After earning a music degree from a small arts school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I backpacked South America. My acoustic guitar rapidly became my bridge to friending locals and sharing cultures. That instrument began to fall apart as I journeyed through the continent's glaciers, beaches, jungles, deserts, and mountains. Keeping my six-string compadre functioning on this grand adventure sparked my fascination with travel guitars and kick-started my 20-plus-year career as a luthier. I remember thinking, they can put a man on the moon but can’t make a guitar suited for travel. The seed was planted.

Upon returning to Santa Fe, I enjoyed the life of a gigging musician and worked for the legendary guitar shop, The Candyman, where I honed my instrument repair skills. I returned to my hometown in Vermont in 2003 with my wife, knowing it was the best place to raise a family. I spent the next ten years as a string repair technician. I then became head luthier for a company that built carbon fiber guitars, where I learned the art of composites. However, I always believed there must be an environmentally friendly way to make composite instruments that play and sound great but are also rugged enough for adventure and travel. In 2015, I began experimenting with building guitars and ukuleles from Vermont’s newly legal crop, hemp. HempTone had sprouted.

As my creation grows, I am proud to handcraft steadfast guitars for people to take with them as they play in nature and explore the world. My instruments have whitewater-rafted the Grand Canyon, summited Mount Denali, and bicycled from Boston to Seattle. 

“Music allowed me to connect with people and cultures as I traveled the world. Now I build instruments to help others do the same.” - Jay Burstein