Your tax dollars. Defending foreign wood. There's a sad joke in there somewhere.
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Posted on 11/17/2009 6:33:49 PM PST by Drew68
Federal agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local police today seized wood, guitars, computers and boxes of files from Gibson Guitar's Massman Road manufacturing facility.
Sources say the Nashville-based guitar manufacturer is being investigated for violating the Lacey Act, a key piece of environmental law, for importing endangered species of rosewood from Madagascar.
Rosewood is widely used in the construction of guitars and sells for $5,000 per cubic meter, more than double the price of mahogany. The island nation off Africa's east coast is a key producer of the hardwood, the export of which has links to international criminal activity.
A statement from Gibson released late Tuesday afternoon says the company is "fully co-operating" with the investigation.
"Gibson Guitar is fully cooperating with agents of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service as it pertains to an issue with harvested wood. Gibson is a chain of custody certified buyer who purchases wood from legal suppliers who are to follow all standards. Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO [Henry Juszkiewicz] sits on the board of the Rainforest Alliance and takes the issue of certification very seriously. The company will continue to cooperate fully and assist our federal government with all inquiries and information," the company's statement said.
Madagascar has struggled financially since a January coup and new President Andry Rajoelina issued an executive order in September legalizing the export of rosewood and ebony. The move was decried by environmental groups and political leaders worldwide, as hardwood forests are key to Madagascar's unique ecology and serve as a habitat for a dwindling lemur population.
Sources tell NashvillePost.com Gibson was involved in a scheme that shipped the wood from Madagascar to Germany and then to the United States.
In madagascar? Yeah right. No one in madagascar is going to plant anything.
LOL and after the strings they can go after the wind section
If we’d stop being so stingy with our wealth and pay off Madagascar they wouldn’t have to sell this wood. sarc
The islamist In Chief’s jihad on American business....
Our federal government will let no Madagascar rosewood tree go unavenged.
Our federal government will let no Madagascar rosewood tree go unavenged.
What a waste of resources, legal fees, and a Constitution.
War? Are we ever going to get around to fighting BACK?
There's something political behind going after Gibson. the amount of rosewood used in guitar production is but a minuscule fraction of rosewood used in the furniture and flooring industries.
Another 18 months, and at that time a lot of the protectionist FReepers will call Gibson a traitor and sell-out. Of course, Gibson either moves production to China, or goes out of business. Not because of pricing or labor, but simply because they cannot get the materials desired by customers.
The US Federal Government is the number one reason companies move production off-shore. It's not lower labor costs, or lower factory costs. It's simply availability of materials and taxation/regulation laws.
Or the ones growing marijuana and fabricating meth in the heart of our national forests? I guess it’s easier to push around a legitimate guitar company than to shut down illegal drug rings.
It should be mentioned that rosewood is only used for the fretboard of a guitar, a very small fraction of all the wood that is used in manufacturing a guitar. Gibson's flagship model, the Les Paul, is mostly mahogany. The neck is mahogany. The body is mahogany with a maple cap. An average Les Paul weighs 9 to 10 lbs. The rosewood fretboard glued to the top of the neck weighs only a few ounces.
There are a few guitars out there with rosewood bodies but they are very rare exceptions to the rule.
I’m glad I got my daughter a Hummingbird already. Wonder if Obammy will try to confiscate it?
Have to remember this thread when that happens. I have a feeling that the days are numbered for Gibsons being built in Tennessee. Eventually, all the components will be manufactured overseas and shipped to be assembled in America. Sometime thereafter, this iconic American institution will quietly shutter its Tennessee factories and move the production line overseas, leaving behind a skeleton crew in a garage churning out but a small handful of astronomically-priced custom guitars for the collectors' market.
I hope I'm wrong but I'll be holding on to my USA-made Les Paul for the time being.
That's no joke.
Fender Fined for Hazardous Waste Violations (September 23, 2009)
The Fish & Wildlife folks are no joke. And they have the power to confiscate anything they think is on their list. And then it's up to you to try and prove your guitar was not constructed from banned materials. Guilty until proven innocent with those guys.
Gibson Guitars are used in Country Music, which is American. And Country Music is Pro-American, so it must be stopped! Go after Gibson and put Nashville out of business!! (/sarcasm)
The law, whatever law it is, is probably based on false global warming/ecology garbage.
I want a clean, healthy planet as much as anyone but I want the solutions to be based on reality not politics.
You can grow more rosewood trees for heaven's sake! But this administration would rather put American businesses out of business. That seems to be their only goal.
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