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.
Thanks for adding some additional thoughts to the list. I also came across a source about Gibson using oysters for their guitars, but as I mentioned the source was nearly 20 years old and I have no idea if this is still the case. From what I’ve read, Taylor only switched to synthetic materials a few years ago so anything could have happened. If I’m unable to find any recent sources I will just try and contact the manufacturer themselves. If they are unable to help I’ll just put them down as undetermined/inconclusive for now.