MUSIC WOODEnvironmentally Friendly – – No Tree Is Killed
OUR COMPANY IS ECO–GREEN, SPECIALIZING IN RECLAIMED, BEACHCOMBED & RECYCLED TIMBER
Here at A1 WoodWorld we always utilize good quality old growth logs. Regardless of which species you seek there is always a possibility we have some. And if we don’t, then we certainly can go and find it through our network of west coast loggers and foresters.
Some of the fine instruments commonly using soundboards from Spruce and Cedar are guitars and violins, cellos and ultimately the piano. Or any stringed instrument for that matter would be made richer in tone using these old growth fine grained woods from the B.C. coast.
Our company is completetly environmentally–friendly; no tree is killed. Sitka Spruce is the benchmark species, with Douglas fir and Western Red Cedar right up in the running. We keep on the lookout for that perfect color and that perfect section of the log that has fine and even growth with poker straight grain, or the right grain for veneer slicing, or aircraft and boat spar wood. And we always look for that perfect music or ‘tone’ wood flitch. Tone wood, Luthier’s wood, sound boards, instrument wood… call it what you like it’s all good and it’s hard to get. Because of tonal and structural properties – – you can’t make instruments out of just anything.
When searching for yellow cedar logs for boat lumber, we look for potential temple wood. We do this by use of a splitting saw, Which allows us to split the log into very specific slabs: halves or quarters… even thirds and eighths or sixteenths… anything to get all the true usefulness from the log. Then we’ll separate the entire cant or slab to a layaway until we get an order for Sitka Spruce, Douglas fir or western red cedar.
Good music needs good wood! Here at A1 WoodWorld our policy is to protect threatened forest habitats and safeguard the future of the trees critical to making musical instruments, to increase the availability of traditional woods used by musical instrument manufacturers that can be certified to the exacting management standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and demonstrating that there is a strong and growing market for well–managed, FSC certified wood.
Woods used to make violins, bows, soundboards and guitars, among other instruments, have become scarce or unavailable because of excessive logging and harvesting.
The Associated Press reported in May that for every 3,300 pounds of wood, just 220 to 440 pounds are usable in making bows, and 80 percent of that is lost in carving. A tree with 15–feet–long trunk can produce only a few bows. Though Sitka spruce in general is not endangered, the six–to–eight–foot–wide variety, aged between 300 and 600 years, is disappearing.
Bow–makers are now working with stockpiled pernambuco and turning to laminates and synthetics such as carbon fiber. Price increases are also likely to make fine instruments even more unaffordable for many musicians. According to the AP, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that a global temperature rise of 3.6 degrees, the minimum scientists expect by the end of this century, will kill 30 percent of all known exotic species of wood.
"Climate change is a major threat, but so is trade," said Susan Lieberman, director of the Species Unit for the World Wildlife Fund. "More and more species are being threatened because of globalization".
Spruce in North America in the 1940s and limited spruce from Europe, Sitka spruce and Douglas fir have become the predominant species used as soundboards for guitars and pianos. The old–growth Sitka spruce needed for musical instruments only exists in the North American coastal temperate rainforest. This magnificent forest is considered the rarest forest type on Earth.
Unfortunately, on both public and private lands much of the coastal temperate rainforest has been clearcut for construction or disposable pulp and paper products, severely fragmenting the forest and the wildlife habitat it provides. In contrast to large–scale logging – – for which there are alternatives – – there are no satisfactory alternatives to Sitka spruce for piano soundboards and Sitka spruce and Douglas fir for guitar soundboards. For acoustic musical instruments, Sitka spruce and Douglas fir are virtually irreplaceable.
If we don’t begin changing the way the logging industry is treating the coastal temperate rainforest, the ancient Sitka spruce and Douglas fir trees may not be around to supply the world with the quality musical instruments we enjoy today. The choice is simple: demanding good wood now will help us protect this forest for the future and keep the good music coming.
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