I started playing electric guitar at age 14. Within a year I was playing in a band and having the time of my life. I was hooked on Rock music and LOUD electric guitars immediately. This was the late 80s and I was growing up in Saugerties, NY (Hudson Valley). This area has a rich music history and the music scene at that time was very lively. It completely captured my imagination.

From 1994-1998 I attended Berklee College of Music to study Performance and MP&E (Music Production and Engineering). This was an incredible experience. I probably learned just as much living and playing music in Boston as I did in the classroom.

After Berklee, I headed to NYC where I spent a number of years working as a musician. During the day I worked as an instrument tech for the premier rehearsal studio in Manhattan - Studio Instrument Rentals (SIR). I had the opportunity to work with everyone from AC/DC to Madonna. I was often called into sessions to take care of whoever was rehearsing. It was thrilling but also super stressful at times. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything though.

In 2006 I left SIR, returned to the Hudson Valley and found work with the sound design company Positive Feedback. Throughout my time at PF I learned to work with CAD and assisted with audio design, project management and on-site implementation. This was a completely new world of audio (corporate, theatrical and special events) to me, and I worked with some incredibly talented audio engineers. Notable events were with CBS Television, IBM Corp, Nike, Clinton Global Initiative and many more. At this same time I built my first home recording studio (Champtone Sound Suite), kept working as a musician and continued developing my chops as a recording engineer.

As my home studio gigs picked up momentum, I found myself also working on many of my clients guitars. Everyone seemed to love how mine played and would ask me to work on their instruments. This led me to officially begin Champtone Guitars in 2009. I quickly developed and started selling a line of high quality electronics upgrade kits for popular guitar models. The first Champtone website was launched in 2010.

I continued to get more work locally as a guitar tech (luthier) and took a job working at Veillette Guitars in Woodstock, NY. This was my first experience being in a wood shop…taking raw materials and turning them into a stringed instrument. There were no CNC machines and everything was very hands on. I learned a lot about traditional guitar making techniques working there.

After my time at Veillette I then began working for Gerhards Guitarworks. This is where I learned the trade of guitar finishing. Robert “Cue” Gerhards master level finish work is well known within the guitar business. Cue trained me on all aspects of finishing and significantly leveled up my understanding of the craft. Over the years I’ve received many compliments about my own finish work and I owe a lot of that praise to Cue.

While working at Veillette and Gerhards Guitarworks I continued with Champtone and in 2011 I built my first run of instruments. For the next several years I focused on building and selling high end variants of classic “F” style guitars but with a unique twist on them. You can see many of them in the Guitar Gallery.

In 2024 I introduced my first fully conceived solid body electric guitar design -  the Champtone “Atomic”. 

-JK