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The most important thing however may be the one that we are all overlooking: the fact that the wood so crucial for the incredible range of sounds available exclusively from a high quality guitar is, in many cases, facing imminent extinction.
Fortunately, this is a situation that guitar manufacturers are trying to prevent. At the summer NAMM conference in 2006, Greenpeace brought together the heads of Gibson, Fender, Martin and Taylor, forming a group known as the MusicWood Coalition to work proactively to create sustainable resources and ensure that quality guitars will be readily available far into the future. For all of these companies, the MusicWood Coalition was not their first foray into environmentalism in the name of music, but it did mark the first time that all four worked side by side toward a common goal. In this special section, you will find all you need to know about the threats to the leading tonewoods, the efforts being taken to save them, and how four of the world’s biggest guitar companies have become the unlikeliest of environmental crusaders.
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Alaska: Disappearing Wood
In Alaska, the big issue is spruce -- Sitka spruce to be exact. Sitka is used extensively for acoustic tops and for soundboards in other instruments, like pianos. The wood is ideal for these purposes because of its high strength-to-density ratio. Its makeup is unique in that it is strong enough to avoid warping while still being thin enough to produce the best tone. The Sitka spruce is found in select parts of the Pacific Northwest, and in order to achieve the desired tones, the wood must come from trees that are 250 years old, or older. This so-called “old growth,” is rare – only one lumber company in the area has old growth in its forests. The company, located in Southeast Alaska, is Sealaska, owned by Alaskan natives. Here, the old growth of Sitka is being cut so extensively that it could be obliterated in 6 to15 years.
Currently, the area is harvested using 99% clear-cutting, according to Greenpeace’s Forest Campaign Coordinator, Scott Paul. Clear-cutting involves exactly what one might imagine: clearing an area with no regard for the age or type of trees that are being cut, and little regard for which trees are going for which purpose. By this method, a 250-year-old tree that could produce many wonderful-toned acoustic tops could end up lumber for housing in Asia.
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Central America:Devastation of Illegal Logging
In Central America, a similar situation was taking place with mahogany. Isolated in reserves, with little or no access to markets for the wood, impoverished residents of these areas had no incentive for managing their forests. Because of this, Central- American forests in Honduras and Guatemala struggled with illegal logging practices.
Without incentive to manage the forests, residents had no reason to object when logging took place illegally. It was not simply the act of logging, however, that was obliterating the mahogany forests. The logging was done with little regard to cutting methods. In addition, fires and the spread of agriculture threatened the trees, as farmers cleared trees for farmland.
| Pending Solution Environmentalists and guitar manufacturers come together to help |
If the problems that face tonewoods weren’t unique enough, the efforts to preserve the precious wood presents an entire new set of difficulties. How does an industry that uses lumber endear itself to a community that is focused on protecting it? It certainly helps that in total, coalition member uses only 150 logs of Sitka spruce each year. To put the number in perspective, a single processing facility will process 150 logs in one day. This minimal usage, combined with the music industry’s visibility, made guitar manufacturers the perfect ally for groups like Greenpeace and the Rainforest Alliance.
The steps being taken toward preserving the wood all revolve around a complex process called FSC certification – FSC stands for the Forest Stewardship Council. Certification through the FSC programs involves setting up forests for logging based on the best available science, while taking into consideration all economic, social and environmental concerns. Greenpeace’s Scott Paul says that this is the best hope for keeping loggers, buyers and environmentalists happy.
Alaska: The MusicWood CoalitionThe MusicWood Coalition is comprised of Gibson, Fender, Martin and Taylor, along with guitar companies and wood distributers Walden, Luthiers Mercantile International, Pacific Rim Tonewoods, North American Wood Products and Allied Lutherie. The coalition is a Greenpeace-run program with a long-term goal of addressing tonewood issues around the world. The program’s current focus is getting Sealaska to become FSC certified. If the forests were certified, the Sitka spruce resource would be a more sustainable one.
There is a long way to go with Sealaska, says Scott Paul, but progress is being made. Representatives from Sealaska attended the 2007 NAMM conference, which marked the one-year anniversary of the MusicWood Coalition. Greenpeace had been working in Southeast Alaska years before the beginning of the MusicWood program, however.
Despite the work being done, FSC certification has not been an issue brought before Sealaska’s board, says Juszkiewicz. “Sealaska knows that they’ve gotta become more green,” he said. However, FSC certification is a long, expensive process that Paul says will take at least a year to complete. Though the MusicWood Coalition has offered to pay a portion of the certification fees, the restructuring and changing of policies is a daunting task in itself.
Still, the MusicWood Coalition is hopeful that their visibility will draw larger users of the wood to encourage Sealaska to consider certification. According to Juszkiewicz, the music industry is useful for the more social and political issues, and “the intrigue of dealing with music guys.” MusicWood hopes that this intrigue will be enough to drive change.
Central America: SmartWood & the Rainforest Alliance
Guitarists may be familiar with the term SmartWood. Gibson has offered a SmartWood Les Paul for the past ten years, while Martin has made SmartWood guitars for Sting, and also offers the SWOMGT and SWGDT models, made with sustainable cherry and rescued spruce. The SmartWood program is maintained by the Rainforest Alliance. Working alongside Gibson, the Rainforest Alliance has transformed impoverished parts of Honduras and Guatemala into successful – and environmentally friendly – producers of mahogany.
In Central America, the two companies work together to train and prepare communities for forest certification. This training manifests itself in multiple different practices that promote sustainability. One such practice is harvesting wood from trees that have already fallen naturally. The actual logging is done without heavy machinery, and is transported by mules. Since the wood is being cut primarily for the guitar industry, trees are cut into blocks specifically for guitar necks. This minimizes waste, and improves transportation.
The incentive to change has come through Gibson’s competitive prices for FSC certified wood. Because Gibson is willing to pay more for it, the local loggers themselves have more incentive to harvest the legal, and environmentally friendly way. This income actually has allowed poverty stricken people to send their children to school, and improve their standard of living.
The programs have been so successful that Daphne Hewitt of the Rainforest Alliance says that they intend to move into South America to implement similar techniques, and that Martin and Taylor have also expressed interest in pursuing these methods for tropical hardwoods.
Chris Martin, CEO of Martin & Co., heads a company with the most celebrated history in the landscape of luthiery. We talked with him about his participation in the MusicWood Coalition and hit on other topics that we couldn''t fit in our print edition - like how the depletion of resources led to the creation of the D-35 and how today''s guitars might just be better than the prized vintage ones. Outside of the MusicWood Coalition, what other things are you involved with?
This probably goes back 15 years, we began to realize that the materials were getting scarcer and the price was going up. We took a closer look at what we were willing to accept and we kind of realized that we had painted ourselves into a corner with they way the wood looked.
One of the first things we did was expand the parameters within which we will accept wood that is supplied to us, based on the appearance of it. We had to do some education with our dealers and our customers and say, look, just because the wood has some character to it doesn''t mean that it''s defective. We still get customers saying, "Oh, I want the perfect looking piece of wood," in which case I say, "Well then you''d better buy a D-45, because that''s where we use the perfect wood." They''re very expensive, and they''re very rare, and then people get it.
We were also involved with the Forest Stewardship Council several years ago. We introduced a guitar where the back, sides and neck were made out of cherry and we were using some spruce that was reclaimed - it was part of a tree where most of it was used for a different purpose, and there was a section left over that couldn''t be made into lumber but made a fine guitar top. Unfortunately the FSC tightened up the requirements to be FSC certified, and we walked away. We continued to make the guitars, and put our own labels on them. We are now back in conversation with the FSC because they''ve realized that they can''t make their restriction so high that nobody can qualify to be certified.
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I''m not exactly sure; it was a couple years ago. I think they wanted us to be responsible for everybody in the supply chain. We can be responsible for the people that we buy the wood from, but we can''t guarantee the behavior of people three or four vendors removed. We are having a wood summit and all of our vendors are coming in and we''re going to talk to them about what they see in the short term and long term. We''re going to try to encourage all of them to become FSC certified.
The guitar made with the cherry and reclaimed spruce, is that the SW model? How has the response been?
Yes. It was slow initially, particularly from the dealers. They are used to selling very traditional guitars made from very traditional materials, and we actually had to put in our dealer agreement that if you were going to be a Martin dealer, you were going to buy one of these. They were not doing it voluntarily; it was kind of a shame. I think now there''s more talk about global warming, and just how small the world is, and people are becoming more open-minded about what a guitar can be made of.
How do you help your customers transition to different woods than they''re used to?
We show the guitars at trade shows, we do press releases, we talk about it - the fact that you''re writing this article is going to make the consumer and the player more aware of these alternatives. Sometimes they have to go in a music store and look for this guitar. You go into a music store today, most of the guitars are still going to be made of rosewood and mahogany. You really have to pick and choose and say, "What''s that one?" The one thing we''re happy with is the sound. We wouldn''t use a wood that didn''t sound good. We''re not compromising on the sound, they just look a little different.
How do man-made alternatives, like laminates or micarta compare tonally?
They are very durable. They have a good sound initially, but they don''t have the rich overtones. That''s the first thing you''ll notice - the sound decays a lot faster. Some of these, particularly the exotic hardwoods, they can just ring forever.
The DM essentially started the whole laminate movement, and those are phenomenal sounding guitars. Do you think that laminates will ever get to the point of being able to have that extra harmonic push that the solid woods have?
Solid rosewood back and sides probably make the best sounding guitar on earth, and anything we do may come close, but I haven''t come across a wood that is better. If you''re going to try and recreate that sound, you''ll have to start looking at some of the other aspects of building a guitar - the design, the internal construction, and the bracing - to counteract some of the deficiencies in the materials.
How does the situation with Sitka spruce compare to what you guys experienced with the Adirondack spruce?
Well there was more Sitka spruce than there was Adirondack. What happened with Adirondack spruce was that it all got cut down for whatever purpose, because everybody thought that, "Oh, there''s more, over the next mountain there''s more." Then you go over the next mountain and suddenly you''re back where you started.
I think my generation of guitar builders is experiencing what my grandfather experienced with Adirondack spruce - the difference is there''s no other mountain to cross. I can''t say to my daughter, "When you grow up there will be plenty of trees in Russia." Maybe there will, maybe there won''t. I''ve often said that I don''t want to be the person who cuts the last tree down; I don''t want to be known as that guy.
Adirondack spruce seems to be coming back into the market lately. Yeah, it''s hard to get, but the good thing that has happened is that the people who are harvesting the wood know what guitar builders want. When my ancestors bought wood, they basically just bought it from people who cut wood for whatever purpose. Now, people are harvesting wood for guitar builders, so we''re getting a better yield.
Some people will argue that the best acoustic guitars are being made today - a lot of the guitars that you are making and that the other companies are making hold up well against stuff from the pre-war golden era.
Well, I think the customers are more discerning. Even cheap Chinese guitars now, by and large, are pretty acceptable; nobody can sell junk anymore. Now, if a father or a mother who plays the guitar goes into the music shop with a son or a daughter, they''re not going to be conned into buying something that doesn''t function.
Everybody''s had to improve, and I''ll give credit to Bob Taylor because he pointed out that you can make an acoustic guitar play more like an electric guitar, and that was something that we weren''t really conscious of, so that''s improved the ability of the guitar to function. And remember, with a lot of those old guitars, only the good ones survived. The bad ones are gone.
Spruce has to be at least 250 years old for the appropriate tone, which makes replanting a non-feasible solution for quite some time. Do other woods have a similar age requirement?
Yeah, pretty much. One of the things that happened when my father was running the business - when they were running out of Brazilian rosewood - was that someone out in the plant discovered that we had pieces of Brazilian Rosewood in the plant with defects. They realized that if they used three pieces in the back instead of two, they could use the pieces with the defect around the edge. There is a case where you can make the back of the guitar out of more than two pieces, and use smaller pieces.
Is that how the D-35 was born?
That is how the D-35 was born. It came into being because we were running out of rosewood and it was an economy move. You''re probably going to see guitars with four-piece backs or four-piece tops. We''re going to have to educate people, and say, "Hey, it''s still wood." We''ve always glued them together - we''re just gluing more pieces together.
How do you get people to realize that it''s about changing, not about buying up the last remaining Brazilian rosewood guitars?
Well, we will continue to raise the price, because we have to, on the exotic hardwoods, just because the costs that we''re incurring are going up. We''ll keep showing them, we''ll keep talking about it, and you''ll keep writing articles; it''s inevitable, it''s just a question of whether we are going to get it before it''s too late or not.
Do you think that teaming up with your competitors helps draw attention to the issues?
It certainly should. This is a pretty collegial business. We share information and we visit each others'' factories. There are guitar making conventions where those of us that make guitars meet other guitar makers and we just talk about guitar making. As competitive as it is, it is a very friendly business.