Hemp is truly a super-plant: It can be turned into CBD to treat a spectrum of health ailments; it can be turned into textiles to make clothing, and it can be turned into biodegradable bioplastics. It is one of the most durable fibers on the planet, it is extremely light-weight, and it’s far cheaper and grows faster than conventional construction lumber. And, of course, it’s far more sustainable to farm.
But what does it sound like?
That’s the question that has consumed Morris Beegle for the last few years. He’s been on a mission, working with different guitar makers, hemp companies, speaker companies and music buffs to craft the world’s first hemp-bodied electric guitars and amplifier cabinets. It’s been a journey, Beegle says, one that’s culminated in the creation and debut of Silver Mountain Hemp — a Loveland-based boutique instrument collaboration between Beegle, the French Brothers and the Hard Truckers speaker company.
“We’re the first ones that have done this, so that’s the coolest part,” Beegle says. “And they’re really good guitars and cabinets.”
Silver Mountain Hemp’s guitars come equipped with some of the finest electric hardware on the market: DeMarzio humbucker pickups, Warmoth necks, Planet Waves locking tuners and a Gotoh tele bridge. But, unlike conventional guitars (which are typically made from mahogany, alder, swamp ash or maple), the bodies of Beegle’s guitars are made from hemp. Specifically, a substance called HempWood, which is made by compressing hemp stalks together with soy binder.
“It’s a really hard material — harder than hickory, even,” he says. And the guitars are pretty heavy too, he adds. “The first Strat we built was like 10-and-a-half pounds … it’s like a good, heavy Les Paul. But now they’re closer to 8.5 pounds.”
However, Beegle says he wants to reduce the weight to under eight pounds as he refines the process.
Prior to using HempWood, Beegle was experimenting with a company out of Canada that uses molded hemp shells placed over top of conventional wooden instruments. That worked, Beegle says, but it wasn’t truly satisfying his vision. He wanted his guitars to be hemp to their core — so he reached out to the French Brothers, and together they started making electric guitars using HempWood.
“We’ve fine-tuned it in the last year, and now we’re ready to go into a full-on custom shop,” Beegle says. “There will be about seven different colors, two different body styles; you can have various pickup configurations, you can have various necks and various fret boards,” Beegle says. “There will be a lot of one-of-a-kinds out there.”
To create their hemp amp cabinets, Beegle teamed up with Hard Trucker speakers. The Hard Truckers have been hand-crafting amp cabinets for jam bands since 2006, Beegle says. They’d even experimented with making their own hemp cabinets at one point in time. So, when Beegle approached them with his vision of making the Silver Mountain boutique hemp amp cabinets, they jumped on board without hesitation.
“Now we’re utilizing different materials to build these cabinets,” Beegle says. The cabinets are mostly HempWood with CannaGrove board and some wooden components. And with the Hard Truckers hand-crafted hemp cabinets and French Brothers hand-wired tube amps in them, “They sound incredible,” Beegle says.
This venture is a junction between two of Beegle’s career passions: hemp and entertainment. He’s been in the music industry since he graduated high school. His brother Dave is a professional guitarist, and for a long time the Beegle brothers were tied to a local record imprint that had them regularly working with local musicians. Then, in 2012, Beegle started dabbling in the cannabis and hemp worlds; he launched Tree Free Hemp in 2013 and for the last eight years he’s organized the NoCo Hemp Expo, the world’s largest hemp expo, as well as the Southern Hemp Expo and the Winter Hemp Summit — all under the umbrella of his company, We Are For Better Alternatives (WAFBA).
Today Beegle spends his time hosting podcasts, virtual events, webinars, live events and, of course, playing and refining his Silver Mountain Hemp guitars, which he plans on officially launching this summer with a jam party in Fort Collins.
“We’re going to get a whole bunch of hemp guitars and cabinets and other amps and guitars and have a shred fest with 20-or-so Colorado guitar players,” he says. “It’s going to be the sound of hemp. And I’m looking forward to hearing it … it’s going to be something that’s never been done before.”
You can pre-order Silver Mountain Hemp’s electric guitars or amp cabinets online at silvermountainhemp.com/shop.
