We usually use quality wood like mahogany or rosewood to make guitars. But these trees are rare and certain species are now protected. Rachel Rosenkrantz therefore decided to experiment with biodegradable materials.
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Her name is Rachel Rosenkrantz. She grew up in Montfermeil, a suburb of Paris, but moved to Rhode Island, on the northeastern coast of the United States, a few years ago. This tailor’s daughter tells CNN [article en anglais] that at age 21, she attempted to become a violin maker while studying design. Except that several luthiers told her that she was already too old for the profession. She put the idea on hold until she arrived in the United States where she received training and began making guitars drawing on her love of music but also her knowledge of design.
Rachel Rosenkrantz explains that she saw that automobiles and textiles used biomaterials. So why not do it in an industry that produces two and a half million guitars in the United States alone? To make a guitar, normally, you carve, you cut the wood. There, Rachel Rosenkrantz places mushrooms, mycelium in this case, into a guitar mold and lets nature take its course. The mushroom dries within a few days. The sound produced is a little different from a classic guitar, admits the luthier, but it flows as well as with wood.
She also made a banjo with kombucha leather and this amateur beekeeper recycled pieces of a beehive to make a guitar. And then, during the pandemic, after eating eggs for breakfast, she even tried to see what she could get with eggshell. It doesn’t use plastic either, replaced by fish skin. It is more resistant and more malleable than plastic according to her.
For the moment, it costs too much, recognizes Rachel Rosenkrantz. She would like to find a deal with a major manufacturer and sell them for $50 so that every child can have one. In the meantime, one of its models can cost around $4,000 when one can easily be found for 20 times less in stores. Its production is obviously not industrial and the buyer is involved in the design of a custom guitar with regular stitches made with him. But if you want the Honfleur model or the Yvelines under the tree, it will not be for Christmas 2023. The waiting list is two years.
