'National guitar' to include 600-year-old Winnipeg wood

Wood from the oldest building in the city of Winnipeg will be used to help build a special "national guitar" from historic artifacts across the country.

In a project that's been a decade in the making, master luthier George Riszanyi is criss-crossing the country in search of wood from historically significant sources representing the diversity of Canada's population. The wood will be used to create two guitars.

When Philippe Mailhot, executive director of the St. Boniface Museum in Winnipeg, heard about the project, he knew he had to contribute. Wednesday, he had a piece of a ceiling joist in the building cut down to size.

"We feel that the St. Boniface Museum … former convent of the Grey Nuns, the building where Louis Riel attended school, where his sister became a nun, the first hospital in Western Canada, a symbol of the French Canadian fact in the West – there's so many stories wrapped up in this building, we felt it was important to have a piece incorporated into the guitar," Mailhot told CBC News.

The St. Boniface Museum building was constructed in the 1840s, and Mailhot estimates the tree used for the beam was probably 400 to 500 years old when it was cut.

"From the windows of that building, all of Western Canada grew up in front of it," he added. "When this building was built, people were still travelling in York boats and canoes. The railway was still 40 years away."

Wood from Bluenose II, Gretzky's hockey stick

The idea of a "national guitar," constructed of wood from across the country, came to CBC Radio host Jowi Taylor on the eve of the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty. The call for wood went out, and people started donating.

The St. Boniface contribution fits the bill perfectly, Taylor said.

"We wanted to make sure that we reflected French culture across the country, or at least in different parts of the country," he said. "The St. Boniface museum was an excellent way to do that."

Riszanyi already has wood from the deck of the Bluenose II, a piece of a Titan hockey stick that belonged to Wayne Gretzky and a canoe paddle that belonged to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. He even has wood from a sideboard that once belonged to Sir John A. Macdonald.

The wood for the tops and backs of the two guitars will come from a 400-year-old golden spruce tree that was sacred to the Haida First Nation. The tree, which was cut down in 1997, was the last of its kind in the world.

While Riszanyi has already made hand-crafted guitars for Keith Richards and James Taylor, he describes the current project, which he calls Six String Nation, as the pinnacle of his career. He hopes to have at least one of the guitars completed by Canada Day.

"I think there's been mention of Gordon Lightfoot playing it in front of the Parliament buildings on Canada Day. So that's what we're shooting for and hopefully that will happen," Riszanyi said in February.

Riszanyi says the guitar will then tour the country, making special stops in the communities that contributed material for the project. He said he hopes musicians will help the second guitar travel across the country.

"It will be handed over to a musician with instructions that the musician plays it and maybe after a week or so hands it off to another musician," he said.

• SIX STRING NATION: More on the project