Film 'Musicwood' Tells the Story of The Unique, Scarce Woods Used to Make Guitars

For hundreds of years guitars have been made the same way, but now this could all change. A new music documentary, “MUSICWOOD” follows the journey of a band of the most famous guitar-makers in the world as they attempt to save a primeval forest and the acoustic guitar.

The feature film Musicwood opened in NYC at the Quad Theater from November 1-7. It's also available on iTunes. Click here>>

There’s no doubt that we develop special relationships with our guitars. Now, these relationships are under threat, as the unique woods used to make guitars may be running out.

The Musicwood documentary tells this story by following the Musicwood Coalition, a group of the world’s foremost guitar-makers — Chris Martin (Martin Guitars), Bob Taylor (Taylor Guitars), and Dave Berryman (Gibson) — as they drop their competitive differences and journey together to the Tongass, a remote forest in SE Alaska. The incredibly valuable Sitka Spruce trees that make most acoustic guitar soundboards come from the Tongass, the largest temperate rain forest in the world, and they are being logged at a staggering rate. In Alaska, the guitar-makers meet with the largest private company that is logging the Tongass, and struggle to determine the future of the forest and the acoustic guitar.

As Chris Martin of Martin Guitars puts it, to convince them to change will be “as close to a miracle as we are likely to see in our lifetime.”

The filmmakers get behind-the-scenes in the negotiations in Alaska, film the craftsmanship of guitar-making in the master workshops of Gibson, Martin Guitars, and Taylor Guitars, and frame it all to live acoustic guitar performances & interviews from the artists Yo La Tengo, Steve Earle, Kaki King, The Antlers, Lambchop …and many more.

Check out the trailer here:

Musicwood Documentary - 2 min trailer from Helpman Productions on Vimeo.

Find out more here>>