In 2017, the guitar world was turned upside-down by the introduction of trade restrictions on rosewood, one of the most commonly used tonewoods in electric and acoustic guitar building - but after years of campaigning, the wood looks set to return.
A new exemption for musical instruments was approved on August 26 by a key committee for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (aka CITES).
The return of rosewood?
The restrictions resulted in several companies - most notably Fender - dropping rosewood from its more affordable guitar lines, instead opting for alternatives such as pau ferro.
That leads to the question: will rosewood return to these more affordable line-ups? Or have guitarists embraced the alternatives sufficiently to avoid rolling back the spec?
We’d wager there will be an increase in new low-cost models featuring rosewood fingerboards, as well as special editions - such as Fender’s recently unveiled all-rosewood neck Jazzmaster - but we don’t anticipate existing pau ferro-’boarded guitars to change any time soon.
Whatever the case, this is great news for guitarists, especially for anyone buying and selling internationally. The future’s looking rosey, all right.
