This article examines the guitar trade (i.e. making, collecting and dealing) to examine the political ecology of the guitar from forests to construction: delving both into its environmental impacts and attempts to protect endangered species, it focuses on the impact of two pieces of legislation have on guitar making, the international guitar trade, and guitar ownership: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the Lacey Act Amendments of 2008. In so doing, it examines the underlying problems (deforestation, endangered species, illicit trade in wood, and unfair trade advantages) that these pieces of legislation were meant to address, and the politicization of these efforts that has the US Congress deadlocked. This account also analyzes the practical difficulties that legal compliance presents, and finally examines what alternatives may exist.