Musical instrument companies are a very small part of the demand for old-growth wood, but they can be very influential (Photo source: Arent at Wikimedia Commons)
People who make musical instruments know they have to start with a good piece of wood. Some guitar makers are worried that the woods they need for their instruments are becoming too rare. Tamara Keith has the story of how guitar makers are working with a group that fights to protect trees:
Transcript
People who make musical instruments know they have to start with a good piece of wood. Some guitar makers are worried that the woods they need for their instruments are becoming too rare. Tamara Keith has the story of how guitar makers are working with a group that fights to protect trees:
(sound of a factory)
There are people all over the Martin Guitar plant in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, doing fine detailed work. One man is chiseling out tiny pieces of wood to make the neck and the body of a guitar fit perfectly.
(sound of sanding)
Dick Boak does artist relations for Martin.
“So this is a D-35, this is what Johnny Cash played.”
He says this guitar’s deep resonant sound is all about what it’s made of. It’s a who’s who of rare and exotic species.
“Rosewood from East India, spruce from the Pacific Northwest, and mahogony probably from Peru or Bolivia. Those would be kind of the traditional woods for a guitar.”
Boak says logging is wiping out old growth forests where these types of woods are found.
“We would like it if every single supplier that we used was working in a sustainable fashion because that would ensure that our future as a guitar maker would be you know intact.”
So Martin Guitar has teamed up with the environmental group, Greenpeace.
Scott Paul is the group’s Forest Campaign Director and he’s super interested in the Sitka Spruce used in the Johnny Cash style guitar. We’re talking at the group’s office in Washington, DC. And he shows me where the spruce is used.
“This part on the top. This here is the soundboard. This is the species that really projects the sound.”
That Sitka Spruce comes from South East Alaska. Paul has been crusading to save the forests there for some time. He says Sitka Spruce has been logged as if there were no end in sight. Most of it is used for low-end construction materials. But when he found out the wood was used by the world’s leading instrument makers – he approached them.
“It was a very interesting meeting where you had the CEO of Gibson, and the CEO of Martin and Taylor and Fender all in the same room.”
The competitors said they were concerned about logging practices too. And the told Paul they’d work together on the issue.
“Let’s all go to Alaska and start talking to the logging companies that are providing you this product and figure out if we can do it better.”
So they did. This new Musicwood Coalition went to the Sealaska Corporation, which logs Sitka Spruce. And they’re now working with the company to save old growth trees for really valuable things like guitars.
Musical instrument companies are a very small part of the demand for old-growth wood. Paul says its less than 1%. But they can be very influential.
“They need the wood. They’re not the driving force. But their profile, and to be honest, their sex appeal is perfect. Not everyone likes Greenpeace, but red state, blue state, everyone loves guitars.”
(sound of guitar being tuned)
Dick Boak is tuning a guitar that’s just about ready to leave the Martin factory.
“Everybody has a song they use to tune.”
This guitar is part of Martin’s sustainable woods series. The hope is that someday all Martin guitars – and those of Gibson, Fender and Taylor too – will be made from trees grown and harvested in a way that makes sure the wood will be around for the long haul.
For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.