A thought about wood & government legislation

jeztone2

I've heard stories about a guitar owner having his guitar destroyed by the Feds because of it being made of rare species that doesn't have an audit trail.
So what of those people with Violins & Cello's? It strikes me that I've heard no similar stories involving violins being confiscated. Is it because a high value electric or acoustic guitar is more likely to be owned by an ordinary person?

xmrchi

I would fight them to the death of they tried that with me, what's the saying... "they can prise it out of my cold hard dead hands" :-)

Garthy

I don't see the point of destroying the instrument as the tree is long dead already.

Are the guitar stories more plentiful because more people play a guitar than a violin/cello?

jeztone2

I'm not sure but my guy feeling is it's asset stripping an ordinary person by Stealth. It's what the Nazi's did at the end of the day. I don't see the international Violin trade or antiques harmed. So I just think it's suss. It
Would be good if the guitar magazines looked into this. Because I suspect it's just goverent agencies intruding into ordinary peoples lives.

iseverynamegone

You just compared someone losing a Les Paul to customs because it has a Braz board to the Nazis. Nice leap .

I think it's likley a misunderstanding of how to apply legislation in most cases.

jeztone2

I just think there's a really sinister agenda to asset strip ordinary people. The Vintage Wine Market hasn't dropped by 60% but the vintage electric guitar market has. It's getting harder to buy a house. Work is becoming more casualised. We're heading to a US style casualised economy, but we don't have their prices.

FelineGuitars

The Americans have adopted the Lacey act that honours all the local laws of foreign countries.

As an example - the problem that Gibson had with their wood was that a whole log was imported unworked , and that contravened the local laws that gave jobs to local people allowing them to cut the wood into something (and sadly wasting much of the material)

Admittedly their biggest problem was that they lied on the import declaration.

It is silly to decide to burn someones 59 Les Paul or pre-war Martin because it has Brazilian rosewood on it (dating from before the wood was banned or restricted)is crazy and smacks of the same legislation where Chanel or Dior insist that any fakes or knock-offs of their products be destroyed upon seizure.

A bigger problem is burning the felled trees in Brazil quickly to make room to graze cattle for McDonalds beef or whatever

Garthy

jeztone2 said:

I just think there's a really sinister agenda to asset strip ordinary people. The Vintage Wine Market hasn't dropped by 60% but the vintage electric guitar market has. It's getting harder to buy a house. Work is becoming more casualised. We're heading to a US style casualised economy, but we don't have their prices.

Why on earth would the government choose to asset strip guitarists and no one else? Have you seen the prices of some cars lately? There are people willing to pay £70k for an 80's M3, £50k for a Sierra RS500 etc. 10 years ago a 1991 911 Turbo was £20k, now the same car is £60k. It's not just sports cars either, have you seen the price of old Escorts and 205's lately? As for the proper classic stuff and supercars, they are a licence to print money, ten years ago a Countach or Diablo was £40k, now  a Diablo starts at £140k and a Countach is £250k and up, almost all of that rise in the last three years too, meanwhile 917s and Californias fetch millions.

XWulfhere

From Guitarist August 2013 (Issue 370) P37

HAVE GUITAR? CAN TRAVEL

The US Congress confirmed in May that guitarists travelling to the US with guitars will not need to submit a Lacey Act declaration regarding the woods that make up the instrument. The news allays previous fears that travelling guitarists may have become liable for penalties upon entering the US. The full report is at iwpawood.org

Bogwhoppit

Sod taking a traditional Norfolk broads sailing boat on a plane to the states !

 

The whole thing including the internal fittings is made from brazilian mahogany.

RaymondLin

Wulfhere said:

From Guitarist August 2013 (Issue 370) P37

HAVE GUITAR? CAN TRAVEL

The US Congress confirmed in May that guitarists travelling to the US with guitars will not need to submit a Lacey Act declaration regarding the woods that make up the instrument. The news allays previous fears that travelling guitarists may have become liable for penalties upon entering the US. The full report is at iwpawood.org

What about guitar LEAVING the US entering the UK ?

Skipped

Why cant Henry Juszkiewicz get wood?

I have no difficulty getting wood.

ChrisMusic

Oh, I thought that this was a thread about getting ideas...

for the after dinner speech...

for this years...

Fluffers Convention   :-O

Standing room only,

Cummon keep up...

OK, I'll just keep quiet, and move along...

thecolourbox

I've heard something about standardised banana shapes and why super glue is not as sticky as it used to be, but generally these things turn out to be based on little more than whimsy at some point in the transmission of the story.

Oh look, we are set to be battered by a 3 day storm, the biggest since the last one, brought about by 1m high killer rats from eastern europe (who steal the jobs and wealth of our own 1m high British killer rats)

carlos

Dave_Mc

For some reason the thread title made me think of Bill Clinton...

Chalky

I loving these fecking ridiculous stories that get passed round the internet but strangely never make it into any printed guitar magazine, let alone a bona fide news agency, programme or newspaper. I see a thesis coming: Why do people feel the need to believe a load of bollocks? Just a thought! )

imalone

Bogwhoppit said:

Sod taking a traditional Norfolk broads sailing boat on a plane to the states !

 

The whole thing including the internal fittings is made from brazilian mahogany.

Reminds me of the smuggling bicycles joke.

jeztone2

Ok I'm being a bit tin hat I was just thinking about it. I'm pretty sure the Guitar destroyed by the Feds was some rare Taylor?

Garthy

The Feds destroyed some Tokai's by snapping the heads off in New York, I read that story last night while trying to get to the bottom of my new mystery purchase.

Chalky

And where can we read about the Feds snapping off Tokai heads? Which published magazine or newspaper - you know, the ones where someone else has to verify the truth of the story before it goes into print or on to their website. Google just points me to forums where people say "yeah, I remember reading that SOMEWHERE....." My emphasis of course. )