Are guitars vegan?

[Man On Bike.]

I've started to learn to play the guitar, but, I'm worried that my guitar might not be vegan, how can I know for sure?

[soniczip]

are you worried about the strings some are made with silk or gut, others with synthetics. maybe an expert could say by looking at them. if you are unsure, the best thing to do is to go in a music store and specifically ask for synthetic strings.

[Daddy Fungus]

realistically, the only non vegan element used in guitar making would be the mother of pearl inlay on the fretboard, headstock etc.. cheaper guitars will some synthetic material instead, others may use a different wood.

[hardcore iv]

What kind of guitar have you got man on bike? I've been wanting to get a new guitar for ages and the animal products in them have bothered me. Years ago I tried to find out more about it, but didn't find much.

Pretty much all decent quality guitars will have pearl inlay. The glues used on acoustics are most likely not vegan. AFAIK guitar strings are fine. I remember reading somewhere that Andres Segovia was using synthetic strings back in the fifties.

The only option that my conscience could deal with is getting a luthier to make me a guitar, but my bank account can't deal with that option.

Of course, air guitar is always an option

[Konstantin]

Of course, air guitar is always an option

Air guitar is vegan. I think you should just stick to air guitar. People spend ages learning the guitar, buying books, getting lessons, air guitar is easy, I got it straight away. They never get stolen, you can take them anywhere, they never go out of tune. I take mine to gigs and it somehow comes out of the amps the band are using.

Here's a picture of my air guitar:









Great eh?

[Cookie]

We had an air guitar champion at the union:

http://www.ukairguitar.com/



Maybe try your local guitar shop? I've been to a few good ones and they are happy to go into a fair amount of detail about the product. Not sure that they will know about glue though... I'd be interested to know how you do, I've wanted to learn to play for years Would electric guitars have a greater chance of being vegan?

[hardcore iv]

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Electric-Guitar.html

I don't think an electric would be that much different. It would just use less glue due to the body being one piece. Frets and inlay would still be glued in. Also most pickups have wax in them. I don't know what kind of wax, but it probably isn't vegan.

Some acoustics also have bone saddles and nuts.

This guitar repair site uses hide glue in their repairs as well as synthetics
http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/glues.htm

It seems possible for a vegan guitar to be made, but I don't think any company has or will unless all high profile vegan musicians get a custom one made. Steve Vai is apparently a vegetarian, but I don't think he would care enough since he is a beekeeping hobbyist.

[xJimx]

Personally when I used to play guitar/bass quite a bit this wasn't anything that ever concerned me or any of the other vegan 'musicians' (in the broadest sense of the word ) I knew.

How many vegan sXe bands could guarantee that their guitars are completely free of animal glues? None would be my guess.

If you stopped playing guitar for this reason then you'd also have to stop driving, using public transport, using computers etc.

Being a martyr to this extent doesn't do veganism any favours in my opinion.

[Cookie]

Maybe you could email known vegan bands and ask what they decided to do. Or look specifically at the guitars they use and see if they are vegan?

[xJimx]

I'm not sure that would get you anywhere to be honest.

Bear in mind that the most famous vegan band of all, Earth Crisis, had an endorsement deal with a regular guitar manufacturer (ESP) & they certainly did not use custom guitars.

I believe that Heaven Shall Burn (probably the biggest vegan band right now) have a deal with Gibson & are just using standard instruments.

[bob_summers]

are propagandhi still vegan? the guitarist uses an sg iirc...

another possible pitfall is the use of shellac varnish as an insulator in older equipment - particularly pickup windings and amplifier transformers. i doubt modern stuff would use it though.

if you're worried your guitar contains dodgy stuff, maybe you could redress the balance by performing only vegan songs on it

[Konstantin]

Someone told me that Pitchshifter demanded that all roadies ate vegan on tour and didn't wear leather. I got this second hand, any use? I never got in to them so have no idea if they're still even together.

[hardcore iv]

Personally when I used to play guitar/bass quite a bit this wasn't anything that ever concerned me or any of the other vegan 'musicians' (in the broadest sense of the word ) I knew.

How many vegan sXe bands could guarantee that their guitars are completely free of animal glues? None would be my guess.

If you stopped playing guitar for this reason then you'd also have to stop driving, using public transport, using computers etc.

Being a martyr to this extent doesn't do veganism any favours in my opinion.

I'm not going to stop playing guitar because of this. I just have a habit of always trying to find out how fucked up all the relatively trivial things I do are.

if you're worried your guitar contains dodgy stuff, maybe you could redress the balance by performing only vegan songs on it Wink

Okay. Non-stop Bryan Adams covers

[Dave Noisy]

Watch out for guitar straps too - often leather.

[Cookie]

If you hit google there are a lot of sites with vegan guitar straps. There are some made out of recycled bits and bobs that look pretty cool


Maybe buy a second hand guitar? Not ideal but you are not adding to the original demand at least.