ilovefuzz.com

Mudfuzz wrote:Even if it was labeled and shipped wrong, when it got to the plant it would have been checked and measured. If it was shipped as finished and they got raw that is something someone would have noticed. This IS ebony we are talking about [Go and price ebony..] it DAMN well would have been gone over, because shippers and supply companies FUCK UP ALL THE TIME! You always have to check and count what you got so you KNOW what you just got. Again Gibson has been importing TONS of wood for a very long time.

yes. but if i'm understanding the Times and the other news accounts correctly, the wood never got to the Gibson plant. i'm not clear if it was a violation to have it labelled to be shipped to the importer as the destination rather than Gibson; the wording of the Lacey Act doesn't speak to that. that's what makes the whole thing smell funny to me...i'm not by any means a fan of Henry or what he's done to Gibson, but the entire DoJ pursuit of Gibson seems to be based on nit-picking fine points of wording and paperwork to try to make mountains out of molehills, the equivalent of when an overzealous traffic cop pulls you over and starts going over your car saying "your window's cracked, that's a ticket...oh, and your license plate light's out, that's another ticket." the fact that a year and a half after the original raid no charges have been filed says a lot, i think.

ACTUALLY

http://nashvillepost.com/news/2010/12/2 ... ndictments

If you look into the 2009 incident, the wood actually was ebony from Madagascar-- they just had it brought in through Germany. And they knew it was from Madagascar. It's illegal to harvest Ebony is Madagascar, and as such, Gibson violated the Lacey Act.

And it appears almost all of the info on this recent raid so far has actually come from Gibson, seeing as it's an ongoing investigation, so the investigators aren't really talking much.

Check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Gui ... dlife_Raid

And go through the sources. There's a couple of pretty legit ones. Or... as legit as it gets for a case with this little real info.

Gibson CEO throwing some wild accusations at the Feds, most of which are probably true...

http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/09/01/int ... r-company/

Just saw the CEO on FOX News talking about how Gibson is being picked on. It will probably be on their website any second. I hear they are a pretty bad company to work for, but never first hand. I'll probably wait for the feds findings before I make a personal judgment, but from how Gibson seems to be treating the environment, their personnel, and good artistic taste in general, I don't think I will be buying any new product from them any time soon.

Back to the original article. Aside from being obviously biased on the political front I wonder if the kissing up to Gibson is to add more substance to the political claims or for some other reason.

Gibson, one of the world's premier guitar manufacturers, and a company that has continually tried to honestly and readily abide by domestic and international laws concerning its material sourcing while continuing to provide quality products to its customers

It could have been an ad...

I'm on a Gibson Forum, and a Les Paul forum, and like 90% of the people are saying "fuck the environment make more guitars gibson, i don't need to see trees when I have a Les Paul in my hands! MOARRRRR" which is just plain stupid, and starts like 80 page threads of flamewar. The whole thing is stupid, and Gibson seems to be pretty stupid. But, who knows the whole story?

Fuzzy Fred wrote:I'm on a Gibson Forum, and a Les Paul forum, and like 90% of the people are saying "fuck the environment make more guitars gibson, i don't need to see trees when I have a Les Paul in my hands! MOARRRRR" which is just plain stupid, and starts like 80 page threads of flamewar. The whole thing is stupid, and Gibson seems to be pretty stupid. But, who knows the whole story?

What ever happened to Smartwood? They started that in 94ish and I thought it was a great idea...

Plant a tree Gibson!

We need to start a grassroots campaign to sue the federal gov't for the price of the wood lost by Gibson. Sign the petition! Vote! Put tape over your headstocks before you're sniped at shows!

I think this is fender trolling.