Featured: Despiau Planet Bridges
Forest resources are depleting For several decades Pierre-Jean Despiau has been going to the forests of Bosnia-Herzegovina, sourcing maples we need to make bridges. However, journey after journey he has seen them become rare. We are talking about trees which are several hundred years old. They have grown in such a particular environment and climate that they yield an exceptional capacity to transmit sound; sound in all its original purity, wealth, power and colour. It is easy to understand just how precious the maples are and realise that this resource is depleting.
We must re-think our definition of “good” wood Today, a tree is not chosen for its acoustic qualities alone. Indeed, it is selected traditionally as wood which is visually and aesthetically “flawless”. A large number of otherwise perfect maples are rejected because of some “distinctive” feature which has no bearing on acoustic quality. From these observations, Despiau Planet was born.
Despiau Planet: look at the wood with your ears We cannot keep on wasting wood with such rare qualities. Despiau Chevalets has decided to radically improve their selection criteria. Why? Out of respect for the forest, which gives us its trees, and to supply luthiers what they need for instruments entrusted to them. From now on, we will take however long we need to retain trees of exceptional quality that visual analysis didn’t retain.
