Any plans/possibilities for sustainable wood topped guitars?
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OzziePete
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Patrick said:
Patrick, in Australia, fresh water is a huge issue. =CB= is right, in that the water is not available where we need it. Australia, for time immemorial, has been a dry-ish continent. But our northern tropical zones get flooded every year. Plans have often thought about somehow harvesting that over supply but it does appear cost ineffective, though I'm no expert. Massive dams would be needed for a start to hold the harvested water, that means talking to land owners and compensation and reclaiming expenses, not to mention the actual cost of construction in a very remote location. Then there'd be the piping of the harvested water to places south that may need it. Cities like Adelaide and Perth can be very touch and go with their water supplies whenever a bad drought affects them.
Sydney, Australia's largest city, has been in the grip of a drought (like so many other places throughout Australia's eastern coastline) in the last 10 years and it prompted our State Govt. to have a Desalination plant built. But the benefits that Sydney's water supply gains by getting some of it's supply through the de-sal process is offset by the spike in energy demands that the Plant takes to operate.
As we have coal fired power stations that gets everyone upset about the pollution & the need to get another power station too. Our power infrastructure really struggles at times, because successive State Govts. have been reluctant to build a power station as this would cause a nimby outbreak wherever a new one was proposed.
As for the issue of sustainable woods, Warmoth would probably do it's best to get the best wood, for the best price, from ethical long established wood suppliers. But the fact is that the best woods for guitar building are also in demand in furniture building and other uses and a few of the highly prized woods are now either banned from export under the CITES treaty or in very short inconsistent supply. I'm actually surprised that Warmoth can still offer a wide range of woods and not just restricted to the bland, non figured types of Maple, Rosewood and Mahogany woods. Or worse still, be obliged to offer lesser quality woods due to demand for products and very restricted supply. I think they do very well to get what they can.
bamboo could be a very cool idea (and definitely sustainable with how quickly it grows). but i'm curious, how thick would a very large bamboo plant end up? seems like a top made of it would have to be 3 to 5 pieces. plus how unique would the tops be? seems like that acoustic's top is a very solid uniform color. almost like basswood or alder
Depending on how the bamboo is laminated, sometimes the look is uniform and sometimes you can see clear grain/lamination patterns. I don't think anyone is doing bamboo guitars without lamination.
So here's the blog of some fella who made a bamboo telecaster (neck, fingerboard, and body). Soundclips on his site.
http://www.sinolectro.com/
And it seems First Act makes (or made) some bamboo geetjo
And this here is Yamaha's discontinued bamboo acoustic.
So here's the blog of some fella who made a bamboo telecaster (neck, fingerboard, and body). Soundclips on his site.
http://www.sinolectro.com/
And it seems First Act makes (or made) some bamboo geetjo
And this here is Yamaha's discontinued bamboo acoustic.
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zogoibi
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Responsible forestry is where it's at. This was a good thread till it suddenly took a turn for the dumb. Do we really have to shy away from intelligently talking about this topic. The trees whose woods we love don't just grow anywhere and everywhere like weeds till we choose to "smack'em" down with a chainsaw. This pseudo tough-talk is exceptionally uninformed, outdated and drunkenly wreckless; and it betrays your intellect. You can't just plunder an expanse of elder forest and expect new growth to just pop up and quickly replace it. The growth cycle for hardwoods is remarkably slow. They only thrive in narrow swaths of intricately balanced habitats. Combine these factors and it is apparent that respect for the trees and smart forestry is a must. Without stewardship and conservation in mind, future generations will not be able to enjoy the variety of beautiful species like we do. This isn't lovey-dovey hippie-talk, this is simple truth. We can choose to be short-sighted a-holes with no consideration for anything or anyone beyond ourselves or choose to be respectful visitor/inhabitants of a wonderful world wealthy in variety. Man , by nature, is a short-sighted parasitic vandal if left to his god-given devices. But with conservation and stewardship in mind, these woods can be selectively harvested way into the future. Without any consideration for sustainable harvesting and you can kiss you bocote goodbye. I think bamboo will prove to be an outstanding alternative wood choice: tonally and aesthetically. That Yamaha is gorgeous in my opinion. I want a bamboo thinline now and I want it to be a Warmoth!
erogenousjones17
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I think that both bamboo Tele and the Yamaha look really sharp. :icon_thumright:
AprioriMark
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TJD said:
I'm sorry, everyone. This post wins the thread.
-Mark
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zogoibi
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That's a good thing. Not sure why you feel the need to feel sorry? :laughing3: Now if he said it was like watching mold or schmegma grow that would be altogether different, me thinks. And nobody wins these things; its just ideas or lack thereof.
GratefullyRedd
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You frustrate me man, don't say no need to get snippy when you were snippy in the first place. just because a guitar can last for 5 years doesn't mean that they don't mass produce them, for instance sitka spruce sees most of its harvesting for instruments. Yes they do grow out of the ground but that doesn't 12 feet a day. Please refrain from being stupid, troll.dbw said:crimethink said:dbw said:
This "troll" is waiting on the body pictured below plus a Canary neck and other parts to arrive via UPS:
While I'm fully aware of the restriction of free speech on this forum as it pertains to profanity, politics, et al I didn't see anything expressed or implied in the forum's rules which prohibits someone from asking a legitimate question and seeing as the subject of this thread is germane to "Suggestion Box" I see no reason to be accused baselessly of sowing discord or other forum malicious intentions.
Thanks for your wonderful hospitality BTW.
No need to get so snippy. This still makes no sense. First of all, cork is a dumb idea for both aesthetic and functional reasons. Second, 95% (or so) of the wood in a guitar is in the neck, fingerboard, and body. So you'd have a veneer of sustainable material and the rest of the guitar would be normal hardwood? That kinda seems to miss the point. Gives you an ugly guitar while having almost the same environmental impact.
In my opinion you should just buy a wooden guitar like everyone else. Guitars are extremely durable goods... it's not like you go through one a week. The percentage of logging that goes toward guitar construction must be laughably small, so if you want to worry about sustainability, do something that will actually have an impact.
Besides, (and I'm not an environmentalist so forgive me if this is a dumb question) what's so non-sustainable about trees? They still grow out of the ground, last time I checked... :icon_scratch:
AprioriMark
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Max said:
Hahaha, yeah. We generally don't "troll," but we do "disagree passionately" quite often on these boards. Keep in mind that it's not generally ever people trying to argue, but honestly believing in something.
-Mark
=CB= said:
The rate at which we are consuming many sources hardwoods is faster than the rate at which they can be produced. That is the opposite of sustainable. That's why this is a topic we're discussing.
=CB= said:
To use the implicit term "treehugger" was unfounded. I don't appreciate being called some derogatory slang when I'm trying to have a discussion with someone. I don't think anybody here ever said anything about preserving old trees because they're old and important. We're talking about new practices that will allow us to continue living the way we do over a long timeline, because a lot of what we're doing now is rapidly depleting various natural resources without looking at the longterm consequences.
=CB= said:
And obviously water conservation isn't a literal term. That was the point I was making - that there's no literal shortage of water. What people mean when they refer to "water conservation" is responsible use to conserve clean and usable sources of water. If you think there's no shortage of water, why not look at some places outside North America for a minute and you'll see just how many countries in the world are in serious crisis of water shortage.
I'm not trying to start arguments. I feel like a few people entered the conversation with an attitude and were just belittling the OP and the rest of us who were trying to discuss a perfectly pertinent issue.
GratefullyRedd
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I'm sure he has, but still sometimer trolls still exist and you can't tell me what he said was intelligent.Max said:
btw is your last name bouvrie?
