Heikki “Hessu” Holvikari is the founder of Westend Musical Instruments comes from a musical family. His mother was an operette diva, father a member of the most famous Finnish choire called YL.  He had two sisters that were dreaming about a music career. Hessu´s great-uncle Matti Jurva was a famous singer in contemporary music after the second world war and is still the most recorded artist in the Finnish music history. Hessu learned classical singing from the age of 5, played piano under supervision of Marja Oja until changed into guitar. From Hessu´s mother side, all relatives were more or less artists and musicians. Hessu plays Bossa Nova.

Hessu has developed the signature sound of all Westend products. The sound is based on subjective evaluation of a “good” sound and has nothing to do with frequency curves or what is “right” and what is “wrong”. Hessu does not have perfect pitch but a very good relatively pitch. (So much that it is very hard to get a guitar in tune… just because it basically IS impossible.)

Hessu has a master´s degree in economics (Helsinki School of Economics) and he was the first professional badminton player in Finland and has won 4 Finnish championships. He plays golf and loves road cycling.