Busting Gibson Over Ebony Wood

[GattonFan]

This has even further-reaching effects. In the story I read, a piano dealer was fined $17,500, and sentenced to 3 years probation, for importing 4 vintage pianos - because they had ivory keys!
Dennis

[vetovideo]

If you didn't do the paperwork, shame on you. If you're using illicit wood, shame, shame , SHAME on you! But here's my quandary .... IF everything is legit and on the up and up, why not use those woods? Would a Stratavarius sound the same if it was made from pine? Would Chet Atkins Gibson have the same voice when its Master played? And even more simple, would any of Sarah's Celebritys have the same tones if made from different wood? Our solid body guitars depend on the pick-ups and electronics but our acoustics and semi-hollow body instruments depend more on the resonance of what they're made from. What's the answer? How do you make it right for everyone?

[Sarah93003]

Hey! Don't mess with my Celebrities!

Okay, okay, I chilled out. I'm fine now. Whew!

[MWaldorf]

While I know that the wood used makes a difference, how many of us can tell based on just our own ears what the difference between Brazilian and Indian rosewood? I couldn't. heck I have an old Kay hollowbody that's got multiple routes covered with wood filler and finished with floor polyurethane, and it sounds darn good. Why? Because of the pickups (Gibson P-90s, if only the rest of their pickups were so good).

Anyhow, given all the "mojo" guitarists are always after, wouldn't illegally harvested wood that destroys natural forests have bad mojo? I think a guitar made with wood from an old barn, or better yet, the dancefloor of an old roadhouse would have far more mojo.

[olrocknroller]

Here's the thing I don't get - if other manufacturers manage to make high quality, toneful guitars using sustainable wood, how is it an imposition on Gibson to do the same? It's not an added burden they alone in the industry face, and it seems they have to go out of their way to get the unsustainable kind, let alone risking Federal action.

Instead of focusing on illicit tonewood they should make some pickups that sound half decent.

Hagstrom are using an artificial composite for fretboards that seems to have very consistent tone without any of the hot-spots so common in wood fretboards... Carbon fiber has also been used with great success. So there are alternatives...that said though, I can't help but feel that a certain amount of excess zeal has gone into this "crack-down." One article I read today even suggested that guitars you and I have bought may be subject to seizure if we try to transport them in and out of the country without precise documentation as to the origin of all the "natural" components...say, a traveling musician? Now that sounds real extreme!

Surely to goodness there are more serious environmental issues than whether a guitar has a delrin or a bone nut...

[J i m m y]

[Deleted]

[MarkyKobane]

wow.... nothing better to do??? If they ever show up at Hallmark, i'll be there with machgine guns!

[Bob Shade]

They did once already, it was about a shipment that was legit that had mother of pearl. It seems they wanted a yearly fee for a lisc. I think now you may understand a little more about these people and what they really want.

Thanks for having our back MK.

By the way your new PW H60C is shipping today. All that is left to do is install the tuners, and the pickguard, string it and set it up!

Many thanks!

Bob

[JimPage]

From today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
http://blogs.ajc.com/bob-barr-blog/2011 ... uncle-sam-–-“from-my-cold-dead-hands”/

--Jim

[Dennisthe Menace]

.....and the latest from the Wall Street Journal.....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 59286.html

P.S. - Also Henry was a Guest Interview on the Glenn Beck Show today.....
GBTV: Multimedia: Video Playback Page | Glenn interviews Gibson CEO - Video
http://video.gbtv.com/media/video.jsp?co...