Buying a Guitar from the USA

Update

Please note that I wrote this article a couple of years ago when I bought my Gibson Flying V from Music123.com in the States and had it shipped to the UK. It went very smoothly and I made a great saving. However, I've heard reports recently that many of the sites in the US have stopped shipping to the UK due to "manufacturers' restrictions". I guess that with the current exchange rates the savings we would make are just too good. It's worth noting that the prices in the UK have come down a lot recently, so it's not as bad as it sounds, but it would still be nice to know your experiences and if anybody has managed to find a site that will still ship to Europe.

Introduction

I've always been intrigued by how cheap things are in the US, especially guitars. On some websites, such as Musician's Friend and Music123, the instruments often sell for less in dollars than they sell for in pounds in the UK. Once the exchange rate is taken into consideration, this equates to a massive saving.

A few months ago, I decided that I'd take the plunge and see just how easy it was to buy a cheap guitar from a US website and have it delivered to Europe. It turned out to be a great experience, but there are a few things which you need to be aware of...

Choosing the Site

The things to consider when choosing a supplier are range, price and shipping restrictions. They obviously need to stock the guitar you want at a competitive price. However, if they don't ship to Europe then you're stuffed! Musician's Friend seems to have the biggest range, but won't ship outside the USA due to "manufacturer's restrictions". This is rubbish, as Music123 will ship virtually anywhere in the world as long as UPS go there! They also have a great range and some fantastic special offers, so they would always be my first choice.

Choosing the Guitar

This is obviously down to personal preference, but note that due to postage and import duty, it may not be worth it for cheaper guitars. However, this doesn't apply to the dozens of great cheap guitars which are only available in the States.

The savings are better for higher end instruments. I went for a Gibson Faded Flying V for $599. At the time of purchase, the cheapest you could get these in the UK was £700. They now also do them in black... drool!

The Buying Experience

The Music123 website is very professional and purchase with my AmEx card was hassle free. I also had great fun tracking the guitar across America and the Atlantic as it was delivered; I made my order at 12:15pm on Wednesday and by 5pm the next day my Flying V had left the warehouse. Even more amazingly, by 8pm on Friday, it was in the UK! It sat at East Midlands Airport over the weekend, but arrived at my office in Manchester at 10am on Monday morning. I was really impressed.

The Costs

The cost of importing my axe was as follows:

Basic Price

Gibson Flying V$599.99£353.29
shipping$95.18£56.04
total$695.17£409.33

Imported Price

Import VAT£52.27
Duties £9.08
Brokerage £10.00
Total Cash on Delivery £71.35

Total cost = £478.53

That's a saving of more that £200 from the UK prices. Note that recently, the UK prices have been falling, but the exchange rate has also been getting better. Do your maths and you could get a great guitar for a great price...


Conclusion

It's always a risk buying a mail order guitar. Even if you know what you want, the quality of guitars, even those of the same model, may vary. Also, a broken guitar would be a real pain to send back to the US! Remember that there are some great guitar shops in this country, who provide a professional setup and good after sales service.

The advantage is that you know you're getting a brand new, boxed instrument. I've seen guitars in shops which have been almost second hand they've been "tried" so much. While I'd much rather setup a guitar myself than take it to a shop, if you do need to take it to a repairer, with the savings you've made any work may pay for itself.

Talking of setups, I learnt a thing or two about guitar setup from action of my factory-fresh Gibson... it was so high that you could have driven a truck under the strings... but the tone and sustain were amazing. Even though I lowered the action a bit from the factory position, I went round and heightened the action on all of my other guitars to match!

Summary

Pros

Cons