Guitars inspire cult-like devotion: an aficionado can tell you precisely
when and where their favorite instrument was made, the wood it is made
from, and that wood's unique effect on the instrument's sound. In The
Guitar, Chris Gibson and Andrew Warren follow that fascination around
the globe as they trace guitars all the way back to the tree. The
authors take us to guitar factories, port cities, log booms, remote
sawmills, Indigenous lands, and distant rainforests, on a quest for
behind-the-scenes stories and insights into how guitars are made, where
the much-cherished guitar timbers ultimately come from, and the people
and skills that craft those timbers along the way.
Gibson and Warren interview hundreds of people to give us a first-hand
account of the ins and outs of production methods, timber milling, and
forest custodianship in diverse corners of the world, including the
Pacific Northwest, Madagascar, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Japan, China,
Hawaii, and Australia. They unlock surprising insights into longer arcs
of world history: on the human exploitation of nature, colonialism,
industrial capitalism, cultural tensions, and seismic upheavals. But the
authors also strike a hopeful note, offering a parable of wider
resonance--of the incredible but underappreciated skill and care that
goes into growing forests and felling trees, milling timber, and making
enchanting musical instruments, set against the human tendency to reform
our use (and abuse) of natural resources only when it may be too late.
The Guitar promises to resonate with anyone who has ever fallen in
love with a guitar.
