What kind of horrible person would do such a thing?

[quote="Smallmouth_Bass":1lsxfvjc]What kind of horrible person would do such a thing?[/quote:1lsxfvjc] On the Art Inclined dvd Sheldon mentions that he sources wood from guys that roam the forests of BC all day looking for special trees. However, I feel Sheldon is an honest, gentle, and upstanding fellow. I'm sure he wouldn't use any woods that he knew were illegally gathered, although I'm not sure how that could be determined. I have no doubt that the wood poaching story is of great concern to him. Mark

I've been in touch with Sheldon for a decade now and I know first hand the way of his ethics. He will go the extra mile to meet the customer's needs desires and ideas (even if the ideas are crazy and over the top, like mine). But he will NEVER EVER do anything that is against the rules, against the laws and against his ethics.

This is a concern. Not only are poachers taking from Gov. land, they've been stealing from farmers too. The brothers I was referring to are licensed and also involved in reforestation.

[quote="Sheldon Dingwall":29isy5gp]The brothers I was referring to are licensed and also involved in reforestation.[/quote:29isy5gp] Please understand, Sheldon, that there was never any doubt that you were suspect, but it makes you wonder who the builders are that are using poached wood. I've noticed lately that many budget and mid-priced guitars and basses feature fancy tops for really very little money. Not 5A tops, or even 4A, but fancy nonetheless. I'm sure all of these basses are made overseas in the 10s of thousands, maybe into hundreds of thousands. That's a lot of tops. I've always wondered why very common trees like oak, elm, and poplar aren't used more often. One of these days I'd like to have a bass made of regional woods - pecan body and mesquite top, walnut neck. Hmmm. Mark

I don't know that they're running in quantities that high, but definitely in the thousands. How? poor quality wood in razor thin veneers. While Dingwall tops aren't think, I would think that a single Dingwall top would be 5+ tops for some of those other manufacturers. You know, I see all these pictures low end production basses with fancy tops, and they look nice in pictures. Then you see them close up. And they look terrible. They don't 'move', they don't have the same 3-D that a real one does, they lack the way that light is captured by good wood grain, etc. In many cases, the lower end ones aren't really even wood...they're like the old fotoflame MIJ Fenders that people tooled on back when they came out. Also, a lot of the tops you see in those basses are 'maple' but what kind, etc. Most maple isn't rare, hard to find, etc. It's readily farmed and available. I think that furniture production probably takes a greater toll than luthierie. But yes, the reality is that there are guys out in fields, looking for the rare, looking for burls, and for hard to find species...and it would be great if they could be stopped, but then people are still killing elephants for tusks, and rhinos and turtles...the list goes on and on. Trees don't move as quickly...