Purchasing a guitar from the US

[Luke Jones]

I would greatly appreciate any advice regarding purchasing a guitar from the US. I am interested in the PRS SE Custom (gray-black with tremolo), which I've played here, but the guitar was dinged up pretty badly so didn't buy it. This guitar is hard to find in Canada, and it's on a three month back order at PRS in the US (as are all of their other guitars...).

Has anyone purchased a guitar from Musician's Friend? If so, would you say that they are a reliable/decent company to do business with? Also, any comments about custom's duties would be very helpful.

Thanks!

[suttree]

with the border cracking down hard on duties, you're probably going to be better off just ordering one and waiting. i just got dinged $114 on a $400 used guitar, on top of shipping and duty. UPS sucks, for the record.

[devnulljp]

with the border cracking down hard on duties, you're probably going to be better off just ordering one and waiting. i just got dinged $114 on a $400 used guitar, on top of shipping and duty. UPS sucks, for the record.
Add to that the SE is made in where Korea? So you'll be paying duty as well as taxes. Brokerage could be expensive too. suttree, was that $114 a brokerage charge?

Just to add, I paid a little under $2000 for a used US-made guitar from Seattle last year and it cost me a total of $350-ish with taxes and the ripoff brokerage. No duty though as made in the US (yay for NAFTA!?!?)

Didn't someone post a howto on doing the brokerage yourself?

[Luke Jones]

Add to that the SE is made in where Korea? So you'll be paying duty as well as taxes. Brokerage could be expensive too. suttree, was that $114 a brokerage charge?

Just to add, I paid a little under $2000 for a used US-made guitar from Seattle last year and it cost me a total of $350-ish with taxes and the ripoff brokerage. No duty though as made in the US (yay for NAFTA!?!?)

Didn't someone post a howto on doing the brokerage yourself?

Yep...made in Korea and stamped accordingly on the back of the headstock (nice!). Musican's Friend will ship it surface via FedEx (thankfully not UPS), but doubt this will make a difference with the custom's man.

[Big White Tele]

Both UPS and Fedex, and all the couriers for that matter will hose you on the brokerage. USPS/Canada Post is the only way to go. 5.00 brokerage fee and duty if applicable, (non US, Can, Mex, made items.) Made in USA and mexico items are duty free. Plus GST on the declared value.

[Apostrophe (')]

I would greatly appreciate any advice regarding purchasing a guitar from the US. I am interested in the PRS SE Custom (gray-black with tremolo), which I've played here, but the guitar was dinged up pretty badly so didn't buy it. This guitar is hard to find in Canada, and it's on a three month back order at PRS in the US (as are all of their other guitars...).

Has anyone purchased a guitar from Musician's Friend? If so, would you say that they are a reliable/decent company to do business with? Also, any comments about custom's duties would be very helpful.

Thanks!

I've bought one from them before. I had no problems. Guitar arrived in about a week.

The calculation should be as follows:

$599 USD
+ $65 USD shipping (they only ship FedEx Ground now)

$646 USD

Assuming you're using a credit card (or Paypal), they'll charge a conversion fee:
http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/publications/creditcardsyou/servicefees/CCSerFees-7-eng.asp.

Most of the popular credit cards are 2.5% (as is PayPal last I checked), so here's what you pay on the day of the purchase:

$646USD * 1.0135 = $655CAD * 2.5% = $671CAD

When it reaches the border, you'll have to pay taxes as if you bought the guitar in Canada:

Assuming the guitar isn't made in US/Mex, add 6% duty to the CAD value of the guitar:

$599 * exchange rate at time it crosses border, which should be close to the same as the day you buy it * 6% = ~$643CAD

Taxes that you need to pay = $643 * (GST + PST) = $32.15 for Alberta

Total cost = $671 + $32.15 = $705CAD

The one final thing to add is the brokerage fees that FedEx will charge. I've never been able to pinpoint an exact value (I don't think anyone else has either), based on the UPS rates (http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html) you're talking ~$50, so you're total cost will be somewhere around $760CAD.

Now compare $760 vs. the price at a place like axemusic.com (http://www.axemusic.com/product.asp?numRecordPosition=3&P_ID=11515&PT_ID=27) and you'll soon realize that it'd be much better to buy in Canada.

[Metal#J#]

I've recently purchased 2 guitars from the U.S. both valued at $1300. One shipped DHL and the other USPS. I paid $31 at the door for DHL and $62 for Canada Post. On the other hand, when I bought my VHT from Texas, it was declared at $1400 and I had to pay UPS $350 to get it out of hock:mad:
It's unpredictable at best......

I will disagree about finding cheaper guitars and amps in Canada though. I've bought 3 new PRS SEs, 2 from Wild West and 1 Ebay, and got them here all inclusive for just over $500. At that time SEs were going for $700+ at L&M and the selection was crap. I do most of my shopping across the border because there's more of a selection and better deals. I even used to buy my strings by the box from the U.S. because they ended up costing me under $4 a pack. Beats pay'n $10 to the local guys that drive me nuts with their over priced everything.

J

[NB-SK]

I checked the prices online for you here in Korea. You'd better order one from the US. Although shipping would only be a little more expensive, the PRS SE Custom retails at over 700$ here (if PRS were a Korean brand, it would be a lot cheaper here...but since it's, well, a PRS...).

Oh, and the PRS is not made in 'where Korea', but more likely in Incheon or Paju, South Korea. That is where most of the Korean guitar makers are located.

[rockinbluesfan]

Depending where you are in relation to the border but check out bluewatershippingdepot.com- they let you use their address in port huron then notify you when it comes in. You get to save on shipping, broker fee's then just declare it on the way back. Dunno if there is such a service elsewhere though but it is only an hours drive for me. FYI

[dr_iggi]

bluewatershippingdepot.com

Interesting. Has anyone used these guys?

[KHINGPYNN]

I'm currently looking for a Les Paul DC and I've had 4-5 serious prospect purchases south of the border.

One thing I have come to find out is I'm better off waitng and purchasing locally. The border fee's a horendus. Plus there is a certain set of cercumastances that apply when you cannot view the item in person before purchase. Be prepared to spend an extra $100-$200 on a guitar crossing the boarder.

Here are some experiences I've has looking for the LPDC for anyone interested.

One guy was hiding a cracked neck. Every prospect I talked to I asked the same questions. Plus I asked for the same photos. Two of which were the back of the guitar at the neck head transition and the neck body transition.
This guy sent me the photos along with a long story on how he didn't want to sell the guitar. His asking price was approx $1100. When I saw the crack line i asked for a better photo and WOW a nasty crack revealed it'self. He told me he thought it was a wood joint line. However those are machine cut straight and smooth not jagged and crooked. Pissed off i told him that stuff has to be said up front and that he wasted my time. I also said i hope you did not pay any more than $600, he then replied and said he opaid $500 for the guitar. So this guy was trying to pull a fast one and double his $$$.

Another guy thought a for sale add on Kijiji worked like an aution. He stated $1400 "only serious offers will be considered" and when I talked with him he said he would let me have the guitar for $1500 plus shipping... WTF???

Another guy had a nice LPDC but wanted too much for the guitar which was bruised and battered.

Another guy had one that was hung for a long period on a surgical rubber hanger... nasty bit of damage on that one. Atleast he was up front about it.

Another one went to a local purchaser after I had struck up a deal. So that guy was not comfortable with the shipping to another country. That was a nice one!

In general I found 50% of the ppl I talked to had not shipped out of state let alone out of country and were not comfortable with doing so.

Hopefully I can find one locally of in a neighbouring province.

Cheers
Craig

[DeleriumTrigger]

Please god don't ever use UPS. They hose you hard on brokerage. I paid $180 for some automotive springs from Texas a few years back and they charged me $120 brokerage.

A BC firm actually filed a class action lawsuit against them for this recently, from what I understand they aren't the first to do so.

http://www.poynerbaxter.com/UPS.htm

[Luke Jones]

All,

Thanks for your input on purchasing from the US. I'm moving to Ottawa in the next several weeks, so have decided to check with L&M when I get there. Their store here in Calgary said they would meet Axe's price, which appears to be the lowest in Canada ($582 + tax). I played the guitar at Axe previously, but the headstock was dinged pretty badly so decided against buying (and they had nothing left in stock). If the wait via L&M is too long, I may chance it and order from Musician's Friend (thanks to Apostrophe's math which makes the US purchase still somewhat attractive). To me, the PRS SE is the best rock guitar out there for the money (and assuming an < $1000 budget).

Cheers!

Luke

[violation]

Have you phoned Steve's Music? I know they had that guitar on their site awhile back.

[Apostrophe (')]

(thanks to Apostrophe's math which makes the US purchase still somewhat attractive).


I just noticed the number in my first calculation is off:

$599 USD
+ $65 USD shipping (they only ship FedEx Ground now)

$646 USD

That total should be $664, not $646, so you'll have to add another ~$25 to the grand total, which means you're getting close to the $800 mark, at a minimum. (FedEx is of course the wild card that may bump the cost up)

Previous poster mentioned Steve's (looks they redid their Web site) the guitar is listed at $659.
http://www.stevesmusic.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1878

Metal mentioned Wild West, the guitar is listed there at $549, whereas the standard in the U.S. seems to be $599.
http://www.wildwestguitars.com/prshome.htm#se

No clue about their shipping policy/costs though.

Seems like those guitars are sold out almost everywhere.

[Kapo_Polenton]

My custom axe was built in the US so I had him put 500$ value and soo far with Fedex, I have not been dinged anything. Its been over a month. I think the fact that he built the body etc.. made it exempt rather than buying a foreign made guitar. Used though, they shouldn't be dinging us anything. Here is mine if anyone cares:

http://www.benfordguitars.com/kevinakoa.html

Another guy saw mine and probably copied it though cause he got the exact same look! Little does he know i stole this look from Ratt's Warren Demartini ;)

[Luke Jones]

I just noticed the number in my first calculation is off:

$599 USD
+ $65 USD shipping (they only ship FedEx Ground now)

$646 USD

That total should be $664, not $646, so you'll have to add another ~$25 to the grand total, which means you're getting close to the $800 mark, at a minimum. (FedEx is of course the wild card that may bump the cost up)

Previous poster mentioned Steve's (looks they redid their Web site) the guitar is listed at $659.
http://www.stevesmusic.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1878

Metal mentioned Wild West, the guitar is listed there at $549, whereas the standard in the U.S. seems to be $599.
http://www.wildwestguitars.com/prshome.htm#se

No clue about their shipping policy/costs though.

Seems like those guitars are sold out almost everywhere.

Good info - will look into it. Thanks again Apostrophe.

[NOS Gary]

I second rockinbluesfan's suggestion of using a U.S. based mailbox place, although unfortunately it's only viable for those living a drivable distance to the border. Its really a great way to go, but it does have its pros and cons. You totally eliminate brokerage fees, but plan on making a day trip out of it (my wife always works in a trip to the outlet malls, stuff like that). We keep a U.S. address at a mailbox outlet just over the border from us (about an hours drive); great for Ebay stuff and the like. Then when you pick up your guitar, you have the choice to declare it - PST, GST, and duty on non-NAFTA items - or, if you're really gutsy, get "creative" :smilie_flagge17: