LeftyBassist.com

wow rod, all that just seems silly, it seems like the law(s) is so broadly worded it can be interpreted in so many different ways that it all depends on the customs official your lucky (or unlucky) enough to have inspect your instrument.

frankenjazz - exactly!

the "confiscate and hold as evidence until proven innocent" is also concerning for a small business owner like myself who manages cashflow on 10's of instruments and not 100's or 1000's. then when you consider the stats that well over 90% of the rainforest wood that's illegally cut down is burned on site vs. the very miniscule part of a percent that finds its way into wood racks (and the small percentage of that miniscule percent that actually makes it into a stringed instrument) it's very clear that the gov has found an easy target with the stringed instrument industry while turning a blind eye on helping to solve the true problem of the enormous waste of wood that's simply burned when locals clear cut native forrest to raise livestock and grow crops

but I will stop here because I'm starting to edge into the political discussion on this topic (by political I mean it from a generic policy viewpoint and not at the specific party affiliation or climate perspective level)

all the best,

R

Not too belabor a dying topic, but I do find it interesting that Gibson still seems to making quality instruments despite the fact that it keeps getting reported as such an awful & chaotic place to work. Usually quality is the first thing to slip (think Fender and Gretsch in the early 70s) in an unhappy factory environment. The stuff I've tried in the last ten years in stores, and I do own a 1996 guitar, all seem top quality.

Not to be contradictory but I find the opposite to be true, whenever I go with one of my guitarist friends to a music store and we browse, I always end up flipping over a les paul to try it out(eric clapton's while my guitar gently weeps tone, and jimmy page's since ive been loving you are it when it comes to rock guitar tone for me) and am always disappointed, badly matched tops, sharp fret ends, badly cut nuts. A friend has a custom Es-345 that is pretty good but that was about $4000, and I repeat, its not amazing or fantastic....but pretty good.

The FEDs can have my basses...when they can pry them from my cold dead hands!

for anyone wishing to dig deeper into this subject, here's a thread link to the Musical Instrument Makers Forum where this topic is beings discussed. Check out posts 21-24 for the factual details on what is really going on

http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX?128@90 ... @.2cb70819

if for some reason this link becomes invalid, go to mimf.com, and the look for the "Gibson Runs Into CITES Woes Again" thread in the Jam Session sub forum

all the best,

R

Judging from the dudes in the Gibson news story, that's exactly what they're hoping to do....

I wonder who the whistle blower was?

I was sent this youtube link of the Gibson CEO being interviewed regarding the Aug 24th raid...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RnIdhb2 ... ture=share

And now, the media big boys have picked up the thread. This just in from CNN ....

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/02/smallbusiness/gibson_guitar/index.htm?iid=HP_LN