Whilst we all wish to make ethical decisions, these are not ever without sacrifice. We can never truly consider ourselves sustainable in our actions without adapting and changing our behaviours.

Guitar makers might turn a blind eye to the environmental problems brought about by deforestation and the pursuit of prized exotic species. Many guitar makers might try justify their actions, claiming since we only use small quantities, guitar makers aren’t the main culprits.

In reality, there is a significant amount of waste involved in making guitars, particularly if we only ever choose to use perfect cuts of wood from a limited number of species.

As guitar makers we have to accept that our future mandates we think carefully about our choice of timber and where we source it from.

I am unable offer Brazilian rosewood, nor do I envisage ever using it. Same goes for many of the other prized rare and endangered dalbergia species. The ability to legally and ethically obtain quality pieces is extremely limited. I’ll leave this to the more established makers with access to old pre-CITES inventories.

Whilst I do occasionally have exotic tropical species available, including Malaysian Blackwood, Ziricote, Bocote, and PauFerro, it is not implausible that many of these species will also soon, like the rosewoods, become CITES restrictcd. Fortunately beautiful sounding instruments can be made avoiding tropical species altogether.

To me, the prospect of working with non-traditional woods, including from old felled street trees or orchard trees, is just as exciting as working with prized, rare and expensive traditional hardwoods. Thankfully more sustainable options are also often cheaper to source, tending also to be of a higher quality.