"The State of Ebony" by Taylor Guitars

nojyeloot

nojyeloot

Experienced
This video is about a year and a half old, but I just came across it on youtube as a suggested video.

If you've seen it and know about the current state, great. If you haven't seen it, it's a really interesting exposition on where we're at with ebony. I particularly like the story at the end. Fantastic story teller.

 
I noticed the newer 814CEs having the mixed color on the fretboards that were described as Ebony and wondered how it came about. At first glance, I thought I wouldn't want an "Ebony" fretboard with any color but black but the more I've seen them, I actually like the variety in color and I'm glad that Taylor has focused so much on conservation.
 
I like the color change as well as the decision to stop wasting 90% of the felled trees. Another good way to look at that is that ebony availability has increased by 900%. Good on Bob Taylor and those involved for the conservationalist approach in this. If tonality, structural integrity and quality are not sacrificed, we can all surely deal with a little bit of color within the very same bit of wood.

Thanks for posting the video,
 
Strumzilla said:
I noticed the newer 814CEs having the mixed color on the fretboards that were described as Ebony and wondered how it came about. At first glance, I thought I wouldn't want an "Ebony" fretboard with any color but black but the more I've seen them, I actually like the variety in color and I'm glad that Taylor has focused so much on conservation.
Click to expand...

Man, I love the streaks and "imperfections" in the ebony. But I didn't start that way.

A fellow (& local) Texan I see...
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Why not just dye it? We dye our floors, our kitchen cabinets and furniture. As he said, the responsible thing to do is use all the wood, but the customers want black, so dye it all.

Which leads to the next question: can we return to those places where there are many felled ebony trees and recoup what was once discarted?

The real issue here is we are still headed toward extinction, just more slowly. I didn't hear any mention of planting replacement trees.
 
This vid. was made after the Gibson factory was fined for using wood from endangered areas. Taylor is just trying to hold his back clean.
Suhr and others still offer Brazilian Rosewood from "private stash". And Taylor Macassar Ebony that's considered allmost extinct.

All the "run-of-the-mill" production may live up to new standards. But many of the "Private stash", artist's models etc. etc. are glazed with wood from areas that are now extinct.

All these guys - Suhr, Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Ibanez etc. have a great influence in, where we are today wood-wise. And now they come crying: "We want to be legally, echologically minded producers".

Yes, they see the money vanishing.
 
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pdup said:
This vid. was made after the Gibson factory was fined for using wood from endangered areas. Taylor is just trying to hold his back clean.
Suhr and others still offer Brazilian Rosewood from "private stash". And Taylor Macassar Ebony that's considered allmost extinct.

All the "run-of-the-mill" production may live up to new standards. But many of the "Private stash", artist's models etc. etc. are glazed with wood from areas that are now extinct.

All these guys - Suhr, Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Ibanez etc. have a great influence in, where we are today wood-wise. And now they come crying: "We want to be legally, echologically minded producers".

Yes, they see the money vanishing.
Click to expand...

Well, after all they have businesses to take care of, workers to pay etc. as ugly as it can get they still have to write checks so families can survive....
 
It may suck for builders, but younger generations will never match the aberrant guitar obsessed baby boom generation for opulent consumption. There will be way more high end guitars out there than guitarists. The used market is going to be a paradise for instrument buyers before long, and the stress on the forests will ease up
 
I remember around 30 years ago when I worked for the Danish Gibson, Martin Guitars, Zildjian Cymbals, Gretch and other brand's distributor, that I got a letter (this was before e-mails) from the German classic-guitar builder Dieter Hopf (he at that time made concert-guitars for the best european artists), that Yamaha had just bought a vast amount of the best Brazilian Rosewood - and had therefore back-ordered him for a year. Yamaha used the precious wood to veneer a production of newly introduced electronic pianos.

At the time I worked at Hartwig Music I bought a Martin D-45 with Adirondack deck. And thought: "This is just plain ugly ... rough looking, whitish, with too much space between the grain. I was just a joke. It had to be played several hours a day to finally open-up after a month (like speakers, y know).
But the expensive monster never sounded better that a D-28 in the right hands.

Expensive wood are NOT the answer. The high-tech fiber-board on a Parker Fly can essentilally do the same combined with the wooden body.

But all the remaining guitar-manufacturers lean on customers that buy the exotic wood - not for playing but for hanging on the wall because they have the wallet full.
 
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