Quote:
Originally Posted by gt350mike
Gibson was a customer of mine back in the late 90's and the plant manager told me back then the availability of wood, especially the more exotics, was limited and becoming more difficult to acquire. The Nashville facility makes custom guitars and the products are truly amazing, but so are the prices. Seems like I recall most of the electric guitars were $2k and up but that was 12 years ago. Somebody like Slo Dave who knows more about Les Paul guitars can chime on where the market is today.
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The Standard line and Customs are still at that starting point ($).
For Gibson to make high quality guitars, they need high quality wood. As has been pointed out, most of that wood is gone. The reason the 50's and early 60's Gibsons are sought after, is because of the wood, "old growth". Up until those times and a little later, the wood was used everywhere and no one really thought about the fact that there was a limit. Only after the forests were depleted, it was realized that there was something special about those trees. The stockpiles that were left became like gold and the prices shot up. The governments where the trees came from also wised up and started to heavily tax and require expensive permits to export the wood.
Old growth wood came from forests that were dense and had canopies that prevented sunlight from reaching the floor. Because of this, the trees grew a lot slower and were dense. Most of the wood today, comes from newly planted forests that are a spaced out, allowing the trees to grow faster, but are less dense and not always as desirable for musical instruments. Any old growth forests that are left are protected, much like elephants and rhinos in Africa... Because the wood is so highly sought after, there are loggers that try to cut them down and sell for a huge profit on the black market.
Today, Gibson is having problems acquiring enough wood to keep up with production and at a reasonable price. The three woods that Gibson needs, that are hard to come by are Mahogany, Rosewood and Ebony. Maple is the fourth wood, but it comes from America and is still plentiful and probably will always be. The Mahogany Gibson uses is called "Honduras Mahogany", as it used to come from... Honduras. Today, the species is grown in places like Asia, where the climate is similar. There is Mahogany that comes from Africa, but because of the climate, it has always been less dense and lighter. It is used by some, but whether old or new growth, the Honduras species is better suited.
Did Gibson acquire illegal hardwoods? Only they know for sure... It will be up to the various governmental agencies to figure out where the wood came from and if it is legal. It hurts Gibson, that's for sure. Impound a wood pile and they can't build guitars. The wood won't really deteriorate if kept in warehouses, though Gibson does keep its stick in climate controlled buildings, whereas the stuff that was confiscated won't be and will start to warp or check, possibly rendering some of it unusable.