This week on the podcast, we talk to Jay Burstein, a luthier in Vermont who makes guitars from industrial hemp.
His company is called Hemptone Music and specializes in fine-crafted hemp instruments.
On this episode, Burstein talks about his process of making the guitars and the journey he’s undertaken to improve his production methods.
Burstein was first on the podcast in early 2019. Back then he was using clay and fiberglass to make molds to shape the body of the instruments, but he’s since streamlined his process and now uses a more elaborate method for shaping the bodies of the guitars.
“Not only do you have to design the instrument, you have to come up with the tooling involved to make it,” he said.
He worked with an engineer and a facility to mill the aluminum for the new body mold.
He originally wanted to make a small but sturdy travel-sized guitar, after trekking through South America with a traditional guitar made from wood, which he said didn’t hold up so well.
“Basically the instrument I designed is the one I'd always wanted, as someone who'd done some traveling,” he said.
Last month, Burstein loaned one of his hemp guitars to me for my trip to the Montana Summer Hemp Summit in Great Falls.
The instrument traveled well and fit nicely in the overhead compartments of the airplane.
“It's approximately half of the size of a guitar, but it's got a full 25-inch scale length, which is about the string length of a full-sized guitar,” Burstein said. “But I lop it off essentially at the fifth fret.”
For guitar players, this would be like having a capo on the fifth fret. The guitar plays like any other guitar, but the low note is an A rather than an E.
Taking the guitar to Montana was a homecoming of sorts, because Burstein sourced the hemp fibers for the instrument from IND Hemp in Montana.
The small guitar made a big splash at the summit, where it was on display at the Lancaster Farming expo table.
Summit attendees played it and marveled at its uniqueness. Everyone wanted to know the process of how it was made.
Hear Jay Burstein from Hemptone Music explain his process:
Hemptone Music
https://www.hemptonemusic.com/
Hemptone Music on Instagram: @hemptonemusic
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