Official Luthiers Forum!

New developments regarding Brazilwood, Spanish Cedar, Honduras Rosewood and Black or Nicaraguan rosewood.

CITES and Brazilwood

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

They're talking about Pernambuco, the choice of woods for violin family bows. I wish they'd do something for BRW....

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I have an intersting story about Pau Brasil.
I once ran into a guy who was illegally selling Pau Brasil and BRW. He would log it in the North and then put pieces in his car and drive it South. He had a bunch of "slats" of Pau Brasil in the back of his car when he passed a police check point one night. The guard asked what the wood was for and he said it was for making a chicken coup. It just so happened that the guard was building a chicken coup as well and asked for a few slats to finish up his own coup. So, somewhere in Brazil there is a policeman with some really expensive violin bow wood on his chicken coup.

There are a number of other woods that are also being considered but that have not come up for vote.

Madagascar has shut down most exports of most of the woods that we would be interested in. It is reported that Madagascar Ebony is very nearly depleted and while there is still Madagascar Rosewood available, the sources are getting very scarce and you have to have a previously approved permit to export.

Other ebonies and rosewoods from Asia are also on a tentative list.

In the future the reality is that 2 piece backs and tops will be few and far between for a number of species. We need to set the expectations that just because a guitar is made with a 4 piece back or top doesnt mean it is any less good...if we use wood sensitively and use only the best for the best purposes, it will last longer but eventually without tree farming almost all old growth will be gone and plantation grade will be the norm.

I am absolutely dying to make a 4 piece top. Despite plenty of availability for a 2 piece back, I'm making myself a Cypress guitar with a four piece back. There's something beautiful about that to me.

_________________
Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

Acoustically speaking, is there any reason NOT to use more than 2 pieces for a back?  I know the Martin D-35 is a 3 piece back...I have one and love it. I am also considering making a few 3 piece back guitars, but not out of rosewood. Is there any downside to doing this?

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

More glue lines.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070610/sc_nm/deforestation_dc

This article appeared today on the yahoo news. It's a very disturbing
testament to the current state of the worlds tropical forests.

I'm new to this group. And so you all know a bit about where I'm coming
from - I began my infatuation with guitars early on as a kid
in Oklahoma. Something I never got out of my system.

I've worked most of my adult life as an agronomist in various tropical
countries - mostly in Latin America, some in Africa. I have been working
for the past 17 years in Mexico, as an advisor to a network of
organic farmer groups for the most part located in the Baja peninsula.

During the past 30 years or so, I've seen rampant deforestation high and
low everywhere I've been. And very few efforts, however well meaning, in
the way of conservation or planting of trees that have come anywhere
closely proportional to the tree cutting.

Quoting from the article linked above,
"From central Africa to the Amazon basin and Indonesia's islands, the
world's great forests are being lost at an annual rate of at least 13 million
hectares (32 million acres) -- an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua."
That's every year.

"Without drastic action, the United Nations says, 98 percent of remaining
forests will be gone by 2022, with dire consequences for local people and
wildlife, including endangered rhinos, tigers and orangutans."
Not to mention luthiers.

This group, the OLF, is made up of the finest, noblest, most
knowledgeable, open minded, and information sharing bunch of folks
that I've ever seen, and, in modesty, I'll tell you I've seen and been a
participant in many.

Nobody has a higher reverence for these disappearing woods, and
hopefully for the forest where they come from. If and when the beautiful
woods that make up the raw materials for this small and dedicated
community of luthiers dries up, all the centuries of knowledge, craft and
art will be silenced and useless.

Luthiers make up a tiny % of the demand for wood for the vanishing
hardwoods - but unlike the shadowy, shady, clear cutters and the greed
driven task masters, quick kill corporations and corrupt governments
whose combined efforts allow for the mowing down of the tropical forests
- the luthiers art & craft is out in the open, in the daylight for all to see
and above all a testament to why these woods and the trees and forests
are part of a heritage for all humanity.

Therefore, I ask all of you to do what you can, in little or big of ways, to
do what you can to protect what's left and contribute to the conservation
and propagation of trees and forests.

A parting note - I hope I don't get kicked out of the group, shortly after
having joined, for sermonizing. This is just an absolutely fantastic group.
I appreciate all of you, hold you all in the highest of esteem.

john g