Lacey Act

Vidal de Teresa closed his veterinary clinic in 2000 to pursue his dream of establishing a distribution company specializing in exotic woods. His vision was to supply luthiers of guitars and violins with the finest tone woods in the world. Just eight years later, after establishing an impressive client base, Vidal’s business was thrown a curveball when the Lacey Act was enacted in 2008. It was at that time that he realized his team needed to do more than just supply wood, they needed to take responsibility to care for the forests and the next generation of trees.

Chuck Erikson is known as The Duke of Pearl! His business supplies luthiers and large guitar companies with shells and other in-lay products for instrument making. As a luthier, Chuck saw the need early on to provide high quality materials for small shops. The business grew to service larger manufacturers as well, which Chuck attributed to honesty and customer service. In recent years Chuck has been involved with NAMM and others to better define the rules within the Lacy Act and how it applies to businesses within the United States.  

Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson Guitar Corporation’s former CEO, attended the Rainforest Alliance’s annual gala concert in 1994, where he first heard about the SmartWood program. He realized by teaming with environmentally friendly operations, Gibson could sustain its wood supply for a longer period of time. Just four years later the company revealed the Les Paul SmartWood Exotic series, which included among its features environmentally friendly harvested tropical woods.