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Universe »Earth» The hidden environmental problem of the guitar industry-and the people trying to solve it
Authors: Chris Gibson, University of Wollongong and Andrew Warren, University of Wollongong
Musicians often care about environmental issues, but they are entangled in the materials used in musical instruments. The guitar industry, which uses rare wood from ancient trees, has been a canary in coal mines, struggling with scandals such as illegal logging, scarcity of resources, and new environmental regulations related to the trade of endangered trees.
We spent six years tracking the guitar making process on five continents, the wood used in the research—known in the industry for its acoustic quality—and the industry’s environmental dilemmas. Our goal is to start with the finished guitar and trace its origin, people and plants.
We first visited guitar factories in Australia, the United States, Japan and China. There, we observed materials and manufacturing technology. From the factory, we visited the sawmill that supplies them. Then we went on and arrived at the forest and witnessed the trees that make the guitar.
Facts have proved that our task is more complicated than imagined. At Martin Guitars in the United States alone, wood comes from 30 different suppliers on six continents.
The wood supply chain that the guitar industry relies on has always been secret. Many sources of wood come from places with historical heritage of environmental conflict, colonial violence, and plundering: spruce in the Pacific Northwest; rosewood from Brazil, Madagascar, and India; and mahogany from Fiji and Central America.
We learned about the environmental footprint of the guitar, and at the same time appreciated the skills and experience of the people behind the scenes, as well as the adaptability of the forest and trees. We have also seen Australian guitar manufacturers, such as Maton and Cole Clark, leading the way in adopting sustainable options, recycling recycled wood, and sourcing local species from timber suppliers in Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.
Approximately 2.6 million guitars are produced each year, constituting a $1 billion industry.
Unlike the wood used in construction or mass production of furniture—choose plantation tree species for rapid growth and rapid return on investment—the guitar uses rare wood from ancient trees. This is because the wood chips used on the guitar are cut in quarters: the annual rings are cut perpendicular to the trees to ensure stability and sound wave projection. The slice must be wide enough to be the front, back or side of the instrument, so a large diameter log is required.
Then the guitar parts (whether by hand or machine) are carved from the carefully cut wood, polished and assembled. The soundboard (top) is the most critical. The guitar is musical because the strings are pulled very tightly.
With its sturdy body, electric guitars can withstand tension better than acoustic guitars. On an acoustic guitar, the soundboard must be strong, but it must also be light and reverberant, and its stiffness can be used to improve sound quality.
Until recently, the range of wood suitable for guitars was considered very narrow. Through centuries of European craftsmanship, the spruce (Picea) established by the luthier is most suitable for acoustic and classical guitar soundboards.
Their strength can be cut very thin, but they will not collapse under extreme string tension. The straight and parallel textures used guitar makers William Cumpiano and Jonathan Natelson to put it, “It gives the instrument a natural visual and acoustics. Symmetry".
For the neck, guitar manufacturers use mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) or maple (Acer species); for fingerboards and bridges, ebony (Diospyros species) or mahogany (Dalbergia species); and for acoustic guitar back panels and Side panels, mahogany and mahogany.
Since the Hawaiian music boom between the two wars, koa (Acacia koa) has become a feature of acoustics, electronics, and ukulele.
Some woods used are abundant and well managed. Leo Fender's Telecaster captures the rock-and-roll feel of an electric guitar: an unpretentious marsh gray (ash species) "slab" and a one-piece maple neck are bolted together in a practical and simple way. When we visited the Fender factory in California in 2018, Mike Born, head of wood technology, explained:
Fortunately for us, the old Fender design used very easily available American wood. Leo Fender is a very economical man. He wants to make cheap musical instruments and develop them around wood that is not used for other purposes. Swamp gray is a good example: it is a disposable product of furniture wood.
Other woods used in guitar production have more worrying history and sustainability issues. The Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) used for guitar soundboards comes from trees that are at least 400 years old, but these trees are becoming rarer. Ebony is threatened in its African habitat, and restrictions on its use are becoming stricter.
The destruction of habitats by agriculture and urbanization has led to Brazilian rosewood — once considered the "gold standard" for guitars — to be effectively banned since 1992. The guitar company replaced them with similar tree species elsewhere, but they were also over-logged.
Since Gibson guitar factories in Nashville and Memphis were raided by US fish and wildlife law enforcement officers (2009 and 2011) for illegal purchases and incorrect verification of Madagascar ebony and rosewood allegations, scandals have swept the industry.
The attachment to "traditional" musical instruments prevents traditional brands from turning to more sustainable options. As guitar historian Dick Boak explained, it’s difficult to persuade guitarists to switch to instruments made from sustainable materials: “Musicians represent some of the most savvy and ecologically conscious people around them. , Resistant to anything that changes the pitch of the guitar."
But attitudes are changing. Musicians are increasingly concerned about the origin and environmental impact of their instruments, encouraging guitar brands to increase transparency and rethink their ecological entanglements.
A necessary condition is the use of more diverse alternative woods. These will include richer plantation species, salvaged trees and urban forestry.
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In this regard, Australian brands Maton and Cole Clark are in a leading position. Decades ago, Maton pioneered the use of native Australian species. Recently, it partnered with Cole Clark and Kirby Fine Timbers, a professional guitar timber supplier in Queensland, Otways Tonewoods in Victoria, and Tonewoods in Tasmania, to establish bunya pine (Araucaria Bidwillii) as a reliable, high-quality soundboard alternative Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) is used on the back and sides, and Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana) is used on the neck.
At the same time, guitar manufacturers recycle wood from urban trees. In 2018, Karl Krauss, head of wood technology at Cole Clark, heard that the city council near Melbourne was removing the plane tree (Acer pseudoplatanus), which was considered a fire hazard. He recalled their historical use in Renaissance instruments and salvaged them to make a limited edition guitar.
Other salvaged urban timbers include California redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) planted in Victoria Park in the 1850s by the then colonial government botanist Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, and the southern silky oak (Grevillearobusta). Such urban recycled resources now account for 30% of Cole Clark's guitar wood.
Around the world, the relationship between sawmills and forest resource managers is also changing. Indigenous communities claim custody of trees. Commercial relationships are being established between these communities, professional companies that provide guitar sounds, and guitar companies. Cooperating with indigenous and ecological values rather than ignoring them has considerable potential.
Taking matters into their own hands, the Guitar Woodman also planted trees on their property for future sustainable musical instrument manufacturing, and collaborated on pastures and indigenous-owned and managed lands. These efforts are guided by the ethics of caring for trees, forests, communities, and guitars.
The goal is to ensure that the wood needed for future guitar production far exceeds the life cycle of an individual. As Born emphasized in Fender's factory: "We don't have many choices for what we have grown a few generations ago, but we will definitely do it for the future."
On the slopes of the volcano on Maui, land managers are working with American companies Taylor Guitars and Pacific Rim Tonewoods (American professional timber suppliers) to replant koa forests.
In Washington State, Pacific Rim Tonewoods claims that it is planting "the world's first tone forest", planting violin back maple on 100 acres of land near its sawmill. Taylor also worked with Spanish log supplier Madinter to support the replanting of ebony in Cameroon.
In the Sunshine Coast hinterland, professional audio material supplier David Kirby planted Queensland maple and Bunia pine, as well as the blue spring (Elaeocarpus angustifolius) used by Melbourne Maton for electric guitar models. He also manages a century-old "heritage stall" on private land in the area.
Although according to forestry standards, these planted areas are not large, once they reach a certain density and diversity, they will "take care of themselves", in Kirby's words, provide enough wood for small-scale harvests every year, and Will not reduce the ecological value. Nevertheless, obtaining land suitable for planting trees and skilled labor to care for trees will determine future success.
Early in their careers, the guitar wood guys we interviewed didn't intend to become forest managers-even though they all claimed to have a lifelong love for plants. After personally experiencing that industrial forestry cannot manage forests sustainably to provide high-quality wood from hundreds of years old trees, they assumed management responsibilities.
The guitar industry has broken through the door of the factory, expanding its activities and influence to the upstream and into the forest. As Steve McMinn of the Pacific Rim Music Band said,
The primeval forests of the world are almost illuminated. If you want wood for a specific purpose, you need to grow it.
The biggest uncertainty facing the sustainability of guitar wood is climate change. Global warming has changed the geographical distribution of trees, insects and pathogens, posing a serious threat to forests.
As we were on the road, insect pathogens that survived the unprecedented warm winter in the Rocky Mountains attacked and killed millions of Engelman spruce (Picea engelmannii). The emerald gray borer (Agrilus planipennis) has killed millions of American ashes-known as Fender Telecaster. Environmental scientist Jared Beeton is now working with guitar companies to try to make guitars from the affected spruce.
In Queensland, David Kirby admitted that the trees he planted might not survive:
This may be the big mistake of everything I have done in my life. But in the end, what if I don't? Of course, if everyone planted trees for future generations, it would help stop climate change. I can't say that I don't know how to plant trees, because they may not survive.
Cities may also become important habitats for guitar trees in the future. Mike Born of Fender outlined a new initiative between Fender, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Baseball Hall of Fame to encourage tree replanting programs in the city center. Like Telecasters, baseball bats are made of American ash.
As the emerald gray borer destroys trees across the African continent, these two niche industries face the same problem of securing future resource supplies. The idea is to replant various urban street trees to disperse the genetic and geographic basis of vulnerable species.
"We have a chance now," Born explained, "replanting old street trees." Instead of shifting the management of forest resources to short-term profits, it is better to say "we can think about a century later."
Are there trees that can have an afterlife at the end of their life cycle? What should we grow for the future? This is the global discussion we need to have.
The Guitar: Tracing the Grain Back to the Tree, published by the University of Chicago Press.
Chris Gibson, Professor of Human Geography, University of Wollongong and Andrew Warren, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Wollongong
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original text.
Originally published by Cosmos for the hidden environmental problem of the guitar industry-and the people trying to solve it
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