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Date Posted: 11/19/09 11:57am
Author: Bobbe Seymour
Subject: Feds Raid Gibson Plant

Hello fellow players,

I guess most of you have heard now that the Gibson guitar plant in Nashville was raided by the Feds. An international crackdown on the use of endangered woods from the world’s rainforests to make musical instruments bubbled over into Nashville on Tuesday with a Federal raid on Gibson Guitar’s manufacturing plant.

Agents made a midday appearance with several search warrants on company officials at Gibson’s plant. Gibson says it is cooperating fully with agents. The warrant pertains to an issue with the harvesting of wood. The company claims it did nothing wrong.

Some exotic hardwoods traditionally used in the making premium guitars such rosewood from the rainforests of Brazil that have been banned from commercial trade because of environment concerns in the recently revised Federal law.

Under the U.S. Lacey Act trading with such banned woods is a Federal offense. Suppliers may lie. The sale of exotic woods can be very complex and tricky, especially when some of the sales are arranged through third parties in remote countries. There are a lot of middle men between the company and the people that are logging the ground.

Although previously banned in Madagascar, the harvesting of rosewood was reestablished on the island off the southeast of Africa by a new government that took power after a coup in March.

The government there contends it is allowing only limited harvesting of rosewood, but critics include Greenpeace which is an environment activist organization which complained the wood is being cut to extinction.

Guitar makers use lots of woods to get their core quality. Here are a few examples. Mahogany is a strong, stable wood commonly used for guitar necks, backs and sides. It lends the instrument a rich, dark tone.

Rosewood is prized material for acoustic guitars. Rosewood is often richly patterned with subtle shades of browns and reds. It produces a big, booming sound.

Ebony is an ideal wood for fingerboards and finer guitars. A dense material occasionally used for bridges as well.

Madagascar has 47 types of rosewood and more than 100 ebony species. But worldwide conservation groups say loggers exploitation is endangering the supply and future of these great products.

Gibson is working hard to keep a good supply of good woods in their factory.

I remember when I bought some highly flamed maple that was brought down by a tornado in the 7th President of the United States’ yard, the famous Andrew Jackson home named “The Hermitage”. I had bought a big parcel of this gorgeous maple from the company that was clearing the tornado damage, but was outbid by Gibson guitar for half of it before I could get it to my store. It’s hard to fight those big bucks.

We all know that it takes excellent, well aged maple to make a great sounding steel guitar. Next time you see the price of a steel guitar at three to four thousand dollars, try to remember what went into it.

Tom Morrell is someone many people have asked me about. He was a great player and knew an awful lot of music. He was a wonderful player in the western swing field and played a lot of very tricky things and knew about every song that was ever written.

Having just about grown up with him and having him as a partner in one of my first steel guitar companies, I really knew him well. To say we got along excellent all the time would be a far stretch of the truth, however we were like the typical brothers. We had a lot in common and both helped each other out tremendously.

He had his own style of execution, his tone was unique and he had something that made everybody think, wow I wish I could do that! I liked his playing because he could not be stumped. I’d call Tom one of the better players in the world ever.

He could tell the bass player what notes to play on any song ever written and play drums better than most drummers. He was also a trombone player and an incredible lead guitar and jazz chord player.

As we all know, we lost Tom a couple years ago. Liquor was one of his big problems. He couldn’t get enough of it. Even so, I have many extremely hilarious memories of this nut and know he is in a lot happier place today than he was in the torment he had his last few years here on Earth.

It’s been a long time since I’ve put anything new up on YouTube so enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaJTA3v8nwE

See our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html

Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.com/bobbeseymour

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

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