Catherwood Guitars Exhibit at Balmoral Show
How can you play a love song on a guitar made of rainforest timber?
Former Queens University Lecturer in Environmental Ethics, John Catherwood is now championing the use of hardwoods grown in Ireland through his infant company Catherwood Guitars. Catherwood Guitars is the only instrument maker in Northern Ireland that does not use rainforest timber – instead we work in our beautiful local wood.
Invited by DARD, we will be in the DARD LEADER MARQUEE A.30 at the Balmoral Show from the 14th to the 16th of May. We want people to see and hear and play our instruments, and we want to talk to landowners, gardeners and foresters about planting more hardwoods, and sourcing wood for us to make more instruments. We are always looking for the best timber and we want to reach out to the rural community not only to find out what trees they currently have, but to ask them to plant hardwoods for the Irish Luthiers (and furniture makers and other craftspeople) of the future.
Dr Catherwood said “It takes over a century for a tree to grow to usable size – we need to be planting a variety of trees now to have a sustainable supply in the future. We are benefitting from the foresight of Victorian gardeners – making guitars from beautiful walnut, cherry and laburnum, as well as native ash, oak and yew, but everyone could benefit from the environmental improvement that growing more trees would provide now, and our grandchildren would have a valuable resource available in the next century.”
Apart from the environmental benefits, Catherwood Guitars has discovered other bonuses in using local timber “‘We know exactly where our trees come from and how old they are, and we are pleased to tell our players. The history of the wood is the history of the land. When you learn that the tree your instrument came from was planted in the first year of the famine, or in the year that the first book was published in Ireland, or from five years before the first Balmoral Show, that changes how you feel about it. We have wood from all over Ireland, and can use timber that customers have brought to us from their own gardens, or that has special significance for them.”
Of course the most important aspect of the instrument is the sound, and Catherwood Guitars have proved that local timber is superb for building guitars, mandolins and bouzoukis, with excellent reviews and a warm reception from local and international players – but words cannot do justice, they need to be heard, so we invite you to come and hear, and play and see them.
