Home Forums Guitar Discussion Guitar Maestro, Lyre, long tem arm unit for SG-Firebird etc

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  • #21802
    lee_UK
    Participant

    Ive asked this before, sorry for wasting everyones time, but does anyone know where i can get one of these trems from? ive seen them on allparts but they dont have the engraving, Gibson dont supply them as a user part, and i dont see them come up on ebay, well i do see them but they are £300+ thats 00 for a trem unit! i cant justify that kind of spend, so if anyone knows of a place selling them, please let me know, thanks.
    Lee.

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    • #75672
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Nice one bass, ive just cut and pasted that little lot before mick the mod stamps all over it, not that he would of course, so the smaller items genraly go un-noticed, but the larger ones require a set of handcuffs and a loaded shotgun shoved through your letterbox at 3am on a monday morning? you get an ‘A++++ great tax avoider’ for that one. Govt takes enough tax off of me, and you by the sounds of it.

    • #75634
      1bassleft
      Participant

      OK, this post is mostly useful to Brits (maybe other EUers) purchasing from the US. The only reason I can think of for a US cousin wanting to purchase from Britain is if a bargain Brit valve head (eg an old Laney or Carlsbro) comes up. For my cousins across the pond, I suggest you look at http://www.parcels2go.com and contact the seller to agree to ship this way. Most heads (even 100W) are under 25kg and fit the dimensions, so shipping would be about $60. I’ve used them, and they’re good.

      Anyhoo, tips for the Brit buyer of keenly-priced US products:
      1) Anything under $35 is EXEMPT from UK duties.
      2) “Gifts” are not exempt, but the bar is raised to about $70. Many bona fide companies resent being asked to declare the goods as “gifts”, so don’t ask them to.
      3) When merchandise (new or 2nd hand) is shipped from the US to the UK, the seller must fill in a little Customs Declaration sticker (CN22), and stick it to the package. It describes the type of goods, its value, and whether it’s a gift, sample or merchantable goods.

      So,
      If it’s worth less than $35, you’re fire-proof. If you’ve just bought a $150 trem or a $150 ash body; it gets a bit trickier.
      Try to get the seller to send the item in a USPS (United States Postal Service) GPM (Global Priority Mail) envelope. Have a look at http://www.usps.com and search “Global Priority”. GPM is brilliant, but most US sellers don’t know about it. Face it – do you know how to send a pickup to Armenia? The GPM envelope costs either $5 or $9, depending on size, and includes the posting. It’s made of fairly stiff card. It has bags of room for bubble-wrap etc. In short, it can take p’ups, bridges, tuners, and at least six sets of strings (probably eight to ten for guitar).

      Better still (perk up ears, Lee), it is an envelope. So it goes through the standard Royal Maul procedure. ie, it flies past on a conveyor belt (GIVE THE SELLER YOUR POSTCODE, DAMMIT) and is in Postie’s satchel before you know it. I get the stuff inside a week from ordering. More importantly, no-one really reads the CN22 sticker. It might say “Pamela Anderson’s left nipple. Value = $3 million” and no-one will notice. This is the route of choice for small but higher-value items that exceed the $35 limit. In the case of a person not claiming to be 1bassleft 😉 , ’60s Fender pups, ’70s Ric pups, ’80s Musicman pups, etc have all been pushed through the letterbox. The sticker clearly says “used guitar parts – value $xxx”, but nobody read it.

      If it won’t go in the envelope (eg amp tubes), then USPS air is OK if the box is small. Approx 10 days, and it’s still handled by Royal Maul. The best bit is, Postman Prat is not au fait with all of this import stuff. A little box containing a piezo bridge arrived, covered in “You must pay import duty” stickers. Because it didn’t squeeze through the box, Pat left a card saying it was round my back door. Of course, I never found that box, did I? 😉

      Lastly, and I can’t help but it’s a warning, the blimmin’ big parcel. Say a guitar body. Whether it’s sent by courier or USPS, you’ll take a hit. Those big stickers are slapped on and here comes the duty. Worse still (and this bit really 👿 👿 s me):

      Say you buy a body for $100. That’s £50. Shipping is $20/£10. Your doorbell rings and ParcelFarce are there with your box. Before they hand it over, you have to pay the import duty to Customs of 17.5% of BOTH merchandise and shipping. Better still, ParcelFarce or the courier (or Royal Maul, when they’re awake) want a “handling fee”. Surprise, surprise, this “handling fee” is 110% on top of the import duty. It covers their arses.

      That $100 body? Plus s+h = $120. Import duty amounts to $21 so now you’re looking at $141. But wait, ParcelFarce has a ‘handling fee’ of $23 so now that $100 body has cost you $164. Not such a bargain, now 👿

    • #66990
      lee_UK
      Participant

      post me the low down on the loopholes Bass, any ifo would be much apreciated. 🙂

    • #67038
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Lee, I wouldn’t post on a subject where my knowledge is non-existent 😯 😉 . All I will say is that I have long noticed the disparity between US $ prices and those in £ from British stockists.

      I haven’t bought more than a couple of nuts from a co.uk – everything else has been shipped across the pond. There are various ways around the import taxes and Royal Mail’s attempt to get in on fleecing the punter.
      Complacent UK retailers have, literally, only months to wake up before they go under.

    • #67048
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Everyone can stand down……. the emergency is over, i ordered a wanabee Maestro lyre lookie likee from allparts.com, not exactly the full ticket, but ive got a madcap plan to etch/engrave on the missing Gibson name and illustration, over here in allparts.co.uk the trem system costs £129 or $250, but in the states at allparts.com the exact same trem unit with the same item code costs $150 or £75, and the postage is cheaper from the states than it is from UK based allparts, its a mad mad mad mad world..

    • #67017
      lee_UK
      Participant

      my post has been on here 2 days, and only 8 people have veiwed it, i get the feeling nobody cares…. im thinking of getting one from allparts and etching or engraving the gibson name and harp on myself, could be a market for them.

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