About NorthTone Strings
This whole thing started with one question: Why was no one making guitar strings in Canada?
Canada has produced some of the most iconic musicians in the world. We have the artists, the venues, and a guitar culture that runs deep. But for as long as anyone can remember, every single set of strings played in this country has come from somewhere else. The longer we sat with that fact, the stranger it felt. And then it started feeling like something worth fixing.
Who We Are
NorthTone was founded by Al Henry and Amanda Diamond, a husband and wife team who came at this from two very different angles and ended up in exactly the same place.
Al has spent more than thirty years as a guitarist and gear obsessive. The kind of player who notices the difference between a fresh set and a dead one before he's finished the opening riff. He's chased tone through countless guitars, amps, and thousands of sets of strings. That experience and attention to detail is baked into everything NorthTone is building.
Amanda brings the vision and the voice. A creative entrepreneur and Canadian Army Veteran, she's built businesses around storytelling, community, and the belief that the things we make should mean something. Her fingerprints are on everything that makes NorthTone more than just a string company. Together, they make a company that's equal parts craft and character.
- NorthTone is proud to be an Indigenous owned and veteran run company.
Why Sudbury
We're building NorthTone in Sudbury because this is home. That's really the whole reason.
But it doesn't hurt that Sudbury happens to be the Nickel Capital of the World, and nickel is one of the key materials in electric guitar string construction. There's something fitting about that. A city built on industry and hard work, where making something real still carries weight.
That's the spirit we're building NorthTone with.
What We're Building
NorthTone isn't a private label brand. We're not putting our name on someone else's strings.
We're building a genuine Canadian manufacturing company, designing the product, sourcing the materials, and winding the strings ourselves right here in Northern Ontario. It's a harder road. But it's the only one that felt worth taking. Because at the end of it, there will be a set of strings made in Canada, by Canadians, for the players who've never had that option before. That's the whole idea. And we're just getting started.
