{"id":2501,"date":"2015-08-24T11:22:10","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T18:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2017-06-30T11:02:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T18:02:20","slug":"british-luthier-pete-beer-is-building-sustainable-instruments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/british-luthier-pete-beer-is-building-sustainable-instruments\/","title":{"rendered":"British Luthier Pete Beer Is Building Sustainable Instruments"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h3>\n

BY GUY TRAVISS<\/a><\/h6>\n

from the Summer 2015 Issue of Classical Guitar<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

While the British composer Sir Michael Tippett may be able to claim The Blue Guitar<\/em> as his creation, it is British luthier Pete Beer<\/strong><\/a> who is making headlines with his eco-oriented perspective on the instrument\u2014call it a Green Guitar, if you will.<\/p>\n

His first active interest in guitar-making came in the form of an attempt to build a chambered electric guitar after work in his tenement flat in Glasgow. An ambitious project without the proper tools, a bench, or a clue, this was soon brought to a halt by complaints from the downstairs neighbors. Since taking his first steps into the world of guitar lutherie, his ideas have grown enormously. Today, he is not only a world-renowned guitar-maker, but a pioneer of sustainable instrument building.<\/p>\n

Beer is the world\u2019s first maker to have built nylon-stringed classical guitars, including a Torres model, with back and sides of Forest Stewardship Council certified African blackwood. The timber was harvested in Tanzania as part of the Sound and Fair Project, the aim of which is to realize a sustainable trade in African blackwood through a \u201cchain of custody\u201d linking forest-dependent people in Tanzania to musicians throughout the world. It promotes sustainable forestry practice and creates a livelihood for local people. A testament to its initial success\u2014the first harvest increased local incomes by a factor of 400.<\/p>\n

Sustainability is a complex issue, and determining the eco-friendly status of anything you buy is difficult to do. In the case of guitars, the issue isn\u2019t just one of trees being harvested and not replaced. Many factors are involved in calculating the total impact of a given raw\u00a0 material used in production. In most instances, it\u2019s not simply which materials were used and where they came from, but the processes involved in getting those materials ready for use.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018It makes for extra work, but I\u2019m much happier
\nwith my impact on the world.\u2019<\/h3>\n

PETE BEER<\/p>\n

\n

As an example of this, the Forest Stewardship Council, the global, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of responsible forest management, lists the following benefits as part of its certification process: \u201c[FSC certification] improves conditions such as conflict over land tenure and use, workers\u2019 health and safety, biodiversity, conservation, protection of endangered species and participatory forest policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pete<\/a>
Pete Beer\u2019s Guitar No. 40<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So how did all this begin? On the day I visited Beer at his home in Scotland, he explained how he came to develop such an environmental conscience: \u201cGradually, I became rather uncomfortable with my use of tropical timbers. I\u2019ve always avoided Brazilian rosewood, along with anything from Madagascar, but that didn\u2019t seem like enough. It came to a head when I spent some time volunteering in the building of a timber-framed woodland classroom under the supervision of the famous woodsman Ben Law. When I was asked about the timbers I used to build guitars, I felt ashamed to say what they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beer committed himself to resolving his newfound problem. He had managed to find FSC-accredited wood\u2014that wasn\u2019t difficult. Rather, it was its availability in dimensions suitable for guitars. After some investment setting up for high precision re-sawing and buying suitable wood, he now has good stocks of sustainable timber. Currently, Beer has FSC wood for everything except the ebony fingerboards, all without having to step outside the already \u201caccepted\u201d guitar species. \u201cIt makes for a lot of extra work,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I\u2019m much happier with my impact on the world now. To date I have made a number of guitars with this FSC African blackwood. I simply don\u2019t think you could hope to find a better replacement for Brazilian rosewood. It does require some special treatment to work with it, simply because it\u2019s so hard and it blunts tools quickly, but the results are more than worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of all musical instruments, guitars account for the world\u2019s largest share of manufacturing output. Guitar companies, then, are under a particular obligation to ensure their work stands up to the scrutiny of today\u2019s environmental standards. According to Scott Paul, director of the Forest Campaign for Greenpeace, \u201cExpensive musical instruments are a combination of many species from many different parts of the world. Alternative sources just don\u2019t cut it for traditionalists, who can claim the ability to hear the difference between Indian rosewood and rosewood from Madagascar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desired woods for guitar-building have become fixed by previous generations of guitar makers and players. But the pursuit of alternative building materials is being carried out for a couple of reasons: The quest for woods and other materials that can replace those that have had restrictions placed upon them have become too expensive, or have otherwise turned out to be undesirable; and to test new materials for some improvement of sound, construction, aesthetic design, or any combination of these. Despite the advantages new materials can offer, getting guitar players to accept any of these changes is an entirely different matter altogether.<\/p>\n

If you are planning on buying your next instrument, and have a conscience to do so considering the environment, then the news is good\u2014there are builders who cater to this market, including several in the United States. The UK-based builder Andrew Page has set up eco-guitars.co.uk <\/a><\/strong>and chooses to promote himself as a maker of instruments with a reduced carbon footprint. And with luthiers such as Beer making waves, it won\u2019t be long before consumers are spoiled for eco-friendly choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSourcing responsibly harvested timber has been very important to me,\u201d Beer concludes. \u201cAlthough there is still a way to go to secure sustainable supply for every part of the guitar, having this timber available for the back and sides is a big step in the right direction. Furthermore, the wood is just beautiful in both looks and sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This article was originally published in the Summer 2015 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The issue also features Jason Vieaux, Joaquin Rodrigo, female flamenco guitarists, a special focus on contemporary luthiers, and much more. Click here for more information on the issue.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY GUY TRAVISS from the Summer 2015 Issue of Classical Guitar While the British composer Sir Michael Tippett may be able to claim The Blue Guitar as his creation, it is British luthier Pete Beer who is making headlines with his eco-oriented perspective on the instrument\u2014call it a Green Guitar, if you will. His first active interest in guitar-making came in the form of an attempt to build a chambered electric guitar after work in his tenement flat in Glasgow. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/DSCF2943.jpg?fit=3488%2C2616&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}