Official Luthiers Forum!

Here's a link to a documentary that has as a premise that soon (i.e. less than ten years) there will not be enough wood left in the world for acoustic guitars:

http://musicwoodthefilm.com/film.html

Not sure I believe things are quite that dire.

Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

The premise that Sitka forests are being decimated in order to make guitar tops is not supported by any evidence and seems pretty silly on its face. Two or three big trees a year would do all the production at a company like Martin. Meanwhile, millions of acres (yep!) of Sitka trees are being killed by disease and insects, possibly related to the sharp increase in temperatures in Alaska. A friend whose work takes him through the coastal forest areas tells me that the loss to disease recently is vastly more than what is logged for all purposes, let alone just musical instruments.

For example, from the website of the Sitka Conservation Society (i.e., not any kind of pro-logging industry source): "There is a huge infestation of Sitka Spruce aphids in SE, and the world’s largest spruce bark beetle infestation is occurring on the Kenai Peninsula where 4 million acres of trees have been destroyed."

To my jaundiced view, this Musicwood group is either badly uniformed, or it is a marketing device for the big guitar makers, who get to take a nice trip to Alaska and show how green they are.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.