2021.05.04

The Day the Music Died

“Swamp ash,” the wood behind the world’s most famous guitars, is vanishing because of flooding and a tree-boring beetle

CLASSIC FENDER GUITARS, such as this 1959 “Toploader” Telecaster, use swamp ash wood. / Photograph by Gregory Reid

CLASSIC FENDER GUITARS, such as this 1959 “Toploader” Telecaster, use swamp ash wood. / Photograph by Gregory Reid

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