It Started with Strings
On a snowy December afternoon, a visit to a local guitar shop sparked an unexpected idea. A casual conversation between Burton employee, Mark Taylor, and Circle Strings founder, Adam Buchwald, revealed a mutual love of instruments and snowboarding. Before the snow melted, the idea was already in motion.
Soon, the teams at Burton and Circle Strings were walking through each other's workshops—exploring wood collections, examining core construction and asking how materials might translate from one operation to another. What began as two artists admiring each other's work evolved into a deeper exploration of technique, design and shared values.
The result is a limited-edition set between Burton and Circle Strings that pairs a handcrafted acoustic and electric guitar with a snowboard; built from the same woods, shaped through shared visions and rooted in Burlington, Vermont.
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An Exchange of Knowledge
This collaboration did not begin with graphics or logos. It began with process.
Materials that typically serve different purposes were reconsidered through a new lens. A rosette became more than ornamentation. A core became something worth revealing rather than concealing.
The result is not a co-branded product, but a unified body of work: three forms that reflect one another structurally, visually and philosophically.
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The Set
One acoustic. One electric. One snowboard.
These three pieces are offered exclusively as a complete set. They were conceived together, designed together and built to exist together.
Across all three forms is a shared palette of materials including:
- Sinker Sitka Spruce
- Flamed "Mahogany Mama"
- Wenge
- Koa
Every decision, from wood selection to structural layout, was made with all three pieces in mind. Each were developed concurrently, influencing one another throughout the process.
Built for musicians who ride, riders who play and collectors who appreciate the integrity behind both.
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Crafted Together
With decades of experience on both sides, the collaboration led to a remarkable exchange of knowledge between our teams. What started as two family owned companies coming together for an innovative project, evolved into a genuine friendship and deep mutual respect for each other's trade. The venture felt entirely organic, with our mission and vision always closely intertwined.
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The Acoustic Guitar
Built in the OM body style, this acoustic guitar encapsulates the creative blending of traditional lutherie and snowboard legacy.
Burton’s distinctive Alekesam tail shape is translated into functional guitar elements, such as the fingerboard extension, pickguard and bridge. The peghead features an inlay crafted from Burton’s Superfly II core, the same high-performance material used in many of their top-tier snowboards, with a shape that echoes the Maru 156 “soundhole.” Burton’s iconic mountain logo appears as a fingerboard and back inlay on both the acoustic and electric guitars.
The Specs
- Mahogany Mama back and sides
- Sinker Sitka Spruce top
- Tortoise binding and pickguard
- Koa rosette
- Wenge fingerboard, bridge and headplate
- 25.4" scale length
- 1-3/4" nut width, 2-1/4" bridge spacing
- Burton mountain logo fingerboard inlay and back inlay
- Burton ‘Superfly II’ core peghead inlay
- Nickel Waverly tuners
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Hidden Details
When Circle Strings CNC designer, William Hylton, started working on the design of the guitars, he dove into the photography collection of late Vermont farmer, Wilson Bentley. In 1885, Bentley became the first person to ever photograph a single snowflake and would go on to photograph more than 5,000, being the first to discover that no two snowflakes are the same. His groundbreaking work would later be featured in many journals and used in higher learning.
The fingerboard inlays on both the acoustic and electric guitars feature unique designs of snowflakes photographed by Bentley.
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The Electric Guitar
Built in the More John body shape, this solid-body electric takes the collaboration beyond shared aesthetics.
Burton’s Superfly II core forms the body of this instrument, capped with Mahogany Mama on the front and back. A natural finish exposes the core’s construction, offering a window into the materials typically hidden beneath opaque finishes.
The Specs
- Burton ‘Superfly II’ core with Mahogany Mama top and back
- Mahogany neck
- Natural nitrocellulose finish
- 24.75" scale length, 12" fingerboard radius
- 1-11/16" nut width, 2-1/16" bridge spacing
- Wenge fingerboard and headplate
- Burton mountain logo fingerboard inlay and back inlay
- Burton ‘Superfly II’ core peghead inlay
- Music City Savvy compensated wraparound bridge
- Seymour Duncan P-90 Antiquity bridge and neck pickup
- Tortoise pickguard, heel cap and cavity cover
- Nickel Waverly tuners
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Tales of Resilience
It all started with selecting shared materials that could hold both music and movement. The Sinker Stika Spruce was rescued in the early 1990s and restored from old salmon traps in the fjords of Tenakee Springs, Alaska.
Mahogany Mama was once a plentiful, yet an undervalued staple of tropical Central American forests but poor harvest practices and deforestation brought its demise. Nowadays, big Mahogany mainly grows through commercial practices in remote fringes like upland Peru. Every now and then, a natural disaster like 2008’s Hurricane Arthur grants access to some rare, fallen giants. Flame Mahogany mama presents this magnificent three-dimensional figure as well as offering remarkable working properties.
These stories of redemption, resilience and adaptability find new life in these sets.
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The Maru 156
This exclusive release pairs both a masterfully handcrafted Circle Strings acoustic and electric guitar with a matching Burton snowboard, each built with precision and artistry, for those who play and those who ride. From tonewood selection to board construction, every detail honors the materials, processes and culture that both companies represent.
Wenge frames a center stripe of flame-figured Mahogany Mama, while a “soundhole” exposes the board’s inner core construction. Fiber purfling, matching Koa rosettes and inlaid logos connect all three pieces visually.
The name says it all: Maru, meaning “circle” in Japanese, symbolizes the perfect unity of two crafts becoming one.
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Reserve a Set
Only thirteen complete sets will be produced.
Each full set, offered exclusively as a complete edition for $20,000, includes both guitars and the custom snowboard and will not be sold separately.
Five percent of proceeds will be donated to the Divided Sky Foundation, a Vermont-based nonprofit providing a safe and supportive space for individuals beginning their journey to recovery, guided by the power of music and community.
Submit an inquiry below to learn more or reserve one of the thirteen.