific area so I am trying to balance my time between family life, music and work.
On a personal level, I am a married dude with two kids as you can guess from the title. This brings one good thing for the weekends. I never have to plan what to do as everything is pretty much planned for me :-)
I started to play bass guitar around 1988 while living in a small village near Finland’s “Seattle” a town called Lappeenranta which had a lively music scene. I have played bass guitar, done backing vocals and acted as a lead singer in different bands during 80’s and 90’s styles ranging from trash to progressive rock. While living in Singapore I have been a session bass player for local projects. I am also a founding member of Second Season Project which is composing music over the Internet.
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Mark Tyson
Born in the UK, in the Summer of Love 1967. Was a kid. Started playing guitar, aged 15. Graduated with a BA in Advertising from Glasgow University. Played obtuse guitar with several unknown Gothic Rock bands. Postgraduate study PgDip, in Industrial Design from Humberside University.
Didn’t play guitar for 15 years, I was working for ‘The Man’, earning money to pay bills. Lived in Taiwan for 4 years. Picked up the old guitar again when my son became a teenager.
Now combining work experience in design with love of guitar form, shapes and sounds. Writing and blogging on DesignReviews.co.uk from time to time. Working to create some new classic designs manufactured by Stonelake Guitars.
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Chad Manzo
Illustrator/designer/musician based in the wonderful tropical island of Cebu, Philippines.
His quirky mix of colors and style, reminiscent of late 80’s, early 90’s cartoons, has earned him a spot as one of the top designers in Cebu City and was featured in numerous publications, and was selected to be a resource speaker for the region’s biggest design conference, Visual 2011.
With almost ten years of experience in the field of graphic design and illustration, he has since then worked with a lot of prestigious clients in the Philippines (Human, Bench, Bratpack, Urbandub, Nick Automatic) as well as international music acts and brands (ILoveAntix, Suicide Silence, TonyDanzaTapdanceExtravaganza, 8bit-zombie, Suck Clothing, etc.)
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Uzi Emperado
Uzi Emperado is a freelance artist from Cebu, Philippines. He has worked with various metal bands from all over the world. He has also provided merch design for several clothing lines. He likes South Park and campy horror movies.
When he is not churning out illustrations that can upset your mom, he hunts for the best blueberry cheesecake in town. Do not let that photo fool you; to this day he still struggles with proper guitar chord finger positioning.
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