NEW C.I.T.E.S. Law for 2017

[rjohnstone]

Just because a guitar has a Maple or Ebony board doesn't mean it's safe.
Those skunk stripes on the back of many Strat heads are typically Rosewood or Bubinga. (Yes, even Bubinga is included).
Ibanez is a heavy user of Bubinga to reinforce they backs of their necks.


Good news is, working musicians do not need a permit to travel with their guitar.

Non-commercial exports of a maximum total weight of 10kg per shipment; (Excluded) This exception allows a person to travel to any country in the world with a finished product containing less than 10 kg of a Rosewood (Dalbergia) or a Bubinga (Guibourtia demeusei, Guibourtia pellegriniana or Guibourtia tessmannii) without a CITES permit, as long as there is no commercial transaction of the product.
An example: a musician will be able to travel to any country with his
Indian Rosewood guitar without needing a CITES permit, as long as he
does not sell the guitar during the trip. It is not a problem if the musician
earns money by playing his guitar abroad, as that would not constitute a
commercial transaction of the instrument.

[Sanctuary]

I thought they were Walnut...

[j2379]

they will not hire specialists or train agent on how to determine the types of rosewood so you need paperwork for ANY & ALL rosewood. IF they think its rosewood they will cease it. & yes its already happened.

[Catharpin]

they will not hire specialists or train agent on how to determine the types of rosewood so you need paperwork for ANY & ALL rosewood. IF they think its rosewood they will cease it. & yes its already happened.

Yep, apparently even an expert can't definitively tell Brazilian from others just by looking at it.
You will be guilty until proven otherwise.

[lepard]

Still didn't get an answer: Does this affect brand new Jackson imports ? If so, just think how much that will fuck up cheap imports like the JS32 series. Could it be possible for Jackson to get a mass CITES certificate to cover 100's of the same model?

[eakinj]

Wow, so in a year we'll likely have a whole new bunch of people creating accounts on here and asking what their generic import guitar is worth with the "ultra rare" rosewood fret boards (And then getting butt hurt because they think they own the holy grail of imports and no one will feed into their fantasy *crack smoker level* price)

I personally don't like Rosewood, I don't like the look of it. Couldn't tell you if it makes any tone difference, I simply do not like how it looks. The flip side of that is I've seen (and own guitars) with rosewood that's been stained black to the point where I can't tell that it's rosewood which I point out simply to underline that it's not a tone thing I have against rosewood, just the looks of it (except when stained nice and black, have I over explained that yet? Here let me say it another way... nah. you get it)

So, my question - is there a huge price difference between Ebony and Rosewood? I'm not talking about builder up charge, I mean one piece of the wood from the other? If all these places suddenly have to switch to avoid this, is it going to drive up the prices on things?

[Sanctuary]

IF they think its rosewood they will cease it. & yes its already happened.

Anecdotal or do you actually know of guitars destroyed?

[BlackRR]

"So, my question - is there a huge price difference between Ebony and Rosewood? I'm not talking about builder up charge, I mean one piece of the wood from the other? If all these places suddenly have to switch to avoid this, is it going to drive up the prices on things?"

In my experiance ebony can be anywhere from $10 to $40 more than a rosewood board depending on quality of the ebony, the real problem is that the quality of the ebony boards has gone down considerably. What used to be considered a B or C grade is now being labeled A grade or at least that is what I am experiencing when I'm buying.

[Number Of The Priest]

Perhaps with Bob Taylor's actions towards the use of ebony (https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=...t+taylor+ebony) and the CITES restrictions surrounding rosewood, we will begin to see more "B or C grade ebony" being used.

We should learn to love streaky, imperfectly-black ebony. I've already owned two Mexican Taylor guitars from 2013 that had streaky ebony fretboards and there was nothing wrong with them.

[rjohnstone]

I thought they were Walnut...

I've seen a few cheap brands with rosewood strips and Ibanez puts Bubinga strips in theirs.

[j2379]

Anecdotal or do you actually know of guitars destroyed?

Yes they were ceased. Not sure if they were destroyed but they were lost by the buyer and seller.

[Sanctuary]

Yes they were ceased. Not sure if they were destroyed but they were lost by the buyer and seller.

They? Details? Come on man...what guitars? Who was shipping them? Where to/from? Etc...