Right now, as I write this, sitting next to me are two of my acoustic guitars. My new Martin sits by my desk, its warm, rich mahogany gleaming in the low light. I can almost smell it from here. On the neck a rare and beautiful rosewood from East India is laid where my fingers go, along with solid Black Ebony and Sitka Spruce details. And then there’s my Taylor. The top is a crispy crackling Sitka Spruce, making it loud and bright. Indian Rosewood runs across the back and sides of my instrument, and this fingerboard is a solid piece of ebony, a deep, durable but extremely rare wood.
So let’s get this straight…in my room right now, I have mahogany, rosewood, ebony, and Sitka Spruce. Common sense makes it seem wrong. In most countries, these are illegal to harvest. In fact, ebony can now only be found from one country in bulk, the small Eastern African country of Cameroon. But still, when a well-versed guitar player walks into a guitar shop, he or she will insist on therarest woods on the planet. Why?
Back in the 1930’s C.F. Martin & Co. was producing instruments of mahogany, Brazilian Rosewood, and other high-quality tonal woods from all over the world with free reign.
