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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for the source, I am pretty sure that Fender is vegan then since I haven’t found anything online that suggests otherwise and haven’t noticed what you’ve described on the bridges and nuts on any of my Fenders.
If Fender uses bone, they’re probably a whole lot more selective about it. My nut only splintered because it was a dodgy part, I don’t think it’s the norm. Sigma makes relatively cheap guitars, so I wouldn’t hold Fender to the same standard.