guitars nine blocks off of capitol hill and he is worried he cannot get the wood or, worse, heel be raided. i talked with a congresswoman and gibson is in her congressional district and she feels, when she hears that complaint from guitar makers and furniture makers here is what she said. many people look at this and say if it happened to gibson, could it happen to me. reporter: what is behind this, is a law that protects the wood company against illegal logging, but now the national association of music merchants sent a letter to the president and members of congress colaining about the unintended consequences that are damaging to the industry and 9 economy. and it is not just the manufacturers who are hurting but a company in nashville
neil: and what is it about guitars, government officials questioning a company about the wood used in guitars. the government saying that the company imported illegally wood that should not be imported slapping them with fines, but it is the same wood that all other guitar companies uses. this is the guitar that keeps on going on and on and on and on. what is happening? guest: it got a lot of what they would call stain, and now the latest filing against gibson guitar company. all of the wood that gibson had that was seized was illegal to possess but other guitar makers have that type of wood including a guitar maker that makes
see you at the top of the one. jenna: right now the maker of the iconic gibson guitars is crying foul following a federal raid targeting the type of unique wood used in these iconic instruments. critics of the investigation say it may be pay back for the company s ceo who gives freely to gop candidates. that is one side of the story. senior national correspondent john roberts is live from the gibson guitar factory in nashville. john, give us the other side. why are the feds looking at gibson guitars? reporter: that is question a lot of people have, jenna. it is ironic to the gibson guitar corporation that the president has this big speech to congress tomorrow talking about creating american jobs. meantime gibson says through an, through a heavy-handed enforcement action, its words, that the federal government is actually killing american jobs. here is what is being questioned. this is piece of indian rose wood. it is cut and somewhat finish understood this shape. eventually that beco
this gibson firebird. the federal government says it is illegal to export a piece of wood from india. however if it were to be finished with these specialifications and inlays and frets on them it would be legal to export. here is what the fight is over. according to the bruce mitchell, the chief legal counsel for the gibson guitar corporation, if gibson goes from getting this piece of wood to india to this piece of wood from india it would cost american jobs. here is what he said. we have, probably 40 people in our factory here just in the usa, that are doing the inlays into the, into the finger board, that are putting the fret on. if we were to move, all that was to be done over in india, then, those jobs would be lost. reporter: so here is what the federal government did. on august the 24th it seized about a million dollars of this wood. gibson will very soon be unable to make its highest end guitars which will slow down production. it cost them they say more