How Green is Crimson...?
We are both firm believers in the need to do something for the planet and in the fact that there are too many people jumping on the band-wagon for purely economic reasons.. however weighing up the two has ended in this page on our site.. hi!!
now, building the best custom guitars and basses that can be found in the UK does involve using some processes and materials that do not have the eco credentials we would like.. however wherever possible we use alternatives or minimise the impact of what we can't avoid..
Materials are the obvious issue, wood and a love of it are the reason we build guitars in the first place, and the fact that some people deal in rare and endangered tree species is a danger. There are people cutting down maple trees in Canada and Ebony trees in Africa that are protected just to get a few feet of pretty, and valuable, wood.. All our suppliers are ethically concious and only use certified suppliers of all exotic hardwoods, we will not be party to deforestation or the destruction of any species!
All our electricity is bought using our suppliers 'green' tariff, they state that it is completely generated using wind turbines with negligible environmental impact.. and of course we use low energy bulbs where possible! Lacquer and the oils we use are not particularly friendly either but we use as little of each as possible on each instrument, which insidentally leads to better tonalities! The UK are also in the process of reinventing their spraying law and more environmentally friendly lacquers are soon to be the standard!
Our most recent project was to build a new extension on the workshop, complete with five new workbenches and storage for more timber. Other than the roofing material and screws everything in the build was recycled, the main material was recycled scaffolding boards from a local company that went bust in the recession, this was even used to build the workbenches and timber stores! The entire extension was insultated with raw sheeps wool (we actually did have three bags full) from a local farmer. It turns out small farms end up burning their wool as it's not worth that much, esspecially with speciality. multi-hued, sheep like these.. oh, and they taste amazing! As you know we tend to use older tools as they're generally very well made and use better steel than most we get today and following this all the bench vices are second hand as well.. the end result is much more space and a very happy apprentice!
All my best,
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