1995 – Juha Ruokangas founds the company as a sole trader and rents a small workshop facility in Finland, Hyvinkää at Wanha Villatehdas, to build and repair guitars.

Juha experiments with Spanish Cedar (Cedrela odorata) as the body and neckwood – a tonewood not commonly used in electric guitars.

1999 – Juha starts co-operation with fellow craftsmen Mika Koskinen and Jiri Kaarmela, who are to become part owners of the company two years later, along with luthier Jarkko Lindholm, who joins the team in 2000, but leaves a year later to work on his own Lindholm Musical Instruments.

Juha designs and launches new variations of the Duke theme and introduces another uncommon local material – the Arctic Birch tops.

2000 – Juha designs and launches the second Ruokangas model – VSOP, built of thermo treated Alder and Rock Maple – and attends the Frankfurt Musikmesse for the first time.

2003 – Ruokangas Guitars publishes a new website design with online guitar configurator tool (based on an idea by Jarkko Lindholm) developed by graphics designer Junnu Vuorela, where one can visually choose colors, pickups, woods and parts online.

Such configurators were rare at the time, with the Japanese Kisekae Guitar Creator being the first internationally known commercial version (launched in 2000), but later on such tools have gained more popularity, as the technology has become more readily available and network speed has increased.

Juha and Emma launch "The Project Unicorn" – new guitar design process open to public via YouTube.

Juha becomes one of the founding members (and the first chairman of the board) of The Guild Of Finnish Luthiers (Suomen Soitinrakentajien Kilta).

Juha Ruokangas is chosen by Robert Shaw as one of the most influential contemporary electric guitar makers in the world in his book ‘Electrified’.

Other brands involved in the Pinkburst Project were: Gibson, Fender, Epiphone, Gretsch, PRS, Martin, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Vox, Orange, HartkeDandiamond 2012 – Finnish design critic Kaj Kalin chooses Ruokangas Guitars as the winner of the first ever Taito-Finlandia Award.

The Ruokangas team participates as actors in The Spirit of the Guitar Hunt -movie directed by Mika Tyyskä, also known as Mr. Fastfinger.

First introduced in 2008 – a modern solid body double-cutaway electric guitar with Floyd Rose type tremolo, both bolt-on and neck-thru-body designs exist.

First introduced in 2009 – a modern take on a traditional solid body single-cutaway electric with set neck and carved top.

The Unicorn guitar design process and the making of the first two prototypes was documented as a YouTube video diary by Juha Ruokangas and Emma Elftorp.

Jay Jay French (Twisted Sister), Mick Box (Uriah Heep), Josh Smith, Tommy Emmanuel, Matias Kupiainen (Stratovarius), Emppu Vuorinen (Nightwish), Jukka Tolonen, Juha Torvinen (Eppu Normaali), Mikko "Pantse" Syrjä (Eppu Normaali), Sami Ruusukallio (Eppu Normaali), Juha Björninen, Peter Lerche, Ben Wigler (Arizona), Rainer Nygård (Diablo), Sami Saarinen (Status Minor), Marko Karhu, Peter Engberg, Florian Zepf (Candycream), Joel Auge (Hewit), Sascha Wiegand (Bitune), Christian Wosimski (Bitune), Aaron Kaplan, Henri Arola (Dyecrest), Pirkka Ohlis (Dyecrest), Matti Pasanen (Dyecrest), Kai Seppälä (Jetsetters), Edmund Piskaty, Jani Wickholm, Saku Mattila, Rick Simcox (The ToneQuesters), Mr. Manetti, Sonny Landreth