Today is International Day of Forests and the Tree

We love trees and forests!

Hug a Tree

…as without them, so much about our lives would be different. Just have a quick look around you now… how much can you see that is made from wood, card or paper ?

In the West we have a voracious appetite for wood, and the more exotic and beautiful the better… it has become a highly valuable commodity … traded and profited from over and over…and usually at the expense of the community that lives and works the land that where it grows.

We love wood

Here at Baileys, the woodier the better … but we know that some wood comes at a price that is too high to pay.

Unfortunately, many of the most highly prized guitar woods are on endangered , and trade prohibited lists...and rightly so. The problem is that the majority of guitarists want a guitar that looks, feels and plays like a guitar.. and so many of the green substitutes just aren’t the same

Wood is Good

It’s a conundrum – if we as a community don’t find ways to solve this problem…there will eventually be none left… Ebony, for example is already getting harder to get hold of … and that isn’t just bad for the world of guitars is it ?

Wood and trees are an amazing natural resources as they are truly sustainable and renewable – as long as greed and short term gain are not the main aims

Alternatives?

Like many guitar makers, we are experimenting with alternatives, and trying to make sure we buy and use responsibly- native timber, other companies “waste” ie offcuts, individual wood hoarders stashes (you know who you are ! ) old wood, reclaimed wood, etc etc etc… but our customers want the best, and often a specific look or quality to their instrument. (and the majority don’t choose us because of our green activities)

Fairly Traded Timber!

When we started in 1998, you could buy Fairly Traded tea, coffee, sugar, clothes, household items etc… even our nearest town is a Fair Trade town… but trying to buy fairly traded wood was impossible – we contacted Traidcraft, FoE, and Greenpeace, as we imagined there must be a community somewhere in the world we could make a direct link with – a small UK builder and our community, working fairly with another group who sustainably produce the wood we need. It seemed impossible…

But on this day of Forests and the Tree, when better to announce that  for the last few months we have been working with an organisation called Sound and Fair  set up precisely to do what we needed, and we are delighted to tell you that our first deliveries of wood have arrived from a community in Tanzania –  African blackwood for fretboards, pod mahogany, paduak and panga panga for bodies and necks…ALL sustainably managed and approved.. and the first fairly traded FSC acoustic will be finished soon.

Sound and Fair deserves a blog of its own.. more to come about that and the new guitar…

Happy forest and tree day from us all here!

Care about our planet ??

If you would like a guitar made using fairly traded, FSC, or reclaimed wood please contact us with your requirements – our guitars are all made with renewable energy…and are some of the greenest guitars in the universe

 “Is a tree as a rocking horse an ambition fulfilled, and is the sawdust jealous ?” Godley and Creme