what is your guitar made of?

[terryei]

Gibson is being herassed.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576530520471223268.html

EDIT by bluemoon: changed the spelling in title

[Sbrem]

Reminds me of the CPSIA... I have all the woods in my guitars, but if I had to travel, I'd have to get a carbon instrument, just keep those a•wipes away.

Steve

[tpitman]

I saw that. Nice to see the DOJ has nothing better to do than raid an American instrument manufacturer. My guitar was deliberately made of only extinct exotic woods, ivory tuning pegs, the nut from bone donated by Biafran war orphans, and strings drawn from rare tiger tendons, all assembled by child labor in a Thailand sex-slave factory. The case is lined with the finest baby seal fur culled from hides with minimal blood stains. Send Mr. Holder my regards.

[mk162]

Yeah, and they are telling where Boeing to build factories.

Is the world out of other issues already?  I am glad we are cracking down on this junk when so many people are out of work.  Don't worry, we are going to have to register our carbon emissions soon.

[Sbrem]

Do you think they might be interested in the wood our pitchforks and torches will made of?

[Chadwick]

Bunch of jackasses trying to justify their budget.
( where's my pitchfork.. )

[tpitman]

A somewhat different take on the Gibson vs. DOJ dustup"

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/08/new-scandal-at-doj-as-illegal-guitars-end-up-in-hands-of-mexican-drug-lords.html

[ZooCity]

Some of that wood, straight-up, should not be harvested the way it's being done.  If that's going to stop, consumers need to stop screaming for their exotic wood products and companies need to stop buying and building with it.  End of story on that. 

Vague, open-ended laws with random enforcement combined with retardo bureaucracy in our gov't and ludicrous border policy? ... well that's par for the course. 

My guitar?  Rosewood and Ebony.  So I'm not getting on a high horse here from a resource management perspective.   

And regarding that border issue, I'd rather go to jail than to willfully have some border cop take it from me, just on principle.  When I read that I thought it was paranoid and ludicrous but then again, border agencies tend to do some very "un-american" things to citizens returning home and in many other countries they would probably just lean on that law to have an excuse to jack fine guitars from travelers. 

The most interesting part about that article to me was how it mentions that Martin's CEO is stumped at why consumers won't shift to other woods for their instruments.  I think it's high time we had us a sea change in that department.  I'd be much happier with my instrument knowing it was made from correctly harvested U.S. wood even if the sound was a little different.   So what?  We've been hearing and trying to 'capture' that same sound at all costs for long enough now, time for something new. 

[Sbrem]

If you check a lot of independent sites, there are many alternative woods with great sound, but it's going to take a long time for us older and not so older folks to give up the rosewoods and ebony and others that are harvested like ivory. But for the correctly harvested wood, it shouldn't be an issue, and there is a lot more furniture being made of the more exotic and beautiful woods than guitar companies are building guitars... Kind of shame to think that if I wanted to travel, I would have to figure the cost of an instrument just to have something to play while on vacation.

Steve

[ZooCity]

A friend of mine with property up north knows a fellow there who harvests small amounts of deadfall old growth and makes world classed stringed instruments, mostly violins I believe.  These are situations where an orchestral player contacts him, he makes the piece suited to the musician and literally flys the instrument to wherever in the world they are to ensure it suits them.  If you can do that with some Montana deadfall I don't see making production guitars to be much of a stretch at all.  Classical goes back a lot further than classic rock and folk. 

[mk162]

I was pretty sure that all of that wood was harvested according the Forest Stewardship Council...

http://www.gibson.com/absolutenm/templates/FeatureTemplatePressRelease.aspx?articleid=1340&zoneid=6

I am sorry, but once again, the federal government is overstepping it's bounds.  It seems also that Martin Guitars' CEO is a democrat donor--do the math.

[blue moon]

I read a comment the other day:

"We are from the government. We are here to help!" (ourselves to your money)

pierre

[mk162]

It's so sad but true.  And now it seems people are railing against those that make money and want them to fork it over to the government in the form of taxes, yet those that take in the form of handouts aren't ridiculed at all.  Maybe it should come from both ends, entitlement AND tax reform..and SHRINK THE DAMN GOVERNMENT.

We sit here on a daily basis and talk about how this or that is changing because of the government and most people still vote for big government.

[tpitman]

I read a comment the other day:

"We are from the government. We are here to help!" (ourselves to your money)

pierre

They also say, "We've got what it takes to take what you've got."

[Command-Z]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?