Good discussion on

www.acousticguitarforum.com



CN, you can back and forth all you want about alarmists with regard to the issue, but there were two articles about it on the www. If the government organizations that do the raiding, rightfully, had taken the time to explain the law to luthiers and musicians I would view the issue differently. YES endangered species of wood, turtles, plants have to be protected. So too do the rights of people who bought the instruments before the law was enforced. IMO, it's a clumsy effort on the part of enforcement when it has to be as heavy-handed as it seems to be. Perhaps I'm wrong, and those who thionk so might explain the law to both those of us who don't understand it and also to the people at border crossing who can't tell the difference between abalone or other types of materials used in place of abalone on guitars; the difference between walrus tusk and elephant tusk; the difference between protected maple and ordinary maple.

Also, I have yet to find anything in CITES that grandfathers instruments.

I am willing to be educated, but not by people who are rude or snotty.