Fender Will Stop Using Ash

Jerryc41

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 4, 2015
Messages
10,240
Reaction score
3,110
Location
Catskill Mountains, NY
Although trees seem to be unlimited, they aren't. Fender, and possibly others, will stop using ash for its guitars.

Another "unlimited resource" - sand - is also in short supply. By "sand," I mean sand to make silicon for electronics. Only a certain type of sand can be used, and it's getting harder to find.
 
Interesting. With all of the Ash trees being felled because of the Emerald Ash Tree Borer I'd have thought they could get as much wood as they wanted.

Our small town alone has cut down more that 900 ash trees. Most are over 100 years old. We had to have a 200 plus ash removed from our property because it was infested.

What's Louisville Slugger going to do for MLB bats?
 
Interesting. With all of the Ash trees being felled because of the Emerald Ash Tree Borer I'd have thought they could get as much wood as they wanted.

Our small town alone has cut down more that 900 ash trees. Most are over 100 years old. We had to have a 200 plus ash removed from our property because it was infested.

What's Louisville Slugger going to do for MLB bats?

From what I've heard, the transport of those cut-down trees is controlled. Years ago, we had a facility that cut ash trees into blanks for baseball bats. It was a great source of firewood, but ash burns very quickly.
 
The Ash Borer is likely part of the issue......cannot transport the wood beyond certain distance.....don't know how that translates to processed wood or even finished products.......one would think you could possible set up shop near the source and make a finished product......guess it doesn't work that way though.....one would have to move around a bit to accomplish this perhaps as well....not so cost effective...
 
Aluminum bats make the ball travel unnaturally farther & faster, don't they?

Yes. That's why MLB won't use them. College and high Schools use aluminum bats. The majors have tried carbon fiber bats. And different woods. Louisville Slugger was having a hard time finding old growth dense ash for their bats. They reserved the best wood for the top players.

The bats have to meet a minimum weight and size requirements. The belief is that a lighter bat allows you to bring it around faster and the ball will go further. That's why corking a bat was prevalent for a while. The physics was more complex. Mass, speed, compression, angle of contact, etc. The players are so big and muscular now that they get plenty of speed on the bat. Batters have about 1/10th of a second to read the pitch and begin their swing. Some top hitters claim they can see the spin and stitches on the ball as it approaches.

Weird that I remember this when I'm not a baseball fan.
 
From what I've heard, the transport of those cut-down trees is controlled. Years ago, we had a facility that cut ash trees into blanks for baseball bats. It was a great source of firewood, but ash burns very quickly.

Ash to ashes.....
 
Lumber to ember.....

John Colter
 
Louisville Slugger was having a hard time finding old growth dense ash for their bats. They reserved the best wood for the top players.

Weird, considering Fender (and anyone else making instruments) need to be able to find ash that's light enough to make a good instrument. You'd think they could just get together and sort it out. :D
 
Top Bottom