“The Tree” article in Smithsonian

[Richard Mott]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...ree-180979792/

[TomB'sox]

Very interesting article with some new details of the events that I had not heard.

Nice job by Matt Thomas in the video of playing the all Tree guitar. He is a good friend of Dustin Furlow who I believe had a hand in that video as well!

[Skarsaune]

Nice read, thanks for sharing.

[Erithon]

The research that went into finding some of the folks who were affiliated with Novak and Mahoney is laudable. Smith's $30K price estimate is high (for a new Buendia, sure, but there are plenty of luthiers here on the AGF who can build you a Tree guitar for less) and a real bummer the author couldn't confirm the rumors about Skywalker Ranch.

[Dustinfurlow]

I'd never had the chance to read this until now. Biggest takeaways for me were discovering Slash's real name (who would've thought his mama didn't name him that...) and that I have doubts Andy owns a Tree guitar because if so it would've been made by Michael Greenfield and there would've been boatloads of press about it. Hmm.

Anyway, was definitely fun delivering this to Jared in Winchester with Matt. Him, his folks and fellow shopmates were all smiles, as you might imagine. Definitely one of the more interesting builds I've seen in recent years, and not at all what you'd expect an all-mahogany guitar to sound like. Matt actually co-developed the top bracing with Reuben and the result was definitely unique to the ears.

[jmat]

Thanks for the share! It is a wild Shackleton like origin story and among the beautiful things on the earth. An English library in Tree, wow. I’ll seek it out to naw on some Tennyson! Ha…

[tommieboy]

Originally Posted by jmat

Thanks for the share! It is a wild Shackleton like origin story and among the beautiful things on the earth. An English library in Tree, wow. I’ll seek it out to naw on some Tennyson! Ha…

Shackleton? Not sure we are taking about the same Shackleton here, but for what it's worth, they recently found Shackleton's ship the Endurance this past March down in Antartica. Maybe the Smithsonian can fund the ultimate "sinker" guitar with wood from "The Ship."

Tommy

[jmat]

Originally Posted by tommieboy

Shackleton? Not sure we are taking about the same Shackleton here, but for what it's worth, they recently found Shackleton's ship the Endurance this past March down in Antartica. Maybe the Smithsonian can fund the ultimate "sinker" guitar with wood from "The Ship."

Tommy

Yeah, that Shackleton! Love your idea, a "sunker" model

[Erithon]

The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 protects the Endurance as a historic site and monument; this means that while it can be documented, it cannot be disturbed or even touched. And rightly so. I recognize the above comments were mostly made in good fun, but let's remember that the wreck of the Endurance is a historical object, not a source of lumber

[jmat]

Originally Posted by Erithon

The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 protects the Endurance as a historic site and monument; this means that while it can be documented, it cannot be disturbed or even touched. And rightly so. I recognize the above comments were mostly made in good fun, but let's remember that the wreck of the Endurance is a historical object, not a source of lumber

Yes, I intended, as you say, good fun. Keep an eye on Tommy however and the potential for his “The Ship” LTD venture. His entrepreneurial gears might be turning!

[tommieboy]

Yeah, I hear there is a luthier out of North Korea who is oblivious to these treaties. Fingers crossed. 50 year waitlist though.

Tommy

[morgankelsey]

There's an old timer near me who has over 100 board feet of the tree in his backyard shed - no kidding he bought it 40 years ago and sat on it.

Personally I'm not a fan of "wood marketing stories", because I think they are kind of disrespectful to trees. We don't really understand tree intelligence, and impose our human perspective in a pretty arrogant manner. Did tunnel 13 redwood enjoy being made into a railroad passage? A good wood marketing story from a tree's perspective would be something along the lines of, "I lived for 2000 years and never saw a human, not ever". The Tree, sadly, likely suffered from some kind of bizarre disease, and then the poor being was left to rot in a ravine for 20 years - it's really not that appealing to me as a lover of botanical giants.

That said if anyone wants a tree guitar I can hand select primo billets.

[Erithon]

Originally Posted by jmat

Keep an eye on Tommy however and the potential for his “The Ship” LTD venture. His entrepreneurial gears might be turning!

Originally Posted by tommieboy

Yeah, I hear there is a luthier out of North Korea who is oblivious to these treaties. Fingers crossed. 50 year waitlist though.

bahahaha

[jmagill]

It was a great read and fascinating to learn the history (or as Morgan Kelsey might put it, the 'biography') of the Tree, along with Slash's real name, the profile of Reuben Forsland (a luthier unfamilar to me), and the results of blind tests of guitar and violin voices.

I've got a few 'price-of-a-car' instruments and I live near Dream Guitars, so I've been fortunate enough to play more than a few guitars that go for five figures, and one or two that go for six. I've seen several 'Tree' guitars that sounded great, and the wood is certainly gorgeous, but what seems to make it and other exotic and rare guitars a continual source of fascination to the readers of this forum is its silly-expensive cost, and the inevitable question: Is it worth it?

Someone else can open that particular can of worms; I'll just say the story of the Tree was a fun read but it's only reinforced the principles that have always guided me when commissioning a guitar. It's the quality of the guitar's voice that directs everything about the build, so the most important factors in determining that voice are, in order:

1. the luthier
2. the top wood
3. everything else

Pretty woods are great, but I always remember that Doc Watson never cared what his guitars looked like.

[jt1]

I find it heartening that of the original 12,000 board feet that the tree yielded, only 17,000 board feet have been used to build musical instruments.