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Groups » Open Mic » "The Troublesome Truth About Sitka Spruce" / Guitar Player, June 2007

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03.07.2007, 15:45

jussi

Hey all,

I stumbled across Jimmy Leslie's article "White Paper - The Troublesome Truth About Sitka Spruce" on the slowly but surely diminishing supply of sitka spruce -- the wood used for a good portion of instrument building -- in Southeast Alaska in the June edition of Guitar Player.

I urge any and all of you to read the article, as it really portrays a serious issue the environment is facing, and, consequently, instrument manufacturers will have to start taking action as well.

Any thoughts? Especially having read that, I for one am very glad to be working with and playing FW, though I admit to some degree of hypocrisy since I do love my traditional acoustics to death as well. How much of a factor do green values play in your musical life?

Food for thought.

-J
- jussi

REPLIES

03.07.2007, 23:15

lars_alexander

Yeah, thanks for the link!

When I first started out to buy an electric guitar I was thinking about something "not made of wood", since I didn't believe in the hype about certain tone woods in electric guitar designs... and thinking of what some people spend on custom shop guitars by G* or F* and then listening to them playing, I wonder: "Why don't they buy a cheaper one and tear and wear it through their lives and learn how to play it, but rather do spend what some people earn in a year for a single guitar, an amp and two cables only to take it out once a week fumble a few 'jazzy' chords and then polish the strings again?"

Anyway, back to the green values: an important issue. Not much of a problem in "vintage times" when there were only some many guitars built and sold. But nowadays when every household has a guitar and every guitarplayer a dozen, let alone the collectors who have hundreds...
(I wonder what they do with these? Polish and modify? What the heck!)

On my visit to the 2005 Frankfurt Musikmesse I was asked to play the Flaxwoods and finally found that somebody had built what I had been thinking about.

I was hooked. And still am.

"Laine! E--Laine!" Man that sounds like Lucille! Gotta get me one of those guitars!

- lars_alexander

04.07.2007, 11:37

jussi

Hey Lars!

Two links that were mentioned in the article:

www.musicwood.org
www.greenguitars.org

I sincerely hope more people become aware of all this.

-J

- jussi

08.07.2007, 22:12

lars_alexander

Hey Jussi!

Thank you for these very interesting links.

The Flaxwood Player's section is a fine new detail on this site, by the way!

- lars_alexander

09.07.2007, 00:09

jussi

Thanks, Lars! Some more people to be featured in the near future as well in the Players section. How's your fund-raising for the Laine coming along? ;)

NP: Beck: Sea Change

- jussi

09.07.2007, 14:25

lars_alexander

Fundraising for the Laine... as if there were options... ;o)
No, that will have to wait for at least a couple of months. There are some other things that have higher priority. - That's one comment from a guitar player! What could have higher priority than buying another guitar? Well, there are things :o)
Anyway... I'm patient, sort of.

- lars_alexander

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