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Today's News: Gibson raided by the FBI for illegal wood


ryanfender

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It'll sure be interesting to see how this plays out! If the Nashville newspaper article is right, this was triggered by shipping the stuff through Europe rather than directly to the U.S. (It's certainly not because Gibson is the biggest importer. Martin has many thousands of Madi back and side sets in the warehouse. Nashville can't have anywhere close to that cubic footage in stock.) Going through Europe might look like an attempt to disguise the origin or provenance to the FBI, but it could also have a perfectly innocent explanation -- say, that the Gibson Nashville buyers of Madigascar woods work for the European distributor, so the wood goes there first for inspection prior to final acceptance.

 

This whole deal could wind up being pretty much anywhere along the spectrum from classic FBI screwup (and typical overreaction) to a major criminal conspiracy!

 

-- Bob R

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It'll sure be interesting to see how this plays out! If the Nashville newspaper article is right' date=' this was triggered by shipping the stuff through Europe rather than directly to the U.S. (It's certainly not because Gibson is the biggest importer. Martin has many thousands of Madi back and side sets in the warehouse. Nashville can't have anywhere close to that cubic footage in stock.) Going through Europe might look like an attempt to disguise the origin or provenance to the FBI, but it could also have a perfectly innocent explanation -- say, that the Gibson Nashville buyers of Madigascar woods work for the European distributor, so the wood goes there first for inspection prior to final acceptance.

 

This whole deal could wind up being pretty much anywhere along the spectrum from classic FBI screwup (and typical overreaction) to a major criminal conspiracy!

 

-- Bob R[/quote']

 

I'll bet it would not make for a particularly blockbuster type of movie...

 

Fred

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Okay those of you with rosewoods' date=' start turning in your guitars, unless you have something against the lemurs.[/quote']

 

I will give up my Gibson when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!

 

If Gibsons are outlawed, only outlaws will have Gibsons!

 

...and so on.

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In this type of investigation, the records are more important than the actual wood. It was done in Nashville because that's where the records are kept, including records of everyone who has purchased (and registered via warranty registration) a guitar made with potentially illegal wood.

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Very interesting article. My take, looks like Gibson might have been caught in the middle on this one. Darn the feds seized guitars, wood and files. Looks like it's a conspiracy in order for the agents to get free gibson's.

 

Seriously though, I feel bad for Gibson, I think they got caught in the middle of something much bigger.

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There are both civil (fines) and criminal penalties (jail) possible, depending on who did what. It would also be illegal to possess any material which has been obtained illegally, but the possibility of anyone ever attempting to enforce it on an individual guitar-owner is highly doubtful.

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