DK1 spotted in the UK!

[wilkinsi]

Is it UK Customs & Excise who are the greedy fucks in this game? It concerns me that if I did get one imported, C&E would just charge so much that it would still end up costing £2k anyway?

I'm not gonna buy this DK1 for the simple reason I have actually touched the neck on it (I don't care what the shop assistant or tag says) and it's a rosewood board. It's rough, you can feel the grain. There's no grain whatsoever on the RR24 next to it. Even with a camera phone, the difference can still be seen.

[Mazrim]

There doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason to the C&E charges.

I got charged about £80 I think for my WR1 but got away with nothing for others. Then again, I was there to answer the door for the WR1 and not for the other guitars I got from USA.

Regardless, its still way cheaper to get them from the States. Especially if you get a good deal to start with.

[dangerous_dave]

There doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason to the C&E charges.

I got charged about £80 I think for my WR1 but got away with nothing for others. Then again, I was there to answer the door for the WR1 and not for the other guitars I got from USA.

Regardless, its still way cheaper to get them from the States. Especially if you get a good deal to start with.

What sites do you order from in the US?

[Mazrim]

Just ebay so far.

[Rsmacker]

That annoys the crap out of me. When somebody does that to me I usually take my business elsewhere. I'm not the type that goes around playing every axe on the wall of a store. I try guitars to buy. Anyhow, their loss.

Come on, look at it from the shop's point of view, there's a guitar with a hefty price tag on it, you don't need every Tom, Dick and Harry going in there and rubbing their spunky hands all over it, potentially marking it, surface scratches etc. yet have absolutely no REAL intention of buying it themselves. (Saying you do the Lottery and are hoping for a win, or telling them that when your granny dies, you will probably come into some cash doesn't count. Nor does asking to pay £20 per week until you get a rise from your paper round).
When someone comes along with the readies in their hand, they are going to want a discount if it is "shop soiled". I know I bloody would, I wouldn't want to hand over my cash for something that has bogeys wiped on it and arse-grease all over the fretboard after some snotty schoolkid has mauled it.

Not saying Wilks is a tyre kicker (even though I suspect he is!! ), but they are out there, it's just like wanking for them. I used to work in a place many years ago where the local twats would come in, sneer at the stock, paw every guitar and then 2 weeks later tell you they bought something else from Birmingham without even trying to do a deal on one of the ones they had played for hours. Unsurprisingly, that place is no longer around, floored by Musical Exchanges' rise. Oh, and it was a Jackson/Charvel dealer too, back in the days that John Hornby Skewes was the distributor.

There were blokes who would come in and piss about with guitars but I was halted from kicking them out very early on by a nod from the boss that they were chaps who DID have cash, and more importantly, DID spend it with us. They were welcome to paw the guitars, they were ultra-careful, could appreciate the fact there were high price tags, and handled the stock accordingly.
They would also tell us if they were serious or whether they were tyre-kicking - we'd still let them play the good stuff because they were being honest!

If you go to a shop and pull out a fucking huge wad of cash and ask to play a guitar, they will let you, whether you are serious about buying it or not. It shows you can at least pay for it, you won't be then asking for a layaway plan (not every shop is doing good enough business to be able to afford to do this, times are hard these days!). It's called putting your money where your mouth is.

If you buy something serious from them, they will remember you for a long time, you will have access to everything you want to try. However, if you are in there one day asking how much a Gibson V is, whether they have any you can try, then 2 weeks later asking what prices they can do Mesa Boogies at, then 2 weeks after that wanting prices of Jacksons, yet not actually splashing out, you will also be remembered - as a timewasting twat, no matter how many picks or single E strings you buy from them. Even if you bought one of the things you were asking for down the road you will get more respect, you at least have shown you DO spend seriously, they will try to hook you for your next purchase.

Even if you take in something of similar value and tell them you are thinking of trading in, that will get you more chance of access to the goodies, though this only works a couple of times before they realise you have absolutely no intention of trading in, and that you spent all your cash on that thing, after saving hard for 10 years for it.

Remember that though you might be absolutely dead-set on buying a guitar, 100% serious, and you rightly don't want to buy one without having a go on one, for every one person with serious intent, there are 15 penniless losers who want to run their greasy mitts over a £2k guitar and say that "it feels a bit......erm, I dunno, it just doesn't feel right. Is this the only colour you have? Errrr, I really wanted a plain black one, like that bloke out of *insert current Kerrang fave band name here* ".

Successful salesmen (as opposed to the bloke in the Marshall T-shirt who just works there because he wants to get discounted gear) can smell whether you are serious, whether you are really going to buy something. Someone with the money burning a hole in their pocket will have that look about them. Maybe you will have the money in a couple of weeks and the salesman will have blown it by not letting you play a guitar, maybe you will spunk it on a new car next week, all he can tell is that you have nothing going in his till, so why should he worry about you not spending money that you don't even have?!!!

Relying on what someone may do in the future doesn't pay the bills, no matter how absolutely totally genuine that person's intention to buy may be. There's many a slip twixt cup and a lip!

Right, that's MY rant over.

[Mazrim]

And a mighty rant it was.

[shobet]

LOL kerr-bitch-slap!

[RobRR]

Thats kinda funny, theres an RR24 there, but I have yet to see one in any local stores around here. Ugh! My rule is, if theres no way I can afford it, Im not playing it. Itll only make me want it worse anyway!

[Gartron]

Come on, look at it from the shop's point of view, there's a guitar with a hefty price tag on it, you don't need every Tom, Dick and Harry going in there and rubbing their spunky hands all over it,



.

Interesting , but thats one of my problems with guitars now adays, everyone gets super anal about condition, back when I was in serious buying mode (early 90's) I didn't care, it was how the guitar played felt and sounded that mattered, look at the amount of e-bay listings that have "guitar has very light buckle rash"..gee ,really, wonder how that happened??

Would I pay £2000 for a trashed guitar?..no , however one with light shop use..no problem, if it has the mojo that makes me want to buy it, then I'm not going to be put off by some pick swirls.

Once you get it home your going to put a ding on it eventually, so being all pissy about some light use seems pointless.

an undinged guitar is an unloved guitar!

[Mazrim]

I have managed to avoid "dinging" my guitars up to this point. I've bought guitars with dings but I've not added to them. Maybe I'm just lucky. Even my KV2 and WR1 with their many pointy bits have escaped scuffing.

I am not anal about condition but I will expect to pay accordingly for a guitars condition. I'm not throwing money away that I dont have.

[Rsmacker]

Would I pay £2000 for a trashed guitar?..no , however one with light shop use..no problem, if it has the mojo that makes me want to buy it, then I'm not going to be put off by some pick swirls.

So if you were chucking £2k at a guitar and you had a choice of 2 identical models in the shop, one which has been played and a virgin, would you be happy to pay 2k for the "ex-demo" one, or would you want £200 knocked off? That's a nice chunk of lost shop rent, just for letting dreamers fulfill their wank fantasies.

It's easy to say you would lash out that sort of money Gartron, I take it you have spent £2k on a new guitar?* I know I haven't, nor do I know anyone who has! Maybe I'm just a miser with pikey mates!

Not £750, or £1k, but 2 FUCKING GRAND??!!! That's SERIOUS money, for most people it means working hard and saving, be it for 3 months or for 5 years. Unless you have disposable income like that (in which case, give me a job), it's not an impulse purchase. Being happy in theory to buy that guitar, and actually handing over the moolah in REAL LIFE are 2 different things IMHO.
You might be happy to part with your cash, but I would think you are in a minority of a very small market of people who have the money in their hands, and my (rather long) point above was meant to look at it from the shop point of view. Your reasoning would suggest that if the QC guy at the factory gets some buckle rash on the guitars he is checking out the door, that's OK because they will get marked sooner or later anyway. Fuck that, whether it is £2k Jackson or a £99 Shitocaster copy, it should be A1 when the first buyer gets his hands on it. If he throws it about, well, that's up to him.

I know if I am walking about with £2k cash in my pocket, and am going to hand it over for ANYTHING, that purchase is going to have to be 100% right. If the guitar is £4k new, however, and has a few marks from being played in the shop, I dare say I'd be happy with giving 2 for it.

Bashing guitars is indeed part of life, unfortunately, which is why I don't buy new guitars. I couldn't cope with knocking the first ding into a guitar, regardless how small it is, it would stand out a mile to me. It's not about being anal, rather because every penny I have, I have sweated for!
I agree that they should be played, however, not kept in glass cases and looked at, in factory mint condition. The pleasure is to play (erm, thanks Lemmy) and marking them is part and parcel of that. I'll rather leave it to the guy who lays out the cash for it brand new to mark it, it's his privilege! (Then I'll give him £500 for it)



*This is where he tells me he bought £3.5k axes regularly back in the 90s, and makes me look like a cunt!

[Mazrim]

The most I've ever paid for a guitar is £1500 which was a PRS Custom 22 (used).
Also:
£1350 ESP MII Urban Camo (brand new)
£1150 Gibson Les Paul Custom 57 reissue. (Used)
£1100 Ibanez UV7 PWH (New in 1994)
Two USA Jacksons from ebay for about £1800 combined...
and so on...

I dont know dude, I started as an annoying teenager for Musical Exchanges and then I spent a hell of a lot of money there. I see your point though.

Are you a shop owner or you used to be or what?

[Rsmacker]

I worked in a small town music shop, after hanging about there for years drinking their coffee and fwapping over their catalogs - because their actual stock reflected the type of shop it was - a few cheapies, one or two reaaal nice guitars, a few second hand interesting items, but they were cool blokes and we used to have a laugh. Musicians first, businessmen second.

Not a patch on going to Exchanges though and throwing some ball-muck at a wall of loadsa guitars lit with neon etc, which is why it died a death after 20 years successful trading.

I worked there for months at the end and never even got paid, I spent my time making contacts, setting up my trade accounts, and took old stock instead.
(I actually still have some crap in my warehouse to this day, it is no use to man nor beast. I did manage to finally shift all the odd bollock sized drum skins the other month, only been sitting there for 17 years!!!!)

Foolishly I did have a crack at filling the gap after that place shut, before I woke up and stopped trying to flog packets of strings and shite Washburns to tyre kickers, and started doing Pro-Audio and fitting out nightclubs. In the nick of time I saw sense, thank fuck, but I feel for those guys still plugging away, even the chains aren't exactly rolling in clover.
The fact that lots of the big distributors went pop, or stopped doing certain brands tells you how difficult it is to flog stuff in the UK. You know who I'm talking about.<cough>

I have a soft spot for those old shops, I used to love going and looking in different towns to see what gems were kicking about.
Not saying I don't get a hardon for going and drooling over loads of sexy pieces in one vast emporium, but they are too much like Tescos killing off the little shops.

Musical Exchanges was brilliant before they moved downstairs, when all the guitars were crammed into that front corner on the ground floor, 3 guitars per stand. There were some real finds to be had, it was a musicians' shop. Nowadays, they know every last pick and screw they stock, it is on computer, and that's that. Not many deals to be had there now!
Jones & Crossland used to be my favourite on New St, now long gone. Ah, them wuz the days!

Anyway, what are you fucking around at? Get a thread up with some pics of your sexy guitar collection!

[Rsmacker]

Oh, and yes, I am doing precisely fuck all work today (or yesterday!), preferring to sit and type huge fucking essays to post here.

I WILL do some quotes today though. Honest.

[Mazrim]

Musical Exchanges was brilliant before they moved downstairs, when all the guitars were crammed into that front corner on the ground floor, 3 guitars per stand. There were some real finds to be had, it was a musicians' shop. Nowadays, they know every last pick and screw they stock, it is on computer, and that's that. Not many deals to be had there now!
Jones & Crossland used to be my favourite on New St, now long gone. Ah, them wuz the days!

Anyway, what are you fucking around at? Get a thread up with some pics of your sexy guitar collection!

Alas, yes. You walked through the doors and could hear every hack in the midlands banging away on Kramers and the like.
Luckily I was friendly with Ian Danter and Phil the tech guy who worked there at the time. I remember the day I first went in there with the intention actually buying something. I tried an RR1, a Goldtop LP, a Jem and so on and ended up buying an Ibanez RG360. Thats all I could afford I went back a month later and bought a Valvestate 20 watt combo.

Even when they moved downstairs it was cool. Not as charming but 10 times the size. Then it started to suck and then came Sound Control and that was that.

PMT is alright but its just not the same. The great thing about Exchanges was the variety. You never knew what would be in there next time. PMT and Sound Control dont even bother with second hand guitars now for fucks sake.

I still reckon there's a place for an old Musical Exchanges type like shop in Birmingham again. I know ebay takes a lot of second hand guitar business away from shops but guys still like to try before they buy dont they? They cant all want Gibsons and fucking Fenders.