Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Brazilian Beware


deepblue

Recommended Posts

For all you fellas with guitars sporting Brazilian Rosewood.....Be careful!

 

If youre traveling and crossing the border, you need paperwork stating that your carrying Brazilian r/w

If not, and they catch you they can take your guitar and chances are you wont get it back.

Some of you will say who can tell?...well I have it on good authority that border guards have been trained to look for exotic woods, and musical instruments are one area that they watch for.

In their eyes its no different then smuggling Ivory or Cuban cigars. Its a no no and they WILL take it from you.

Most of us will never cross the border or leave the country with our guitars, but for those who do...

 

So you need a permit. It can take 60 to 90 days, but they are attainable.

 

I was shocked when I was told this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

rosewood is a popular ornamental wood on rifle stocks.

 

Yes, but there are many varietys of Rosewood.

 

How they can tell one from the other?......who knows. As Tim said, it depends on the guard. But in this day and age if you have a guitar case in your car or in an airport...theyll have you open it.

If the guards having a bad day or is a hard ***....look out.

 

 

I hear Brazilian Rosewood has no hair :-k

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heres the article....Plus, I have a friend who works at Canadian Customs whom ive talked to about this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Be careful when traveling with your guitars. It's a mess and you could lose a valuable instrument

 

Fretboard journal (you should all subscribe to this wonderful magazine) covered this subject extensively in a recent article. It states that if you want to travel with your BR guitar you'll need a permit from the US Fish and Wildlife services. It takes at least 60 days to acquire and most likely 90 days. If you travel without this permit your guitar will be seized and you won't be able to get it back. If your guitar has "even the smallest scrap" of a protected species it will be seized with "no possibility of return or reimbursement." If any part was added to the guitar, like you added a fossil ivory nut to your '33 OM-18 a month before traveling, the guitar is only considered a month old for CITES purposes.If you belatedly get the permits the USFWS still won't return them because you'll be a "known violator of international law." The USFWS also can't sell the guitar because that would be considered supporting illegal trade. They sometimes have auctions but haven't had one since 1999. The permit must have the "Vintage guitar purchaser and exporter" and the "guitar manufacturer/exporter/lumber exporter" certify that the guitars at issue are pre-CITES.

 

The USFWS has 3 categories and the stuff used on guitars is in Appendix I which is their most restricted category. Appendix I species can never be imported for commercial purposes and you need the permit to get it in or out of the 172 CITES countries but you can only get a permit if the instrument predates the CITES agreement. For Ivory the guitar would have to be made before June 1, 1947. Hawksbill turtle (Tortoiseshell) was added on July 1975 and Brazilian Rosewood on June 11, 1992. Guitars built before those dates are eligible for an exemption. Also. You need to enter and leave the US through one of the 14 ports approved for CITES species: Anchorage, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark/New York, New Orleans, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. If you fly out through an approved airport but try to return VIA Cleveland, Phoenix, Pittsburgh etc. your guitar will be seized.

 

In the US CITES works in tandem with the Endangered Species Act. The fine for a violation of ESA and thus CITES for knowingly violating ESA can be up to $50,000, a year in prison or both. Knowing refers to the legal sense and apparently it doesn't matter if you're aware that the CITES regulations exist. If you intentionally took your guitar over the border you're in violation. The USFWS is on the lookout for these species and they have a picture of the back of a Rosewood guitar as the first picture on the USFWS' Timber Import/Export Regulations fact sheet.

 

 

The CITES secretariat's spokesperson said they believe the regulations are effective and have no plans to change them at this time.

__________________

VM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I brought my 1971 SG Standard to Spain I traveled out of Logan airport Boston... I carried my guitar with me on the plane. WHile I was waiting at the gate, my guitar in its case at my feet some guy who was sitting across from me and eying my guitar case comes over to me and says.... So looks like you got a cherry 60's SG in that case. I was a bit surprised but just figured he was a guitar buff. I told him it was a 71 but he was right it was cherry. I asked him if he wanted to see it and he said yes... I gladly show him the guitar and explain how I had bought it on Ebay several months back and had it shipped to my mothers house in Boston and I was finally able to get the guitar and bring it back to Spain with me. He liked the guitar and wished me luck. The odd thing was after seeing the guitar he got up and left the gate and never got on the plane...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do the guys can sniff brazilian rosewood?

 

I can't.

 

If you ever work with Braz you could, it has a very distinct smell that I would describe as sweet reminds me of the old original bubblegum sticks that came in baseball cards.

 

 

Always tough to travel with Brazilian Rosewood or any other CITES controlled products (Tortoise Shell and/or Ivory) and it keeps getting harder all the times. Even with a CITES certification you still need export and import certifications too many of the CITES signed countries. I don't risk it my BR is all certified but I still don't travel with it not across borders at least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't get it.

 

It's illegal to own a product that was legal when you bought it? They confiscate it and ....... WHAT.

 

Replant it?

 

Treehuggers are the dumbest S.O.B.'s on the planet. They think you are killing a tree.

 

The word is harvest.

 

THE FREAKIN' TREE IS GONNA DIE, WHETHER YOU BUILD SOMETHING OUT OF IT, OR LET IT ROT IN THE WOODS.........

 

I woke up in freakin' La La land.

 

Murph.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am still laughing at the first few replies on this thread...since this afternoon...

 

The BR is legal within the US, probably it is heavily taxed. When you cross a border US law ceases so the other country laws apply.

 

I just saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel where treasure hunters found a shipwreck, there was an elephant tusk in the wreckage, they brought it on board to be able to date the ship and then they had to put the tusk in the same place where they found it since it is illegal for a vessel to carry ivory. This was international waters.

 

It may not make sense to you and me but I am pretty sure there is somehting we do not know...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The BR is legal within the US' date=' probably it is heavily taxed. When you cross a border US law ceases so the other country laws apply.

 

[/quote']

 

No newly cut Brazilian Rosewood is legal. All the BR being used in the U.S. is of old stock. There is no legally cut BR. That said. I'm not no ignorant to assume it is all actually old stock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the 80s I drove with some friends across the border from Canada to the US with a bag full of green stuff. They stopped us and because we were all wearing grateful dead shirts they made us get out. They searched the entire car with dogs. One of my friends managed to stuff the bag in his pants and for some reason they never searched him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It wasn't the T shirts.....

 

Think about how you looked. You looked like you were bootlegging....................

 

WOOD..........................

 

FROM DEAD TREES!

 

You lowlife scumbag.........

 

Sheeze.

 

Murph.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the 80s I drove with some friends across the border from Canada to the US with a bag full of green stuff. They stopped us and because we were all wearing grateful dead shirts they made us get out. They searched the entire car with dogs. One of my friends managed to stuff the bag in his pants and for some reason they never searched him.

 

 

Crossing the border in the 80's with Greatful Dead T-shirts while packing weed!!

You are my new hero!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

No newly cut Brazilian Rosewood is legal. All the BR being used in the U.S. is of old stock. There is no legally cut BR. That said. I'm not no ignorant to assume it is all actually old stock.

 

I was talking about the BR that Warmoth is selling. Never said anything about newly cut BR.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...