Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement

[dtel]

The Commercial Appeal/Zuma Press

Agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pore
through the workshop at the Gibson Guitar factory on Wednesday
morning.

Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and
offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic
files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday
Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company's
manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company.
"The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council
certified supplier," he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive
enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.

It isn't the first time that agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service have
come knocking at the storied maker of such iconic instruments as the Les Paul
electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and essential
jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian's ES-150. In 2009 the Feds seized several
guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been
wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful name "United States of
America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms."

The question in the first raid seemed to be whether Gibson had been buying
illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the Madagascar
ebony that makes for such lovely fretboards. And if Gibson did knowingly import
illegally harvested ebony from Madagascar, that wouldn't be a negligible
offense. Peter Lowry, ebony and rosewood expert at the Missouri Botanical
Garden, calls the Madagascar wood trade the "equivalent of Africa's blood
diamonds." But with the new raid, the government seems to be questioning whether
some wood sourced from India met every regulatory jot and tittle.

It isn't just Gibson that is sweating. Musicians who play vintage guitars and
other instruments made of environmentally protected materials are worried the
authorities may be coming for them next.

If you are the lucky owner of a 1920s Martin guitar, it may well be made, in
part, of Brazilian rosewood. Cross an international border with an instrument
made of that now-restricted wood, and you better have correct and complete
documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to
a zealous customs agent—not to mention face fines and prosecution.

John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University and a blues and ragtime
guitarist, says "there's a lot of anxiety, and it's well justified." Once upon a
time, he would have taken one of his vintage guitars on his travels. Now, "I
don't go out of the country with a wooden guitar."

The tangled intersection of international laws is enforced through a thicket
of paperwork. Recent revisions to 1900's Lacey Act require that anyone crossing
the U.S. border declare every bit of flora or fauna being brought into the
country. One is under "strict liability" to fill out the paperwork—and without
any mistakes.

It's not enough to know that the body of your old guitar is made of spruce
and maple: What's the bridge made of? If it's ebony, do you have the paperwork
to show when and where that wood was harvested and when and where it was made
into a bridge? Is the nut holding the strings at the guitar's headstock bone, or
could it be ivory? "Even if you have no knowledge—despite Herculean efforts to
obtain it—that some piece of your guitar, no matter how small, was obtained
illegally, you lose your guitar forever," Prof. Thomas has written. "Oh, and
you'll be fined $250 for that false (or missing) information in your Lacey Act
Import Declaration."

Consider the recent experience of Pascal Vieillard, whose Atlanta-area
company, A-440 Pianos, imported several antique Bösendorfers. Mr. Vieillard
asked officials at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
how to fill out the correct paperwork—which simply encouraged them to alert U.S.
Customs to give his shipment added scrutiny.

There was never any question that the instruments were old enough to have
grandfathered ivory keys. But Mr. Vieillard didn't have his paperwork straight
when two-dozen federal agents came calling.

Facing criminal charges that might have put him in prison for years, Mr.
Vieillard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey Act, and
was handed a $17,500 fine and three years probation.

Given the risks, why don't musicians just settle for the safety of carbon
fiber? Some do—when concert pianist Jeffrey Sharkey moved to England two decades
ago, he had Steinway replace the ivories on his piano with plastic.

Still, musicians cling to the old materials. Last year, Dick Boak, director
of artist relations for C.F. Martin & Co., complained to Mother Nature News
about the difficulty of getting elite guitarists to switch to instruments made
from sustainable materials. "Surprisingly, musicians, who represent some of the
most savvy, ecologically minded people around, are resistant to anything about
changing the tone of their guitars," he said.

You could mark that up to hypocrisy—artsy do-gooders only too eager to tell
others what kind of light bulbs they have to buy won't make sacrifices when it
comes to their own passions. Then again, maybe it isn't hypocrisy to recognize
that art makes claims significant enough to compete with environmentalists'
agendas.

—Write to me at EricFelten@WSJPostmodern.com.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576530520471223268.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[BigStewMan]

oh great, and i thought it was my sucky guitar playing that was ruining the environment--turns out it's not me after all, it's actually the guitar.

[Fish]

This is the kinda crime that we need to focus on.........forget the real stuff that kills people.I suppose we can do it all.......we got plenty money, right?

[Marvel]

If I were to post how I really feel about htis, I would be banned from the forum... [:#]

[djk]

+1

[oldtimer]

I once had a rosewood marimba. It's a good thing I sold it before they nabbed me. Damn you Musser! Really though, I wish I had that marimba today.

[dtel]

This is the kinda crime that we need to focus on.........forget the real stuff that kills people.I suppose we can do it all.......we got plenty money, right?

Amazing, I guess all the other crimes are taken care of if it's down to this ? They might want to check a few rivers and lakes and oceans if they want to find some enviromental problems.

[Invidiosulus]

Gibson is a big successful company.

If the gov can prove that they did something wrong then they know they will have the money to pay up.

And the feds won't be stuck having to spend the man hours supervising an actual environmental cleanup so it's an easy way for the feds to make some money while it seems like they are doing their job.

[djk]

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch."

The agency involved is criminal, nothing more, nothing less.

Did you vote on this?

Did anyone?

Even if someone did, it's still not right.

The second half of the above quote is "Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. "

It's time to take back our govenment and restore the republic.

[oldtimer]

Question: What constitutes correct and complete documentation proving the age of an instrument? It can't be all that difficult?

[oldtimer]

It's time to take back our govenment and restore the republic.

What exactly does it mean to "take back our government?" We vote for representatives on every level, representative being the defining word for republic. Agencies of the republic are to be controlled by the representatives, but clearly this has been lost. The complexities of the modern economy make the task more than daunting. If you have looked at the political history of ancient Rome, we seem to be at a similar place they were at about the time Caesar was assassinated, by well meaning (naturally) members of the old guard thinking they were "taking back their government to restore the republic." Well we know where that led.

[BigStewMan]

it's disgusting the extremes the govt will go to in order to steal a buck. I can think of dozens of worthless, wasteful programs that are costing millions. i think i'll puke if i hear some politician say that they're doing for the children. Maybe that's why our prisons are full, those poor folks grew up without seeing brazilian rosewood.

[oldtimer]

Brazillian rosewood is (was?) beautiful. Made a great marimba too. Here in Texas we have a state lottery, the proceeds of which are supposed to go to public education. The reality is that over the past many years of our governor public education funding has been cut back. Where has all the lottery money gone? Taxes haven't gone down in the meantime (at least for real people, not corporations).

[BigStewMan]

fretboard on my gretsch is rosewood, probably not brazilian since it's a newer guitar. it just really upsets me that the govt has probably already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on these raids and there are more serious problems facing society. according to the president, i'm rich because my taxes went up and he promised that they'd only go up for the rich. hmmm, if i'm so rich, why haven't i replaced the engine and transmission in my 13 year old truck yet?

[Marvel]

Most of the Brazilian rosewood has been harvested.Now they are digging up the stumps to get more wood to market.

Indian rosewood was/is grown under government (India) control, and used as a windbreak on tea plantations. It regularly must be harvested as it matures and becomes unstable as far as growth. It is cut and sold for commercial use.

[fini]

Gibson is a big successful company.
If the gov can prove that they did something wrong then they know they will have the money to pay up.
And the feds won't be stuck having to spend the man hours supervising an actual environmental cleanup so it's an easy way for the feds to make some money while it seems like they are doing their job.

And they get killer guitars in the process.

So, what happens to the confiscated guitars? Destroy them? Replace the fretboards? What do they do with all the rosewood fretboards? Glue them back into a tree?

[fini]

I could see them throwing a free old-time bluegrass festival and sweeping in for the sting. Re-friggin-diculous.

[JJkizak]

Can you tell me the difference between Brazilian Rosewood and other kinds of Rosewood as small as frets on a guitar? I doubt if a "G" man can.

JJK

[oldtimer]

Very few if any could. That's why they put the burden on the manufacturer/owner to prove what it is or isn't. Gibson was raided in 2009. I think the case is ongoing.

[Islander]

Can you tell me the difference between Brazilian Rosewood and other kinds of Rosewood as small as frets on a guitar? I doubt if a "G" man can.

The actual frets are usually made of stainless steel wire. The fretboard is the wooden part and it is big enough to examine, although I don't know if a simple visual exam can prove the wood's origin.

As for paperwork, used guitars, unless they're very valuable for one reason or another, often come with no paperwork at all. Trying to prove the age of an old guitar, which may have obscured or altered serial numbers, or whose manufacturer has gone out of business, could be difficult.