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When Buying New Would This Influence You?
- Thread starter Snakeman1066
- Start date
so what your saying is you don't care about breathing? Or the fact that you may have to take your grandchildren to a museum to see a piece of Rosewood? or Koa?
Traditionally, the craftsmen who make custom guitars, pianos and clarinets have used rare tropical woods mahogany or rosewood. These rare woods create a sound practically unrivaled in the music world. But much of the tropical wood is cut from forests in South and Central America and is now highly endangered. Immediate collaboration with musicians and instrument makers is needed to develop programs to preserve and sustain the earth's forests in connection with the crafting of musical instruments.
Almost half of the original forest cover on earth - over three billion hectares - is gone because humans have destroyed it. According Worldwatch, forest loss between 1980 and 1995 was at least 200 million hectares, an area the size of Mexico. Each year, at least another 16 million hectares of natural forest, an area the size of Washington State, is lost in developing countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, and Madagascar.
Tropical woods like mahogany, rosewood and ebony do not grow in stands, but grow independent with other trees in the rain forest. To get these prized trees, loggers often clear an entire area. Another way to get these trees is to create openings or roadways into the forest. Once the road is there, other logging operations move in and massive degradation occurs.
Currentl some instrument manufacturers have become aware of the environmental problems associated with rare tropical woods.
Gibson
Martin
Modulus
Traben
Dean
Yamaha
all now make models of guitars and basses using non-endangered woods such as Paulownia, granadillo, chechen, red cedar, chakte kok and soma. These woods are not only exceptionally good for instrument construction, but they also come from sustainable forests. Sustainable forestry, or ecoforestry, balances economic and ecological needs, and aims to preserve the integrity of healthy, self-perpetuating forests.
and it keeps getting better...
Paulownia is also suited for use as a feedstock for biofuel production.
Traditionally, the craftsmen who make custom guitars, pianos and clarinets have used rare tropical woods mahogany or rosewood. These rare woods create a sound practically unrivaled in the music world. But much of the tropical wood is cut from forests in South and Central America and is now highly endangered. Immediate collaboration with musicians and instrument makers is needed to develop programs to preserve and sustain the earth's forests in connection with the crafting of musical instruments.
Almost half of the original forest cover on earth - over three billion hectares - is gone because humans have destroyed it. According Worldwatch, forest loss between 1980 and 1995 was at least 200 million hectares, an area the size of Mexico. Each year, at least another 16 million hectares of natural forest, an area the size of Washington State, is lost in developing countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, and Madagascar.
Tropical woods like mahogany, rosewood and ebony do not grow in stands, but grow independent with other trees in the rain forest. To get these prized trees, loggers often clear an entire area. Another way to get these trees is to create openings or roadways into the forest. Once the road is there, other logging operations move in and massive degradation occurs.
Currentl some instrument manufacturers have become aware of the environmental problems associated with rare tropical woods.
Gibson
Martin
Modulus
Traben
Dean
Yamaha
all now make models of guitars and basses using non-endangered woods such as Paulownia, granadillo, chechen, red cedar, chakte kok and soma. These woods are not only exceptionally good for instrument construction, but they also come from sustainable forests. Sustainable forestry, or ecoforestry, balances economic and ecological needs, and aims to preserve the integrity of healthy, self-perpetuating forests.
and it keeps getting better...
Paulownia is also suited for use as a feedstock for biofuel production.
Some species need to be conserved, or someday there will be none left.
That's cool that Traben uses an ecologically friendly wood a lot. I think Rickenbacker uses farm-grown maple for their instruments.
It would be interesting to see a database on which manufacturers do and don't use sustainable woods. I didn't know that Gibson did, though I'd heard about Modulus.
I'd like to try a Modulus bass one of these days.
That's cool that Traben uses an ecologically friendly wood a lot. I think Rickenbacker uses farm-grown maple for their instruments.
It would be interesting to see a database on which manufacturers do and don't use sustainable woods. I didn't know that Gibson did, though I'd heard about Modulus.
I'd like to try a Modulus bass one of these days.
- Aug 25, 2007
- 835
- 6
- Disclosures
- I manufacture for several companies including but not limited to: Bridge City Sound, Catalinbread, more.
SoundWood has developed The Soundwood Guide to the Guitar - a full-color guide listing and describing the efforts of nineteen guitar companies to reduce pressure on threatened species by using certified sustainable wood in their instruments.
you can get a copy from them.
you can get a copy from them.
political? no....not my intention
i just think it is important that we a musicians are aware and educated....
I just thought by doing a little reasearch i helped preseve a few trees, made my tree hugging wife happy, and relieved my gas all at the same time!
I'm fairly right wing when you corner me
was just curious about others and if they had the same mode of thought....
i just think it is important that we a musicians are aware and educated....
I just thought by doing a little reasearch i helped preseve a few trees, made my tree hugging wife happy, and relieved my gas all at the same time!
I'm fairly right wing when you corner me
was just curious about others and if they had the same mode of thought....
bongomania
Commercial User
On the one hand, I'm a rabid tree hugger, so yes the wood would influence me. OTOH instrument building accounts for only the tiniest fraction of new wood usage, so the impact of such a choice is very, very minimal, mostly a "feel-good" decision. Nothing wrong with that though.
One of the biggest reasons I like Wals is that they use dead trees and animals, thus no, I don't think it would matter at all to me. I'll buy more eco friendly basses when we perfect plastic toilet paper.
.
HAHAHA!
Wether or not this is even true, any business selling stuff that supposedly helps the environment is just as likely scamming a section of consumers as any other. And I buy what I like and not stuff that makes some sort of statement about my politics. That being said I have been looking at those Trabens and considering one. If it sounds good, awesome, the price is right. If it makes you feel better that its eco wood or whatever and you still like the bass I certainly see no harm.
Wether or not this is even true, any business selling stuff that supposedly helps the environment is just as likely scamming a section of consumers as any other. And I buy what I like and not stuff that makes some sort of statement about my politics. That being said I have been looking at those Trabens and considering one. If it sounds good, awesome, the price is right. If it makes you feel better that its eco wood or whatever and you still like the bass I certainly see no harm.
I never really thought about it like that... With that said, both of my basses have alder bodies. I live in Seattle, so... hang on... I'm in downtown Seattle and can still see tons of alder trees. I'm not worried about my basses
No I don't. The problem never was making fine instruments and furniture out of these more rare trees. The problem that tree-huggers always seem to miss starts with banksters who make deals with tin horn dictators by giving them loans based on the value of their country's forests which they KNOW will be squandered and leave them with the forests.
But here's the problem. They don't take all that rare and valuable wood and make GUITARS and BASSES out of it the way the media would have you believe. NO. They ship the trees to Japan where they are used to make plywood for CEMENT FORMS! Freaking cement forms for building construction! Or worse they simply burn huge patches of rain forest so cows can be raised for a few years until they need to burn the next patch. So do YOU feel guilty when you go to McDonalds? Apparently Banksters don't breath oxygen like the rest of us!
So No, I don't feel guilty. and they should pass a law that says the ONLY thing you are allowed to make out of these fine rare hardwoods is high end instruments and furniture. Anyone making cement form plywood gets shot! Tell your wife to get with the program!
No. The earth has always been a dynamic place with more and less forest than we have today. FWIW the earth has been warmer in its past than it is now too. I buy a bass because I like its feel, sound, weight, etc. Quantity of tress left on the earth doesn't enter the equation in the slightest.
IMO it's more than a feel good thing. Not doing the little things because they are little is a very slippery slope. By 2012 the single largest energy consuming category on the planet will be personal devices like phones and 'puters......turning them off is a little thing......that matters, just like all the other things, big and little
.
:scowl:A wise man once said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Also, see my previous post.
+1. Now that I know what I do, I won't buy a bass made from something endangered. There are too many nice-sounding and great-looking low-guilt woods available for it to be otherwise for me.
