The Guitar Manufacturing industry, being the beast that it is, isn’t what you’d call the Greenest industry. Think of the countless trees needed to build the thousands of cheap guitars in just one “Guitar Super Store”. Or what about this fact – in 2006, 2,991,260 guitars were sold in the US alone. That’s an astounding amount of wood. That doesn’t mean that 2,991,260 guitars were sold to new guitar players… That just means that of the millions of guitars manufactured, 2,991,260 of them were purchased by guitar stores to hang on their walls with the hope of attracting buyers. Some, of course, were bought by consumers. The vast majority, however, sit in stores unsold. You know the ones, the guitars that have been in your local shop for years that no one seems to want. Where will they eventually end up?? Landfills?
You might be saying, “the stores are still in business so they must be selling guitars”. Not so, a guitar store stays in business by luring you in with beautiful and expensive guitars that you probably won’t buy. In reality, guitar stores are museums where you can touch the art. Most people have a look around, eyeballing and drooling, saying “No thanks, I’m just looking”. Then they head towards the door… right past the accessories counter where you are likely to pick up those strings they needed at practice the other day. Shops stay in business by selling guitar strings, picks and other items at a high mark up. Most guitars simply aren’t very profitable, except the super cheap models. The rule of thumb – the more expensive the guitar, the less a store will profit by selling it. This is why there are rarely sales on any guitars that any serious player would actually want.
- Stacked Bodies
The whole industry is cranking out guitars that the corporate big wigs know will never make it into the hands of a musician. And they don’t care, because the average music store NEEDS guitars in their inventory in order to get you, the musician who lusts after all things gear related, to come into their store. They are clearing entire forests to make really expensive musician bait.
One more thing that most people don’t realize – some manufacturers, like the “Big G” for example, routinely destroy perfectly functional guitars due to cosmetic issues. They BURN them. So in other words, trees are cut down (some illegally), fuel is used to chop them up, fuel is used to ship the wood here, energy is used in the whole manufacturing process, paint is applied, it’s assembled and then someone may the guitar has a funny wood grain and send it off to the slaughter house. To me, that’s just crazy. Give them away to charity, give them to schools. Don’t BURN them, that’s just harming the environment even more. This is coming from a company who is supposedly “green”, and it also happens to be the same company busted recently for importing endangered wood.
- Goodbye Trees…
Now there are quite a few major guitar companies who are going “green”, which is a great thing. Taylor, Gibson, Fender, Martin, Yamaha and a slew of other big names are all working towards a greener guitar. But if I had to guess, it’s probably only a small portion of their business for some. Let’s not forget we probably have close to a hundred million guitars in the US alone, and I just wonder how many may be destined for a landfill. Do we really NEED more guitars? The same could be said for the car industry I guess, or any industry for that matter…
But, I suppose the more guitars there are in the world, the more work here is for me. So, build on guitar companies… build on. But DO IT SUSTAINABLY FOR GODS SAKE! And cut back on the crap guitars, that’s just wasted energy.
My charge to you, the musician lusting after guitars in the music store, don’t buy a brand new guitar. Buy used, and if you are going to buy something new, make sure you’re buying one made from sustainable materials.
P.S. – The average age for a tree used to make acoustic guitar tops is 300 years old. Think about that. 300 years. Oh humanity… I sure hope we figure this thing out soon.
Check out musicwood.org, it’s an organization run by Greenpeace that encourages instrument manufacturers to use responsible building practices and sustainable materials. Have a look.
