Holy Grail show issues local woods challenge

This year’s Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin will have a new feature  – the Local Wood Challenge.

With tropical woods are becoming increasingly scarce and governed by restrictions on trade. Ecological and climate considerations are coming to the fore, not only for guitar players in general, but also for the European Guitar Builders, the luthier organisation behind the show.

To reflect the European Guitar Builder’s commitment to sustainable and ecologically friendly instrument building methods, the show has issued a challenge to its exhibitors – the HGGS 2016 Local Wood Challenge.

The idea behind the Challenge is for participating exhibitors to build one or more instruments using only locally-grown woods.

The aim is not only to demonstrate what world-class luthiers are capable of, but also to show that there are intriguing alternatives to the use of exotic and especially protected woods growing right in our own back yards.

Exhibitors are being encouraged to step outside of their normal “comfort zone”, to think outside of the box and to explore different aspects of their work in a creative and playful way. For those already using local woods it is also a chance to turn the limelight onto this special aspect of their work and for them to increase their expertise.

Participation in the Challenge is totally voluntary, and is undertaken in a spirit of innovation, curiosity and cooperation, rather than one of competition.

The instruments that exhibitors have built for the Challenge will be labelled as such during the Show. For more information, and a list of participating exhibitors, check out the HGGS website.