"
Don't play that guitar boy
Don't shoot for the stars boy
The guitar that you play
Could wind up the spade that digs your grave"
(c) Geoff Achison 1988
Who would have thought that this blues song lyrics have anything to do with real life?
Well, until FBI raided the Gibson Guitar factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, computer data and guitars, I would have believe that song too unreal.
Apparently, these days FBI has no hardened criminals to look for so they are going after guitar manufacturers to see if they are using
wood (no... really?) for making their guitars! Although Gibson is buying wood from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier, FBI is suspecting some sinister plot here.
Since Federal Government is still investigating if Gibson is making their fretboards out of wood from protected forests, such as the Madagascar ebony, they needed some more evidence for the now infamous case "
United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms."
A lot of musicians once took their vintage guitars along on their travels, but no more. Most of them are now settling for carbon fiber instruments to avoid the implications of transporting woods worldwide.
Is the government maybe taking things too far? Do we really need special agents to verify which kind of wood is used to make guitars? Are guitar makers destroying world's rain forests? Or is it just justification for the 7% expansion of Federal Government every year?
Oh my... I have to hide my guitar. It's more than 30 years old. Who knows which laws am I breaking just by playing it...