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  1. #1

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    another classic luthiers tonewood bites the dust...fender/fmic will no longer be using ash for their production guitars...ash and alder were the 2 fender mainstay body woods for decades!


    statement from Christina Stejksal, Vice President of Global Communications:

    As you know, it has become ever more difficult to obtain a steady and predictable supply of ash over the last several years.

    A major cause of this shortage is the infestation of the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle native to Asia that is highly destructive to the North American ash tree and the attempts at curbing the beetle’s impact have been largely unsuccessful. Same goes for the compounding of the Emerald Ash Borer and the infestation results in chronic flooding in the Mississippi delta, where the majority of our swamp ash supply is harvested.

    It is inevitable we as an industry and a brand need to make some changes, some proactive changes and what this means exactly for Fender. In order to uphold our legacy of consistency and high quality we have made the decision to remove ash from the majority of our regular production models. What little ash we are able to source will continue to be made available in select, historically appropriate vintage models, as supplies are available.

    This marks the beginning of a new chapter at Fender that will inspire musicians with beautiful new tone wood combinations, new resonant body styles and bold new sounds – as always with our continued commitment to quality and value. With your help, we believe we will continue to achieve unprecedented success together.


    cheers

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  3. #2

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    As a community, we really do need to become a lot more welcoming to synthetic materials.

  4. #3

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    i'd much prefer alternate woods to synthetics...synthetics take huge environmental toll too!!

    fmic's move from rosewood fretboards to indian laurel...was a good move..just as the move from mahogany to sapelle...etc etc


    orville gibson carved his first guitar out of walnut!!

    cheers

  5. #4

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    Even though there are to al characteristics to specific types of woods. I'm sure design and luthiers skills have as much to do with producing a great sounding instrument. Didn't Bob Benedetto make an archtop of very cheap wood to prove his point ?

    I wonder how much is the look as well as being conditioned as consumers?

  6. #5

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    Oh great, now everyone who wouldn't THINK of owning a strat or tele are going to gobble what's left of them up and inflate the prices :-(

  7. #6

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    Sad to see. Governments listen to their foresters on about the same level as their epidemiologists, with predictable results.

  8. #7

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    { " A major cause of this shortage is the infestation of the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle native to Asia.... " }


    ....I hired a tree service last year whose crew worked two days cutting down ash trees in my yard, that'd easily been there for 100 plus years... .....The foreman told me all ash trees in this country are dying and will soon, without doubt, be extinct....

  9. #8

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    btw..."synthetic" material guitars were being made in the 40's and 50's...maccaferri plastic guitars and danelectro masonite


    don't see too much love for them jazzwise these days


    not new or weird enough?

    cheers

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    btw..."synthetic" material guitars were being made in the 40's and 50's...maccaferri plastic guitars and danelectro masonite


    don't see too much love for them jazzwise these days


    not new or weird enough?

    cheers
    I've owned and loved old Danos and I have no doubt that someone will eventually make a brilliant carbon fiber electric, whether anyone will buy it is another story.
    Last edited by Jim Soloway; 04-22-2020 at 08:40 AM.

  11. #10

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    steinberger???


    i also knew geoff gould of modulus guitars a bit..first guy i knew dealing with industrial aeronautics carbon fiber for guitars..the 80's....for all the talk about rigidity and lack of "wooden" problems...they never really took off!!

    carbon steinberger had great run..and in many ways still a great underrated design...all these "modern" headless guitars are basically piggybacking off the original

    cheers

  12. #11

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    They don't sell. The "handle" 2010


  13. #12

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    Always those damn Be(e/a)tles....

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by rob taft
    They don't sell. The "handle" 2010

    They didn't and it's a shame. They weren't perfect ergonomically but I played their jazz version at NAMM and it was stunning. One of the best sounding guitars I've ever played.

  15. #14

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    Just got my 2nd Baja tele a couple of weeks before.

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    i'd much prefer alternate woods to synthetics...
    This.

    Love cherry wood.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
    As a community, we really do need to become a lot more welcoming to synthetic materials.
    I'm somewhat surprised that engineered materials haven't made many inroads into guitars. Not just "synthetics", though, but also engineered woods and composites. But I guess the R&D effort it would take to come up with something that performs as well as "tone wood" at a comparable cost is not there yet, and/ or the musical instrument business can't compete with other industries for the scientists and engineers who would do it. But if there were a good sounding guitar made out of reclaimed materials at a price I could afford, I'd go for it. FWIW I tried one carbon fiber acoustic guitar (I think it was a Rainsing), and the price:tone ratio was not good IMO. OTOH, I heard a violinist play a CF violin, and it sounded like a violin to me.

    On a parallel note, I find Godin's use of non-traditional woods and novel lamination/design methods pretty interesting. That might be a stepping stone to composites. From what I understand, they sited their factory close to abundant sources of woods that other manufacturers don't use, and put in place sophisticate design, manufacturing QA/QC, and make great stuff cheaply. I bet they're poised to bring in other materials.

    John

  18. #17

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    swamp ash is a beautiful wood!! one piece tele body

    Tone Wood - Fender no Longer Using Ash-cwcim7x-jpg

    cheers

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by John A.
    I'm somewhat surprised that engineered materials haven't made many inroads into guitars. Not just "synthetics", though, but also engineered woods and composites. But I guess the R&D effort it would take to come up with something that performs as well as "tone wood" at a comparable cost is not there yet, and/ or the musical instrument business can't compete with other industries for the scientists and engineers who would do it. But if there were a good sounding guitar made out of reclaimed materials at a price I could afford, I'd go for it. FWIW I tried one carbon fiber acoustic guitar (I think it was a Rainsing), and the price:tone ratio was not good IMO. OTOH, I heard a violinist play a CF violin, and it sounded like a violin to me.

    On a parallel note, I find Godin's use of non-traditional woods and novel lamination/design methods pretty interesting. That might be a stepping stone to composites. From what I understand, they sited their factory close to abundant sources of woods that other manufacturers don't use, and put in place sophisticate design, manufacturing QA/QC, and make great stuff cheaply. I bet they're poised to bring in other materials.

    John
    I think it's much more a case of resistance on the demand side than lack of progress on the supply side.

  20. #19

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    Guitarists- myself included- tend to be conservative to the point of hidebound. But as far as Telecasters and Stratocasters go, I have always preferred alder to ash in terms of tone. I've never played a pinecaster, though.

    The simple truth is that any species of wood that is logged in a wholesale manner will eventually become in short supply. There are billions of people on the planet, most of whom utilize wood in many aspects of their life in one way or another, and that number is only going to keep increasing. That will continue to place demands upon materials and ultimately necessity products, such as structural wood for housing, is going to win out over vanity products like guitars.

    So we are going to have to adapt to engineered materials. For solid body guitars, that really ought to be less problematic than for acoustic instruments. However, it's also possible that there have already been enough guitars made in terms of mass production. Fender and Gibson have always struggled with competing to sell new guitars versus the used instrument market.

  21. #20

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    unfortunately, what makes this current ash problem so insidious is that it is not a matter of over demand or non sustaining proper growth ethics...it's a question of deadly infestation from outside it's natural environment


    much like whats going on at the present moment on larger scale!


    cheers

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    unfortunately, what makes this current ash problem so insidious is that it is not a matter of over demand or non sustaining proper growth ethics...it's a question of deadly infestation from outside it's natural environmentmuch like whats going on at the present moment on larger scale!cheers
    With worldwide travel, illegal export and importation of wood and plant products it's become a problem worldwide. Here in the U.S beside the Emerald Ash Borer the avocado Ambrosia beetle, annona seed borer and citrus greening (caused by the Citrus Psyllid) diseases are some of the other significant non native threats.

    The bigger threat other than tone woods (sorry) is food crops, yeah Avo, and annona may not be life sustaining as we could (but I wouldn't be happy about it) live without these but crops like citrus are another matter.

    I guess it's the price we pay for globalization, but the money spent on treating plant pests is (IMO) better spent on human health I think.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by GNAPPI
    Here in the U.S beside the Emerald Ash Borer the avocado Ambrosia beetle, annona seed borer and citrus greening (caused by the Citrus Psyllid) diseases are some of the other significant non native threats.
    Don't forget bark beetle and the contribution all those dead trees make to the forest fire problem in the west.


    Quote Originally Posted by GNAPPI
    The bigger threat other than tone woods (sorry) is food crops, yeah Avo, and annona may not be life sustaining as we could (but I wouldn't be happy about it) live without these but crops like citrus are another matter.
    You may not be aware but since the development of Hass avocados in the 1920's native Californians have become dependent on them and can't survive longer than 15 days without avocado. California has even considered social programs to provide these life sustaining avocados to those who can prove their California origins.

  24. #23

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    When I was growing up we had a giant American Elm tree in our back yard, in a NYC suburb. Dutch Elm disease killed it, and wiped out most elms on the eastern seaboard. There is a stand of old growth elm in Central Park, thought to have survived DED because it is isolated in an urban setting.

    Chestnut trees in North America have also been devastated by disease, in this case Chestnut Blight. There aren't many chestnut trees to see in this patch of the US; it is almost gone from its historical native habitat. Both of these tree species were noted for their huge, spreading crowns – magnificent specimens. Remember, the "village smithy" stood under a "spreading chestnut tree"...

    A number of tree species may fall victim to various beetles and other insects due to global warming, as the frostline in the northern hemisphere moves farther up wooded mountains.

  25. #24

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    Seems like that with all the dead ash trees, there would be plenty of material. At least for now. It would probably more profitable to use the last of it for baseball bats, though.

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by MaxTwang
    Don't forget bark beetle and the contribution all those dead trees make to the forest fire problem in the west.




    You may not be aware but since the development of Hass avocados in the 1920's native Californians have become dependent on them and can't survive longer than 15 days without avocado. California has even considered social programs to provide these life sustaining avocados to those who can prove their California origins.
    Banning avocado tree ownership gets very complicated in countries where gun ownership is legal
    Hey don't blame me for getting political if gonna you mock the life style choices is of people in liberal states.