Holden trees supply tonewoods for guitars

by Whatcom Community Foundation

Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center, in collaboration with clean water charities and a leading supplier of tonewoods—wood used to construct musical instruments—has given new life to salvaged trees.

Holden Village musicians accompany worship playing the Holden guitar. Holden Village Photo

Taylor Guitars in El Cajon, Calif., is using them to create the Holden Village Limited Edition GS Mini guitar.

Funds from the guitar production, the result of a partnership between the guitar maker and wood supplier, will be used to help bring clean drinking water to those in need through two charitable organizations.  

The inspiration for this guitar project began during a walk through a doomed forest at Holden Village.  Hundreds of trees were slated to be cut to reroute a river polluted by the operation of an old copper mine. 

David Olson, a frequent visitor to Holden Village, which has served as a Lutheran retreat center since the closure of the mine in the late 1950s, first recognized that many of the trees were old growth Engelmann Spruce. 

He knew that guitar makers value that spruce for its warm tone and “quick” response to a light

One of the centuries-old Englemann spruce trees at Holden Village, logged as part of mine remediation to clean up pollution left by the mine that closed more than 55 years ago. Holden Village Photo

The soundboards of Holden’s special edition guitars are crafted of wood from 250-year-old Engelmann spruce trees, “creating a unique and beautiful instrument with exceptional sound,” David said.

The back and sides of the guitar are made from wood of a single maple tree from the Pacific Northwest. The wood of this Big Leaf Maple tree displays a unique “fiddleback” pattern.  

Pacific Rim Tonewoods is processing the guitar components.  The Washington-based specialty sawmill supplies most of the domestic guitar industry.

“The Holden guitar project is an example of what can happen when diverse entities come together, transforming the environmental errors of yesterday into actions of hope for tomorrow,” said Chuck Carpenter, Holden Village’s co-executive director with wife Stephanie. 

David said his role was to set the ball rolling on a bigger story involving Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars, Steve McMinn of Pacific Rim Tonewoods, the Whatcom Community Foundation, Holden Village and the two main beneficiaries, Living Waters for the World and El Porvenir, a clean water project in Central America.  

With these partners, the project “is unprecedented in the guitar industry. Thanks to the skill and ingenuity of the organizations involved, this forest will sing again, through many hands,” David said.

The remediation at Holden Village is essentially a water pollution project, and through this mandated effort, the stream will soon be clean once again, he said. 

“Large parts of the developing world are not so fortunate,” said David.  “United Nations statistics say more than a third of the world’s population, 2.5 billion people, lack access to clean water.  Water-borne diseases are a major cause of illness and mortality in areas, particularly in the developing world.”

With that in mind, proceeds from the sale of the Holden Village special edition guitar will support work to address these issues through Living Waters for the World and El Porvenir.

“The spirit of collaboration that surrounds the project dovetails with our mission to provide sustainable clean water, fostering long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between volunteers and communities in need,” said Steve Young, executive director of Living Waters for the World.  “Through this gift of music and craftsmanship, a widening circle of community will help children and their families have clean water for the first time.” 

Jenna Elisabeth Saldaña, director of U.S. Operations for El Porvenir, commented, “This is a story of full-circle benefit to the environment and to the people whose health depends on a healthy environment.  Thanks to the cooperation of many, we are able to take the necessary byproduct of an environmental remediation project, craft it into quality instruments and generate funding for projects that will save lives in Central America.”

The Whatcom Community Foundation is helping with philanthropic aspects of the project, said Mauri Ingram, its president and CEO.   All the wood for the guitars and the effort to transport and mill it has been donated. 

Steve McMinn of Pacific Tonewoods “loves the idea of using local woods for an international benefit, via this diverse ensemble working together. It’s almost alchemy; transmuting water into wood, into guitars and then back into clean water, with a side benefit of creating music for years to come.” 

For information visit https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylorware/holden-village-gs-mini.

Copyright © June 2014 - The Fig Tree