People in the guitar industries must have been shocked at the end of 2016 as there was news that rosewood would be prohibited to be imported and exported all around the world. Actually, it was not professional to say it “prohibited”. The fact was that all the Dalbergia spp. was figured into the Appendix II by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Spieces since 2017. The rosewood widely used in guitar fingerboard and bridge belongs to Dalbergia spp. As a matter of fact, with the CITES CERTIFICATE, we can still import it and export it.
We(Gz Hansi Musical Instruments Co., Limited) can get the CITES CERTIFICATE to solve the import and export problem. Unfortunately, it will make our cost much higher as the export tax rate becomes very high if rosewood is used in the guitar. In order to tackle it, our engineers worked together with the wood suppliers to test other wood.
Now the following wood has been used since last year and proved that they are good replacement for rosewood fingerboard and bridge.
(1) Technical wood: of course, technical wood which pressed by wood powder is not new in the guitar industry. Now it is more widely used in the plywood guitars as the replacement of rosewood.
(2) For solid guitars, kabukalli wood harvested from South America is a good choice. It looks similar to rosewood and the stability and hardness is same as rosewood, also with good Sound conductivity.
(3) The ebony used in the high end all solid guitars is not effected because it is not belonged to Dalbergia spp.
For ukuleles, technical wood, walnut and maple is a good choice to be used in the fingerboard and bridge.
If you would like to discuss more about it, please feel free to contact us: info@hnsguitar.com