Tapio Vainisto was born in Turku, Finland on 1956.  Since his very childhood he got to listen to violin playing played by his father: he was a professional musician who has been playing in Turku Philharmonic Orchestra for over 30 years.  Tapio Vainisto started his violin studies at the age of 11.  He has been graduated from Turku Conservatory as a teacher.  He became interested in violin making at the end of 1970's and made his first violin under guidance of Unto Virtanen on 1982.  On 1983 he studied violin making and repairing at Risto Wainio's violin shop in Helsinki and on the same year he established his own violin shop.  Later on he has studied violin making and restoring on many short courses held by Jean Bauer, Jan Pawlikowski, Malcolm Siddall, John Dilworth, Simeone Morassi and Ensio Kelloniemi. On the year 2007 he studied violin making in Florence in the violin workshop of Paolo Vettori.

He has taken part in several international violin making competitions. On 2017 he won a Special Prize with a viola in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. On 2016 he won the First Prize with a violin and 2001 the First Prize with a viola and the Second Prize with a violin in national competitions organized by the Association of Finnish Violin Makers.  At the moment he is the president of the Association of Finnish Violin Makers and the president of the Association of Violin Makers of South-West Finland.