Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement Leaves Musicians in Fear

[Feuer Frei!]

Agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pore through the workshop at the Gibson Guitar factory on Wednesday morning.
Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company's manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. "The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.


It isn't the first time that agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service have come knocking at the storied maker of such iconic instruments as the Les Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and essential jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian's ES-150. In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful name "United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms."


The question in the first raid seemed to be whether Gibson had been buying illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the Madagascar ebony that makes for such lovely fretboards. And if Gibson did knowingly import illegally harvested ebony from Madagascar, that wouldn't be a negligible offense. Peter Lowry, ebony and rosewood expert at the Missouri Botanical Garden, calls the Madagascar wood trade the "equivalent of Africa's blood diamonds." But with the new raid, the government seems to be questioning whether some wood sourced from India met every regulatory jot and tittle.


It isn't just Gibson that is sweating. Musicians who play vintage guitars and other instruments made of environmentally protected materials are worried the authorities may be coming for them next.


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[Sledgehammer427]

well, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth...

[Sailor Steve]

That's a tough call. Illegal importation is in an of itself a serious crime. But a player who bought the instrument in good faith? I agree with the idea that we should be boycotting manufacturers over this, and it is hypocrisy to be "green" except where it suits you, but an older instrument?

I had an Epiphone 12-string that I bought in 1978. That makes it two years older than my first daughter, and a major part of my life. Unfortunately it was stolen a few years back, but the point here is, what if I still had it? Epiphone is a subsidiary of Gibson. Was it made with illegal materials? If it was, would I be liable for buying an instrument off the rack when I had no clue what it was made of? According to this I certainly could have been:

It's not enough to know that the body of your old guitar is made of spruce and maple: What's the bridge made of? If it's ebony, do you have the paperwork to show when and where that wood was harvested and when and where it was made into a bridge? Is the nut holding the strings at the guitar's headstock bone, or could it be ivory? "Even if you have no knowledge - despite Herculean efforts to obtain it - that some piece of your guitar, no matter how small, was obtained illegally, you lose your guitar forever," Prof. Thomas has written. "Oh, and you'll be fined $250 for that false (or missing) information in your Lacey Act Import Declaration."

[Diopos]

Anyway fretboards are not needed anymore. Guitars are not needed anymore. You can "air" play it!!! Check this. And just to keep things is perspective, what do you call it when you "air" perform sex ? Ok if Gibson used "banned" material there is a problem. But I would really like a "life cycle analysis" of a fully "synthetic" made instrument. Would be interesting ...

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[RickC Sniper]

Ebony wood is banned? I had no idea.

I have a chess set and the black squares and black pieces are ebony.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by RickC Sniper

Ebony wood is banned? I had no idea.

I have a chess set and the black squares and black pieces are ebony.

Good point. One of the selling points for certain high-rent basses is the ebony fretboard. I'm poor, so mine are both rosewood.