Trouble with rare guitar woods -- Guitar World article.
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Kaoskadosk
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Sounds very troublesome to say the least.
bigguspickus
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It made me a little angry with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I guess their intentions are noble, not wanting rainforests destroyed and all, but raiding Gibson's factory and seizing wood that's already been cut is just stupid. Worry about stopping the inflow of new illegal lumber (maybe at its source?!) Once it's been cut it's not a tree (for you to hug) anymore. Without getting too political, the government does a lot of stupid things in general.
O
OzziePete
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Enforcing law is one thing, but jumping on reputable builders who haven't the documentation that is NOW required for wood they acquired legally years ago is another thing altogether. As one person commented about in the article, they have an idea from which country the stockpile came from, but some of those countries no longer exist - let alone from which forestry camp!
But I understand why the law has been extended, it attacks the other end of any illegal trade that might be going on. Reputable, long established builders and those who supply them would not touch suspicious wood in the past, but now they'll run a mile from any sus deal.
From my own little patch of the world, I was surprised recently when I had a tree cut down in my own courtyard that had grown way too big and was threatening my garage. The tree lopper just wouldn't cut it down, he had to identify the species and when it was found to be native, had to ring the local council to get permission to cut it down. He also had to submit a botanical report on it's condition to prove he had examined the tree and found it a threat to a structure. He said if he had just lopped it, the penalties were very substantial for him, even above what penalty I would be hit for, as property owner. That attacks the readiness of some people to turn a blind eye to proper process and just do what the owner wants them to do. I think he mentioned a $100K fine if he felled a protected tree without all the paperwork in order. Goodness knows what the penalties would be for felling an endangered - on the CITES list - tree!
I think in Australia our Jarrah trees are under the CITES treaty, they are only found indigenous in the South West pocket of Western Australia. Not sure of which others are? Jarrah has been used by Maton in some fretboards of their guitars, but it is not a wood they use frequently, so I am told. Guitar manufacturers here also use Bunya Pine, Tasmanian & Victorian Blackwood, Mulga wood, Queensland Maple (which probably isn't a true maple species btw!), a species of Cedar (?) - all are indigenous to Australia. I know the Blackwood stocks are tightly controlled & if the guitar manufacturers worldwide take an interest in the Blackwoods then I guess we'll have to tighten up controls even more.
I have also read that guitar manufacturing takes only a small portion of the woods out of the forest, furniture manufacturers are possibly the biggest procurers of exotic woods.
But I understand why the law has been extended, it attacks the other end of any illegal trade that might be going on. Reputable, long established builders and those who supply them would not touch suspicious wood in the past, but now they'll run a mile from any sus deal.
From my own little patch of the world, I was surprised recently when I had a tree cut down in my own courtyard that had grown way too big and was threatening my garage. The tree lopper just wouldn't cut it down, he had to identify the species and when it was found to be native, had to ring the local council to get permission to cut it down. He also had to submit a botanical report on it's condition to prove he had examined the tree and found it a threat to a structure. He said if he had just lopped it, the penalties were very substantial for him, even above what penalty I would be hit for, as property owner. That attacks the readiness of some people to turn a blind eye to proper process and just do what the owner wants them to do. I think he mentioned a $100K fine if he felled a protected tree without all the paperwork in order. Goodness knows what the penalties would be for felling an endangered - on the CITES list - tree!
I think in Australia our Jarrah trees are under the CITES treaty, they are only found indigenous in the South West pocket of Western Australia. Not sure of which others are? Jarrah has been used by Maton in some fretboards of their guitars, but it is not a wood they use frequently, so I am told. Guitar manufacturers here also use Bunya Pine, Tasmanian & Victorian Blackwood, Mulga wood, Queensland Maple (which probably isn't a true maple species btw!), a species of Cedar (?) - all are indigenous to Australia. I know the Blackwood stocks are tightly controlled & if the guitar manufacturers worldwide take an interest in the Blackwoods then I guess we'll have to tighten up controls even more.
I have also read that guitar manufacturing takes only a small portion of the woods out of the forest, furniture manufacturers are possibly the biggest procurers of exotic woods.
i dont see it as the end of international guitar trading as we know it, sure it has problems but thats part of the public policy process. Things look good on paper and sound good in principal but execution isn't always feasible the way its drawn up to be, the only way to know is to implement it and see what happens. Then you tweak it as you go, its just how policy making works.
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