Official Luthiers Forum!

We had a discussion a couple months back about what steps we need to take and what documentation we are required to have to ensure that the wood we buy is legal before we can sell a guitar with it.

As a follow-up, I have heard that a couple of the major guitar manufacturers that use BRW for some of their "super-special" models have run into problems with their documentation. For one company, it doesn't sound like it was anything intentional, and that the wood is probably perfectly legal, but that due to inadequate documentation, the company now has a significant amount of inventory (both wood and guitars) that it has decided not to sell. For the other company, it sounds like the story could get a bit uglier.

For now, I'll avoid naming the manufacturers. I'm not bringing this up to tarnish any company's reputation. But the stories are instructive -- in at least one case, a major manufacturer has decided to refrain from selling a significant amount of inventory (all of which may be perfectly legal) simply because it doesn't feel it has adequate documentation.

Are you sure it was BRW? Gibson did have issues with Madagascar rosewood. I have not heard anyone with BRW issues .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

There was a big sting on BRW a year of so ago. I think there were threads with links to news articles. Probably both are a problem for the factories.

On a related note, at our last NCAL meeting, a representative of LMI announced that they are going to drop several of thier suppliers and not buy wood from certain countries any more due to the excessive documentation requirements now required. Basically, they are only going to sell wood from sources that grow trees specially for the purpose (farmed trees). Expect prices to rise.

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Kelby,

To be official, you need to have a CITES certificate issued by the country of origin. This will be checked against anything your are importing by customs. In addition you need to have a Protected Plant Permit 'To engage in the business of importing, exporting, or re-exporting terrestrial plants or plant products that are protected and regulated by 50 CFR 17.12 (Threatened or Endangered Species).' You can get one of these from the USDA-APHIS for $70 per two year permit. Once in the country, the wood is free to move about.

If you want to move the wood back out of the US, you will need additional CITES certificates from the US Department of Fish and Wildlife. They are the CITES administrators in the US.

Also, depending on which country you want to ship the material, you may (probably will) need to meet additional requirements for each separate country before it can be shipped.

My partner and I are working our way through this process now, bringing river-recovered (sinker) old growth mahogany from Belize. We have not yet exported any, but after some success I will post more to the forum so others may learn some of the pitfalls we undoubtedly will... and have already found.

If anyone knows some of the requirements to export CITES material to the UK and EU, please post. You may save me and others a lot of heartache.

thanks,

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Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

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