Astha Guitars is a partnership between Lukas Brunner of Brunner Guitars in Switzerland and ACTS Group in India. ACTS is a Christian social organization with educational and community development programmes in Bangalore, and other parts of India (www.actsgroup.org). ACTS was founded by the late Dr Ken Gnanakan in 1979. A self-supporting ministry, ACTS is constantly looking at ways of generating revenue within India through various projects. Astha Guitars is one such project.
The dream is to build a world-class guitar and use the profits to provide employment and eventually helpless-fortunate children go to school. Astha makes acoustic guitars, six-string electrics, as well as bass guitars. Customers can choose from a wide range of wood finishes, sizes, inlay designs, etc..
“We are making slow, but steady progress,” says Santosh Gnanakan, the CEO of ACTS, who plays an Astha bass guitar with his band. He adds, “I am extremely proud of the guitars we build here in Bangalore, under Luke’s careful and creative supervision! I want our customers to buy our guitars not just because there is a social angle to our business, but because these guitars are truly amazing.” Santosh’s daughter, Keyah (20), is a design student at Strate School of Design in Bangalore, and is in the middle of a three-week internship at Astha Guitars. She loves working with the Astha team of four, is learning something new every day, and is currently helping build a jazz guitar.
The Astha Guitars team requests prayers for many more new orders. For more details, please visit www.asthaguitars.com or look for Astha on Instagram and Facebook.