It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:35 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 24 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Go to page Previous  1, 2
Author Message
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:12 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:47 am
Posts: 15336
Location: In a galaxy far far away
on a side note, how much do fmic's timber suppliers spend on planting and developing forestry? I'm in no way green but i'd be prepared to pay more for a guitar if i knew the woods were sourced from suppliers doing something to replace the trees they chop down. Dont growing trees produce more oxygen than full grown ones. Why dont our goverments do something usefull with the whole geneticaly modified food fiasco and use that science for rain forrest replenishment? Better idea than just feeding GM crops to animals. The way cross pollenation works its only going to be another couple of years before every plant has a trace of GM in it.

_________________
No no and no


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:34 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:57 am
Posts: 13164
Location: Peckham: where the snow leopards roam
nikininja wrote:
on a side note, how much do fmic's timber suppliers spend on planting and developing forestry? I'm in no way green but i'd be prepared to pay more for a guitar if i knew the woods were sourced from suppliers doing something to replace the trees they chop down. Dont growing trees produce more oxygen than full grown ones. Why dont our goverments do something usefull with the whole geneticaly modified food fiasco and use that science for rain forrest replenishment? Better idea than just feeding GM crops to animals. The way cross pollenation works its only going to be another couple of years before every plant has a trace of GM in it.


Good stuff.

Interesting ideas are in the air as far as our own little island is concerned, Nikininja. I have a forestry friend who is a huge fund of useful information, timberwise.

For example, as we drive around our country we see all those conifer plantations run by the Forestry Commission. Well, apparently economies of vast scale make softwood production so cost effective in Scandinavia that our domestic industry barely breaks even, by comparison. The sensible thing would be to shift those millions of hectares over to hardwood, but the trouble is the lead-in time. With oak, your first cut is at around 85 years, main crop around 150 years. Even the Forestry Commission (a semi-governmental body) finds those numbers a bit hard to work with: spruce is commercially felled at around 60 years.

However, what we call English Sycamore, the European Maple (acer pseudoplatanus) grows so fast it almost halves the timings for oak. Till now most people have regarded it as a weed species – but apparently the idea in forestry circles is that sycamore/maple may be the commercial timber of the future where we live.

It’s a beautiful wood – it is the archetypal fiddleback maple, after all. So if that started being grown in our sustainable plantations we’d have our very own eco tonewood right on tap. We just have to live to be 160 to see it.

As it stands, the bizarre thing is that American fiddle makers import European maple and spruce all the way across the Atlantic for violins – and we import North American hard rock maple all the way back again for guitar necks. Go figure.

(A possible source of bemusement on this is the name sycamore. As I said, in Europe it refers to the tree, acer pseudoplatanus: in North America (I am told) sycamore is platanus occidentalis. Which in Europe is known as the plane tree. Confused? You will be…)

Cheers - C


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:28 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:47 am
Posts: 15336
Location: In a galaxy far far away
My main grip is, they can use genetic science to speed up the growth, size, flavour and colour of a vegetable. Why cant they apply the science and resources used for genetically modified farming into forestry. Imagine 5 years to grow an oak tree to full maturity rather than the 160 years you informed me of. Instead GM science is rammed straight into human bodies in England and North America by using it to feed the cattle we eat (only in the usa and uk). Both our countries are a major drain on world resource and both governments claim to be super eco aware. Why then has their been no reports (that i'm aware of) of the application into forestry when its one of the main sufferers through our consumption.

Ive always liked sycamore trees. the fact that violin makers are using its wood for high end violins only gives me the belief that it must be a superior tonewood. Compare the price difference between a antique/vintage fender or gibson and a world performance class violin of the same year. Nevermind a Stradivarius, you could buy blackie 5 times over and still get bus fare home for one of them.

_________________
No no and no


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:40 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:58 pm
Posts: 7714
Location: Planet Earth
ClearwaterZiggy wrote:
Great idea!!! I'd sure like to see (and hear) a bamboo body. Any luthiers out there up to the challenge? Are there any companies that would make a body out of a board that you send them? Imagine this as a strat body:

Image
How about the cutting board they are setting on. Now that has possibility.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:46 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:47 am
Posts: 15336
Location: In a galaxy far far away
cvilleira wrote:
How about the cutting board they are setting on. Now that has possibility.


looks like a laminate to me send it to Hohner :D

_________________
No no and no


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:47 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:12 pm
Posts: 671
Location: Western Spiral Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy
i absolutely agree. it's sad how the government would rather use this great science; a milestone in human knowledge, to make our bodies worse. What can you do.. governments care about only money and how they can get more of it. Trees should grow faster man, so we'd have a certified environment friendly guitar that stings and sings! :)

sometimes i didn't wish i lived in these times... makes me feel like like playing the blues...


-The Screamin' J :(

_________________
CURRENT RIG:
2008 Squier bullet stratocaster modified with Rumpelstiltskin pickups -> Dunlop GCB-95 Original Crybaby -> Fender Vibro Champ XD

"Could you take the stain from this pair of pants, and put in on this pair of pants?"


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:09 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:22 am
Posts: 354
Location: Clearwater, FL
cvilleira wrote:
How about the cutting board they are setting on. Now that has possibility.


Ummmmm... that cutting board is what I was referring to. That's a laminated bamboo board. I can't imagine that scallions would make a very solid guitar body. LoL :lol:

_________________
Well, yes, I am a pirate
A few hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder
There's nothing to plunder
I'm an under 40 victim of fate
Arriving too late...
Arriving too late...


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:29 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:57 am
Posts: 13164
Location: Peckham: where the snow leopards roam
ClearwaterZiggy wrote:
I can't imagine that scallions would make a very solid guitar body. LoL :lol:


A groovy guitar made from a scallion? Surely that would be a rapscallion?

:shock: - C


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:13 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:58 pm
Posts: 7714
Location: Planet Earth
ClearwaterZiggy wrote:
cvilleira wrote:
How about the cutting board they are setting on. Now that has possibility.


Ummmmm... that cutting board is what I was referring to. That's a laminated bamboo board. I can't imagine that scallions would make a very solid guitar body. LoL :lol:
:oops: :roll: :oops: I have seen guitar of worse looking wood but it is how the sound comes through that counts not looks. Over all the years of guitar making they no what wood resonates best. I foget where I read it but there was a guy who was making guitar bodies from pieces of furniture that he was buying from Goodwill and I think Amvets it said he tries to find the older solid stuff to use. He cut it down and glue the boards for 2,3,4 piece bodies

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 24 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Go to page Previous  1, 2

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot], jmallard and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: