With the population growing exponentially , it is really getting bad.

And with the Japan problems , there will be a cascade effect felt in just about everything.

Add that to an already bad economy and I think it`s going to get worse before it gets better.

Even though Japan is { was } 20% ( I think ) of total free world economy , now it has to rebuild , and the bucks have to come from somewhere.

I would hear stories about the "Great Depression" and think , will history repeat itself ?

I hope not.

I've got an 1859 Steinway Square grand with a solid rosewood top. 4ft X 8ft and 1/2 inch thick. You could cut quite a few guitar sides and backs out of it. There are a lot of these old pianos that would probably make better guitars.

I went to high school with luthier Ron Volbrecht. He's making some beautiful guitars in Nashville, Indiana http://www.volbrechtguitars.com/

Duane
Sacramento, CA

I think it's actually illegal to use Brazilian rosewood for guitars anymore. (too lazy to google it)
At least, that's what I heard 'round town.

It's legal to use Brazilian rosewood that was purchased and imported before the 1990 CITES listing.

Brazil put an embargo on the export of rosewood logs in 1969 and later in the early 1990s, Brazilian Rosewood was added to the list of endangered species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). To obtain Brazilian Rosewood today, it needs to be wood that was both harvested and exported before the ban, or harvested from natural fallen trees. Both require documentation of its provenance to permit exporting today.

The only legal source of new Brazilian Rosewood consists of the pre-convention stumps of trees cut before 1991, widely scattered over the Brazilian countryside in the Dalbergia Nigra eco-zone.

The USDA inspects and certifies all shipments of Brazilian rosewood upon entry into the U.S.A.
more info at http://www.acousticmusic.org/CITES-and-ESA-sp-78.html and http://www.hanoverbrazil.com/rosewood-guitars.shtml