In Kalevala Day, Febryary 28, 1999, in the main celebration event of Kalevala anniversary, Väinönlieskat, in Helsinki, Kanteleverstas Koistinen was proud to present Hannu Koistinen's interesting new instrument: the electric kantele.
The instrument has 39 strings, has a playing mechanism similiar to big "concert kanteles", and is said to be good for pop, rock, jazz or just plain traditional Finnish music. The listeners have praised its unique sound - while normal kanteles have beautiful sound in themselves, the electric version's sound is apparently at least as interesting.
We can't say he mr. Koistinen invented the thing, however, because the idea was fairly old. Even the old song parodying Kalevala has a stanza "Vihaisesti Väinämöisen / sähkökannel humajaapi" ("Väinämöinen's electric kantele hums rather angrily".) He merely made reality what was already in everyone's dreams.