Mr. Juszkiewicz (CEO of Gibson) says that the government of the country where the rosewood comes from certified it for export, and Gibson jumps through rather elaborate hoops before it buys the wood after it is imported to the U.S. The Lacey Act, which puts American importers of exotic woods at risk, is discussed here. One of the ironies, as you might expect, is that America is a trivial importer of rosewood from Madagascar and India. Ninety-five percent of it goes to China, where it is used to make luxury items like $800,000 beds. So putting Gibson out of business isn’t going to do a whole lot for the forests of Madagascar.

It also seems that the Martin Guitar Company, which uses the same kinds of woods as Gibson in its guitars hasn’t been raided. Nothing about Fender, MusicMan, etc.. This is a strange case. Obscure law, federal raid, property seized. No indication of any crimes committed. One government certifies the product for export and another, ours, decides that this wasn’t good enough. Of all the things the Federal government should be doing why are they spending their time and effort on this? Is there some need for us to be protected from the blight of vintage guitar owners whose decades old instruments may or may not be in violation of another country’s, or our’s, recent law? What benefit is there to putting a venerable American company, Gibson, and its worker’s jobs, in jeopardy for such a bizarre thing? This just doesn’t pass the smell test.

Anyway, ignore the comments section and glean what you can from the article. And if you have a vintage instrument be prepared to show your papers when they come knocking on your door.

go after Gibson Guitars. Apparently the Feds have decided to go after instrument makers and potentially individual owners of instruments to make sure the wood is PC. This includes, apparently, vintage instruments made long before these regulations were passed.

…The tangled intersection of international laws is enforced through a thicket of paperwork. Recent revisions to 1900’s Lacey Act require that anyone crossing the U.S. border declare every bit of flora or fauna being brought into the country. One is under “strict liability” to fill out the paperwork—and without any mistakes.

It’s not enough to know that the body of your old guitar is made of spruce and maple: What’s the bridge made of? If it’s ebony, do you have the paperwork to show when and where that wood was harvested and when and where it was made into a bridge? Is the nut holding the strings at the guitar’s headstock bone, or could it be ivory? “Even if you have no knowledge—despite Herculean efforts to obtain it—that some piece of your guitar, no matter how small, was obtained illegally, you lose your guitar forever,” Prof. Thomas has written. “Oh, and you’ll be fined $250 for that false (or missing) information in your Lacey Act Import Declaration.”