Environmentally-friendly, sustainable guitar gear: green guitaring?

[cebreez]

I love the bikes. We considered using bamboo for bicycles 30 years ago but the bamboo wasn't easy to come by.

 

[Tig]

This just in from Seagull at NAMM:
Seagull Natural Elements Ultra Green Guitars

Seagull guitars is blazing a very eco-friendly trail with the new for 2012 line of acoustic instruments called Natural Elements. These guitars are similar in body shapes and specs as the rest of the Seagull guitars but use woods that would have otherwise been destroyed, sourced from other industries. Then the wood is milled in a plant that uses only hydro-electric power. These aren’t low quality boards either, they are premium tonewoods like spruce, rosewood, silver leaf maple, and wild cherry. Pictured here is a Heart Of Wild Cherry CW Folk SG AC1.5T.

 

[Eric]

This just in from Seagull at NAMM:
Seagull Natural Elements Ultra Green Guitars

Seagull guitars is blazing a very eco-friendly trail with the new for 2012 line of acoustic instruments called Natural Elements. These guitars are similar in body shapes and specs as the rest of the Seagull guitars but use woods that would have otherwise been destroyed, sourced from other industries. Then the wood is milled in a plant that uses only hydro-electric power. These aren’t low quality boards either, they are premium tonewoods like spruce, rosewood, silver leaf maple, and wild cherry. Pictured here is a Heart Of Wild Cherry CW Folk SG AC1.5T

That's pretty cool, Tig. Thanks for posting that.

 

[Hampus]

Well.

Buying a used, old guitar would make the least impact on the environment. Kind of like buying or keeping an old car instead of buying a new one. You can run your old car for years before you're even close to making the CO2 footprint of manufacturing a new one. Same goes for guitars and pretty much anything else. Even if we're talking about wood instead of CO2 here.

Hampus

 

[deeaa]

I don't worry if my gear is sustainable. If it's available for sale and I want it, I buy it. Let the companies worry, let the government worry, let the politicians worry. I am in the US. When China and India worry as much as us, then I'll get more interested in the topic.

I understand that completely, but the truth is, it has to start somewhere. The Chinese are not gonna change unless the U.S. And such change first. After all, there are only 5 million Finns to begin with, which os totally insignificant in world population, but we now have very strict laws against pollution etc. Dowright to I fear gas engines on cars will soon be banned etc.

Someone has to start. Now if a few hundred million americans, who generate half of world pollution, would care a bit, soon the Chinese would have to soon. As long as everyone thinks one person or country means squat, its all going south real quick.

I myself don't think a quarter of the hype like co2 danger has any merit to it, its mostly anything but cars etc.that would matter...but nevertheless it is good in general to try to act in sustainable ways.

Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

 

[Eric]

I understand that completely, but the truth is, it has to start somewhere. The Chinese are not gonna change unless the U.S. And such change first. After all, there are only 5 million Finns to begin with, which os totally insignificant in world population, but we now have very strict laws against pollution etc. Dowright to I fear gas engines on cars will soon be banned etc.

Someone has to start. Now if a few hundred million americans, who generate half of world pollution, would care a bit, soon the Chinese would have to soon. As long as everyone thinks one person or country means squat, its all going south real quick.

I myself don't think a quarter of the hype like co2 danger has any merit to it, its mostly anything but cars etc.that would matter...but nevertheless it is good in general to try to act in sustainable ways.

Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

Thanks for saying that. I feel the same way, but I was just afraid of starting an argument.

 

[otaypanky]

Well.

Buying a used, old guitar would make the least impact on the environment. Kind of like buying or keeping an old car instead of buying a new one. You can run your old car for years before you're even close to making the CO2 footprint of manufacturing a new one. Same goes for guitars and pretty much anything else. Even if we're talking about wood instead of CO2 here.

Hampus

This was one thought I had.
Another material that's very sustainable is palownia wood. I have a Ron Kirn T style with a body made of palownia. I had never heard of palownia before Ron made this one for me and I looked in to it a bit. From what I recall reading it has been used in Asia for instrument making for centuries. It is a straight grained wood that's very light and quite resonant. It can be kiln dried and ready for use within 24 hours. Palownia spreads through roots and can almost become invasive so it's quite easy to grow. It also grows extremely fast. There are now palownia farms in the U.S.A. While it is durable enough to be machined, routed, and can be threaded and hold screws, it's suitable for bodies but not necks. At least not for necks of traditional construction. I would guess that if it were made into a laminate material it might be.
Here's what it looks like