It was a Gibson Hummingbird: Sitka spruce top, mahogany sides and back and Indian rosewood neck. None of that is banned. This entire story is about grey marketing endangered Madagascar Ebony through India and presenting it as sustainable wood. Those regulations go back to the 70s so any current political leaning here is just conspiracy theory crap. This is the email that the inside whistle-blower provided to start the whole process:
Quote:
[A] Gibson employee…wrote that "[t]he true Ebony species preferred by Gibson Musical Instruments is found only in Madagascar (Diospryos perrieri). This is a slow-growing tree species with very little conservation protection and supplies are considered to be highly threatened in its native environment due to over exploitation." In fact, [he] spent two and a half weeks in Madagascar this June [2008], writing on his return, "I represented our company along with two other guitar manufacturers… All legal timber and wood exports are prohibited because of wide spread corruption and theft of valuable woods like rosewood and ebony." On February 25, 2009, in a reference to the potential long term solution, [he] wrote… that the company Maderas Barber "has been in the business a long time and may be able to help begin some legitimate harvests. Mr. [Roger] Thunam on the other hand should now be able to supply Nagel with all the rosewood and ebony for the grey market."
The Gibson shop in question is a tourist joint in Memphis where they make a few custom items so the tourists can watch not the real acoustic guitar factory which is in Bozeman, Montana. Relating this to a real factory is like calling a Harley Tee Shirt store in your local mall a dealership. You folks need to engage in something a bit more productive than milking a single source news story for your own political agenda.
