1 mo. ago • 90%

Guide to vegan instruments

Backstory: I am a vegan musician. I recently had a conversation with another user on here after I had mentioned musical instruments and how they have historically used animal products. A lot of manufacturers have now switched to all plant based components but it is very very unclear as to who exactly is vegan friendly or not.

I have decided to attempt to create a spreadsheet detailing which instrument manufacturers are vegan-friendly or not.

These are the ones I have found answers to:

Fender - Seemingly yes

Bedell - Yes

Martin - Not vegan, uses animal-derived glue

Taylor - Yes

Moondot - Yes

Fishman - Some models are definitely vegan, have not found a definitive answer for their entire range

Steinway - Yes

Baldwin - Yes

Ludwig - Seemingly yes

Evans - Yes

Remo - Yes

Gibson - Not sure, I have found something about them using oysters(what?) in their guitars but this is about 20 years old so not sure if anything has changed

Incredibow - Yes

Cardiff Violins - Yes

Franz Hoffmann - No

T Sonada - Yes

If anyone has any knowledge of other vegan/non-vegan manufacturers to add to the sheet, preferably with a source, please let me know. If you find that any of the info above is incorrect then again please let me know.

20 comments

Gibson may use oysters or other shellfish for fret inlays?

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- Thanks for adding some additional thoughts to the list. I also came across a source about Gibson using oysters for their guitars, but as I mentioned the source was nearly 20 years old and I have no idea if this is still the case. From what I've read, Taylor only switched to synthetic materials a few years ago so anything could have happened. If I'm unable to find any recent sources I will just try and contact the manufacturer themselves. If they are unable to help I'll just put them down as undetermined/inconclusive for now.
  
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Could you include proof? if theyre email screenshots or too much for a lemmy post maybe you could link to a file hosting site and host a zip?

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- I am including all of the proof and links in the spreadsheet I'm drawing up. This post is just an appeal for additional info for now.
  
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  Thank you, I have seen there is little information collated about vegan instruments, this could be one of the only sources on the english internet for this
  
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Guitar maker sigma uses bone for it's nuts and probably bridges too. I'm not sure about Epiphone, they used a plastic nut on my LP but for all I know the inlays are some sort of shellfish.

It's also highly highly likely that a lot of guitars use shellac which is produce by an insect, especially likely for accoustic and classical guitars.

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- Thanks for helping and adding some names. If possible do you have a source on Sigma, if not I will try and find one within the next couple of days. Yes, I believe classical guitars are generally the main offender when it comes to animal parts in guitars, similarly it appears that a lot of the classical-type violins are the ones that still use horsehair.
  
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  https://www.colemansmusic.com.au/products/sigma-000mc-15e-mahogany-auditorium
  
  Under the features section here they're listed as bone. I hadn't actually looked it up as I own one and bone is pretty different from plastic, especially when it splinters like mine did.
  
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Thank you, I will be saving this post for future reference.

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- Of course! Always happy to try and help people make more ethical choices, especially when it comes to things like musical instruments where the issue is so muddy.
  
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Thanks so much for this Josie!!!!

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- Of course!! This is something that gets brushed over a lot in music spaces to the point where I have been unable to find literally anything online like what I'm creating, at least not on the English or Spanish parts of the internet. This is probably going to take a lot of effort and is likely to never be exhaustive but I think it's worth it in the end.
  
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Update: Spreadsheet is going well, have managed to find info about a lot of different brands. Will post the actual sheet within the next week or so

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- Spoiler alert: If you want to be a vegan musician, be a drummer lol
  
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  Its the easiest way.
  
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- I can't wait to see your work Josie!
  
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  Thanks for the words of encouragement. I am now looking into woodwind and violin manufacturers. Assuming nothing comes up I will hopefully have the sheet ready either today or tomorrow.
  
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