Got Gas? It gets worse.

David Matzenik · From: Cairns, on the Coral Sea

You might want to read this. There is going to have to be a move against over-regulation, and I'm not talking tea-party crap.

http://online.wsj.com/article
_________________
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother.

Jeff Spencer · From: Queensland, Australia

Thanks David. Bobbe Seymore has written about this in his last newsletter. This is b#@%&*)t. Just gos to show what happens when d&*^$$%ds are put in charge or regulating society. Mad

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

Moved to Music from Steel Without Pedals. This subject has been discussed in several other threads as well.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Matthew Dawson · From: Portland Oregon, USA

Looks like the future is Frying Pans and Tricones! I can live with that.

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

:Yawn:

Speculation without facts is a worthless endeavor.
_________________
Primitive Utility Steel

Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

While we'd all rather talk steel than politics,the buzz this Gibson issue is raising in mainstream media as well as in the musical community might mean that politics has come to us ,rather than we to it.

OTOH the rockers and (especially)folkies have been politicking happily away for decades.One thing I always liked about country music was the ABSENCE of agonizing over the plight of the dispossessed du jour. Oh Well

Russ Tkac · Posted 13 Sep 2011 10:02 am

Pakawood! From endangered Pakas.... Smile

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

There's plenty of facts coming out now. Henry Juszkiewicz's approach to laying out some blustering diversion may even eventually be used in law schools - as an example how NOT to do it. He clearly wouldn't be going on Glen Beck, Alex Jones and ranting about "Obama hates business" and "everyone's at risk" without legal advice. The problem is that his protests were so vehement and politicized that it motivated some reporters to actually read the documents and trace some of the story. Wow! Henry's claim that he doesn't know what he's being charged with is nonsense, as the case was filed in federal court in June.

When the Madagascar economy tanked, armed rebels began to log ebony and rosewood in Madagascar's national forests. The wood was 'laundered' through Reunion, Mauritius, China, and other countries. Eventually, there was a military coup in March 2009, and Andry Rajoelina is now in power.

When the government raided Gibson's shop the first time based on:
Madagascar Ebony they were attempting to import simply as 'ebony' (a simple mistake? Possibly, but these people import strictly controlled woods all the time).
Without a statement of nation of origin (a simple mistake? Possible, but it was the case that Madagascar Ebony imports were almost certain to be illegal at the time).
Through a source that, according to the Madagascar government then in power, had no right to remove raw or unfinished Madagascar Ebony from Madagascar - without the Lacey Act declaration. Gibson and this importer import exotic woods subject to the Lacey Act all of the time; it may have been a coincidence that the Lacey Act declaration was left off one of the woods that was virtually impossible to import legally.

Then, the feds raid Gibson. They find emails on Gibson computers. One email comes from a Gibson employee sent to Madagascar to buy rosewood and ebony. The employee's email reported:

Quote:

all legal timber and wood exports [from Madagascar] are prohibited because of wide spread corruption and theft of valuable woods like rosewood and ebony."

A later email from the same employee said that Gibson might be able to get 'gray market' Madagascar Rosewood from a particular source. That source was the source that the Madagascar government then in power said had no legal right to remove raw or unfinished Madagascar Ebony from Madagascar. And then Gibson bought the ebony from him through a Germany company.

Now, Gibson's press release says it has papers from the Madagascar government to the effect that the ebony was removed legally. The question is - is that a letter from the government in power when the wood was removed by the guy with no authority to do so, and when Gibson, despite the email from its employee saying that "all legal" exports "are prohibited" elected to go to the "grey market."? Or is it from the current government in power, whose rebels were involved in illegal logging and 'laundering' of illegally logged ebony and rosewood during the period the first government was in power?

There is simply no way that a company concerned with ethics would be buying anything there, but a company who sends an employee who reported that it's all illegal, but there's a source for the "gray market" wood - and Gibson buys some from him??

The second raid is a bit worse for Gibson. The affidavit of Special Agent John Rayfield of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the affidavit that led to the search warrants for the latest raids on Gibson's Memphis and Tennessee plants. Although too long to describe completely here, there are some interesting details. The wood imported by Gibson was not only incorrectly described on the import papers, but the parties involved were careful that Gibson did not show as the "ultimate consignee" on the import papers as required by law. (There's law on what constitutes the "ultimate consignee"; if I'm an importer and you come to me asking for me to import item X for you, and I order it for you, knowing Item X is ultimately going to you once it comes into the country, then you're the ultimate consignee).

The tariff classifications at issue for Indian Ebony and Indian Rosewood seized at the Dallas airport or in the latest raid have been around and unmodified since 1993. Gibson's been working under them for 18 years.

The crates that came into Dallas contained wood for fingerboards. One crate was identified as veneer; another was identified as finished parts. Both descriptions were inaccurate. An accurate description would have been a problem because India prohibited the export of unfinished wood other than veneer under 6mm in thickness - and the wood in the crates was unfinished wood for fingerboards, not veneer.

Then . . . the import laws and Lacey Act declaration required that the final consignee be designated - the party for whom the wood was intended. Some of the crates were marked for interstate transport to Nashville with a note that simply said "notify Luthier Mercantile" upon delivery. Others listed "Luthier Mercantile" as the ultimate consignee.

It turns out the address of delivery was a warehouse - Gibson's. Luthier Mercantile was a company Gibson contacted to help it import the wood. When Luthier Mercantile was contacted, it notified the agents that the ultimate consignee was Gibson. Then the agents found that Red Arrow Delivery Service in Nashville received 24 pallets of East Indian Rosewood and Ebony with customs forms saying the wood was delivery to Luthier Mercantile. When Red Arrow was approached, it said the wood was delivered for Gibson.

The deal is - if Luthier Mercantile ordered the wood FOR Gibson, then Gibson was always the ultimate consignee under import laws. Gibson's been in this business for years. And, unfortunately for them the agents check import records and find that Gibson's had eleven other imports of East Indian Rosewood and/or Ebony since August 2010. All of those imports claim to be of finished Ebony and/or Rosewood for musical products. Really? That much finished Ebony and Rosewood? Buy any Gibsons lately?
So, based on the incorrectly labeled shipments caught in Dallas, listing an 'ultimate consignee' who wasn't Gibson in place of Gibson, having other shipments come in on customs forms as being sent to another party, when they're being delivered to Gibson . . .

So you've got four specific instances in two different cases where the crates of wood were mislabeled as to contents, and the whole rigamarole of lying about who it's for, labeling it to deliver to Luthier Mercantile but the trucks go to Gibson?

To me the interesting thing is that Henry Juszkiewicz's initial misdirections were perfectly-tuned to fire up both the right-wing paranoid rant-machine AND our own instrument-cuddling insecurity. Gibson donated to Republicans, Martin donated to Democrats, and WHY didn't Martin get raided too? This is raw red bear meat to the bloggers and ranters. And within days this little ditty was posted on a classical guitar forum:

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Please note that political content is not allowed on the Steel Guitar Forum.

http://steelguitarforum.com/agree.html

This issue should not be framed in terms of Republicans vs Democrats or Tea Party vs Government or anything like that. Observe the rules, please.
_________________
-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video

Hugh Holstein · From: Rohnert Park, California, USA

My Guitars are all,

Swamp Ash.

Richard Shatz · From: St. Louis

Dave,
The fact that it took so many words to explain your pov misses the entire point of why the regulation was needed. It wasn't. Madagascar is being deforested, not because of Gibson's minimal impact.
That said, do we really need those woods to make the instruments we love?

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I'm trying not to take a political side, the point is that the very day of the second raid, the CEO of Gibson immediately started launching broadsides of a political nature himself and attempted to align himself with a pretty potent and vituperative element. This was a strategic move quite unlike anything I've ever seen in the relatively genial world of guitar manufacturing. He certainly would not and could not do this without a considered legal opinion from the staff lawyers - a CEO going that far off the reservation would be canned and packed off to rehab in a heartbeat otherwise.

I don't think it's political to surmise he's getting his advice from the same team that drew up Gibson's lawsuit against Paul Reed Smith for making a single cutaway guitar. Which most all observers knew had a very slim chance of winning, because it was nuts, but Gibson could boilerplate the language cheaply enough and it was a simple gamble - if they had won they'd hit PRS up for a huge licensing fee and try to drive their prices up. And a few years later they introduce the "Experience Hendrix" signature Gibson for all of three days... and now Henry Juszkiewicz went from being the doof who ruined Gibson to being a combination of Paul Revere, Luke Skywalker and Thomas Paine for about three days there, and now back to being the doof who ruined Gibson. Maybe for real this time.

It is a Big Story, there's got to at least one "rat" deep inside Gibson - has he got it in for Henry Juszkiewicz, is he after his job, could it just be someone with... a conscience? And clearly there's a strategy shaping up among the prosecutors, they'll match Gibson in the public arena blow-for-blow. And this ain't faked-up irrelevant Hollywood drama - it's a case that may set some precedents for years to come on all sorts of different issues, way outside of just musical instruments.

Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

Oboy...It's very hard to talk societal trends without sounding political,but I think Dave's right in saying that it's rare for a company CEO to stand up to a prosecuting entity the way Juszkiewicz has.Usually this kind of thing gets quietly settled behind closed doors by $1000/hour lawyers,but it does seem as though the tactic of taking it public and making a fuss,formerly the exclusive province of social activists,is now beginning to be used by business groups.This should be fun to watch.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 14 Sep 2011 6:55 am

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

We luthiers are continually buying wood from each other, and swapping pieces. How are we supposed to know where the wood comes from? Rolling Eyes

Did you know that we luthiers had to give up using elephant tusk for nuts and bridges because the elephant is an endangered species? Yet hundreds of elephants die of natural causes every year. Rolling Eyes

The solution has become ridiculous: we now use Mastodon or Mammoth tusks instead: those animals aren't on the endangered species list because they're already extinct, and, believe it or not, mastodon tusks are quite plentiful in Siberia. Rolling Eyes

Mark Eaton · Posted 14 Sep 2011 11:44 am

David did a good job on providing details, and as Brad pointed out there are other threads here, and I've seen threads on other forums as well. We had a discussion on the Jerry Douglas Forum from a couple weeks ago and below is part of one of my posts. I have many years in mostly the horticulture industry as well as several years in the wine industry, and I have some experience with botched import paperwork and what a pain-in-the-a** it can be when all the t's aren't crossed and i's dotted. Luthiers Mercantile is involved in this deal, and they located in my town on the other side of the freeway from my house, and about a mile down the road from my wife's office. The is refernce to another poster who works with Luthiers Merc, in that the wood materials broker received no cooperation from Fish & Game when this whole thing went public.

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

David Matzenik · From: Cairns, on the Coral Sea

It is interesting how this thread has developed. Dave Mason's details of the Gibson case don't paint a pretty picture of the that company, if we accept the sources. I will, unless something contrary comes to light. But the Gibson story doesn't concern me nearly as much as the case of Mr. Viellard's piano's. A $17,500 fine and three years probabation for importing old pianos without the right paper-work? Again, I would want to see some verification of this story, but I won't be surprised if it is true. I have lived in the USA and Europe, and seen something of regulation. But we out here on the "Last Frontier," as Australia has been painted, are creating the ever-expanding regulatory monster to end them all, and paving the way with good intentions.
_________________
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother.

Paul Sutherland · From: Placerville, California

Do you really want to live in a country where there are no regulations, no environmental enforcement, no consumer protection, no worker safety laws? If so, there are plenty of third world countries that would welcome you. Try Somalia.

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

No, I'm all for regulations. It seems to be a common thing nowadays for people to not want to be pushed around, so politicians take advantage of them by calling for smaller government and less regulation. The fact is, that a country as complex as ours needs a lot of governing, and if the people don't govern then the banks and big corporations surely will. Democracy only exists in government. Small government means small democracy. Those rules that we don't like are created by our elected representatives to protect us.

Getting back to elephant tusks. How can we tell whether the ivory comes from the tusk of a mastodon, a norwhale, a walrus or an elephant ? Well, you can tell under a microscope. They have different cellular structures. Do I check ? No, I don't have the knowhow. I make sure I only buy from reputable dealers that I know, such as Chuck Eriksen, who also provides the ivory for Gibson. He tells me that he has to go through severe checks when he brings the material in through customs.