NEWS
Gibson’s Nashville Facilities
Raided in Investigation of Possible
Environmental Violations
By Gabriel J. Hernandez
On November 17, agents with the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service and Nashville
police conducted a raid at Gibson’s corporate
headquarters and one of its Nashville manufacturing facilities. Various news agencies report a
number of guitars, computers, files and wood
used in the manufacture of the company’s guitars were seized.
According to Andrew Ames, a spokesper-son for the U.S. Department of Justice, a
search warrant was executed by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement division of the
Department of Homeland Security. According
to the Nashville Post, the raid was conducted
by a combination of federal agents and local
police who are investigating the company for
violating the Lacey Act, an environmental law
that makes it illegal to import endangered species of rosewood from Madagascar. Nashville’s
News Channel 5 reports that the Gibson USA
facility was the target of the raid.
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is resolved. The Alliance issued a statement on
the matter explaining their relationship with
Gibson and Gibson’s use of wood.
On its website, the Nashville Post is citing
“sources” that have indicated Gibson was “…
involved in a scheme that shipped the wood
from Madagascar to Germany and then to the
United States.” The Nashville Post report also
states that charges against the company have
yet to be filed.
In the statement the Rainforest Alliance said,
“The Rainforest Alliance’s Smart Wood program
has issued FSC Chain-of-Custody certificates
to three Gibson manufacturing facilities. The
Nashville facility under investigation, Gibson
Musical Instruments, currently holds a Chain-of-Custody certificate, first issued in 1996, and
received its last annual audit in September 19,
2008. Rainforest Alliance Smart Wood auditors
were scheduled to visit the facility again…
Monday, November 23. The audit has been
postponed until December.”
Surely every gearhead has imagined walking
into a pawnshop and finding the guitar of their
dreams. For Eric Dahl of Las Vegas, that dream
became reality two months ago—producing
an ending even he couldn’t have dreamed up.
Like many guitar collectors, Dahl routinely visits
pawnshops. He’s also left his contact information hoping to get a call when an interesting
guitar comes up for sale. He received such a call
on Sept. 10, regarding a unique Gibson ES-345
B.B. King 80th Anniversary model a pawnshop had just purchased. Intrigued, Dahl went
straight to the shop to check it out.
Gibson issued the following statement the day
of the raid, and has not commented publicly
on the matter since: “Today Gibson Guitar is
fully cooperating with agents of the United
States Fish & Wildlife Service as it pertains
to an issue with harvested wood. Gibson is a
chain of custody certified buyer who purchases
wood from legal suppliers who are to follow all
standards. Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO
sits on the board of the Rainforest Alliance and
takes the issue of certification very seriously.
The company will continue to cooperate fully
and assist our federal government with all
inquiries and information.”
B.B. King’s Stolen ‘Lucille’ Found
and Returned
By Gabriel J. Hernandez
“It was definitely a Gibson ES-345 B.B. King
Lucille guitar, but it didn’t have the original case,
or any of the original paperwork, and I was
disappointed that it had been gigged pretty
hard and full of pick scratches and small dents,”
Dahl said. “Also, I flipped it over and looked at
the headstock expecting to see standard serial
numbers, but to my surprise saw ‘Prototype 1’
stamped where the serial numbers should have
been. I figured maybe it was a fake, or a really
cool piece that had once been approved by
B.B. King himself then given away to a fellow
musician, friend of the family or relative.”
The Rainforest Alliance, a conservation group
that has worked closely with Gibson for more
than a decade, has confirmed that Gibson
CEO Henry Juszkiewicz is taking a temporary
leave of absence from group until the matter
Eric Dahl and B.B. King
Fortunately for Dahl, it was neither. After spending several weeks calling various guitar historians, including Gibson’s customer service department, trying to figure out the guitar’s history,
Dahl felt like he’d hit a wall—until he received a
