SmartWood commitment extending across Gibson USA
by Michelle Nikolai

The Les Paul Exotic line, which currently features the Les Paul SmartWood Studio, represents a commitment to environmental protection that is moving across the entire Gibson USA model line.

The woods used in the creation of the Exotics are harvested from well-managed, renewable forests and certified by SmartWood, one of the organizations endorsed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Gibson Guitar Corp. has been designated a chain of custody organization, which means the SmartWood guitars it produces can be tracked from the retail product all the way back to the forest, with each mill, distributor, wholesaler, etc. in the chain also being certified.

"I think [Gibson is] leading the way for many other companies," says Roger Dower, FSC president. "Guitar companies may not be the largest users of wood products in the world, by they're a very visible user of wood products. And traditionally, users of wood in very special ways, the wood is a very important component in terms of the sound and makeup of the instrument, so if Gibson Guitars can show you how to use certified wood in making their guitars, then it's an easy step to see how certified wood can be used in tables and chair and all the other products."

Gibson first introduced an environmentally-friendly guitar back in 1996 - the Les Paul SmartWood Standard - making it the first guitar company to craft a production model made of certified wood. It had a carved maple top, mahogany back and chechen fingerboard. In 1998 the Les Paul Exotics were introduced, modeled on a thinner-bodied Les Paul from the late 1970s (called The Paul). Created from six distinctive tropical woods harvested from Paraguay, the carved tops were offered in six beautiful and distinctive woods: curupay, taperyva, cancharana, peroba, banara and ambay guasa. The backs were certified mahogany, while the fingerboards were crafted of curupay. The guitars had a UV-cured matte finish which augmented the natural beauty of the wood.

The new SmartWood Studio is a full-size Les Paul with a carved muiracatiara (muir) top, mahogany back and a fingerboard made of the species preciosa (prec). Muir grows extensively in Brazil but ranges from southern Mexico through Central America to the Amazon Basin. The beautiful grain varies from shades of brown to red with irregular stripes that range from dark brown in the heartwood to grayish white in the sapwood. Gibson USA is producing as many Muir guitars as the company's supply of certified wood will allow. After that, the model will continue with a different exotic wood, and production again will limited by the supply of certified wood.

"Gibson has been way out front in terms of testing different types of woods that they can get that are certified; that means that they're not jeopardizing, or putting at risk, some of the rarer wood types that they're used to using in the guitars," comments Dower. "So that's pretty exciting, and there are lots of different types of woods that are coming onto the market that are certified that can provide easy substitutes for some of the ones that are a little more endangered."

One of the woods that is difficult to get is certified mahogany. Mahogany and maple have traditionally been the two main wood components used for Gibson electric guitar bodies, and the mahogany used in production had to be 14 inches wide. These days, only the higher-end custom guitars with one piece backs and bookmatched tops utilize wood that is 14 inches wide. "I think that as we are getting our feet wet and being introduced to lesser known species, it won't be out of the question in a year or two to see a mahogany substitute in here," says Gene Nix, Gibson's wood/product specialist.

The issue of wood supply is one of the challenges that affects the entire FSC community at large. "It's a challenge that comes with a fairly new marketplace," explains Dower. "I mean, we need to remember that FSC is not an old institution. We, in many ways, really only started this process six years ago. And we're trying, by setting the standards for good forestry practices in the United States, now having set those standards, it's time to build the marketplace around it."

Headquartered in Oaxaca, Mexico, the FSC is part of an international organization with programs in more than 50 countries around the world. The group was created in 1993 as a response to deforestation issues raised at the first global Earth Summit. Foremost, the organization is focused on certifying forest lands and issuing regional standards for the management of those lands. In the United States alone, the certified acreage stands at 9.8 million acres, while internationally there are just over 80 million certified acres.

To maintain their certified status, companies like Gibson are audited on an annual basis by an FSC certifier (in this case SmartWood) to ensure that certified wood with the FSC stamp is kept separate from non-certified wood and procedures are being followed, so that the consumer can be completely confident that the product they're purchasing has been built with certified wood. The Home Depot, Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse and Andersen Corporation (maker of Andersen windows and patio doors) are just a few of the major U.S. companies who have come on board in recent years and given preference to FSC-certified wood, while phasing out their sourcing of wood products from endangered forests. Last year, The Home Depot sold $250 million in certified wood, and Dower feels this is a major step in the right direction.

As for Gibson, the company is moving towards making its electric division, Gibson USA, completely certified, and having Gibson's other divisions follow suit. All the domestic hardwoods USA uses currently (like maple and poplar) are certified, as well as the line of swamp ash used in the Les Paul Swamp Ash Studio, X-plorer Swamp Ash Studio and the Voodoo series.

"We just have to get everything in place," says Jeff Allen, Gibson USA general manager. "That's our goal, that we be the first guitar company to say our whole line, our electric division is certified. When you get a SmartWood guitar, you're not getting something less, you're actually getting something more. Because you have a full-size Les Paul, and you have the exotic wood, and you have something that's certified. And it's actually at a lower price point than a non-certified model."