Telecasters

[38thBeatle]

Yes if you import stuff to the UK from Warmoth you will probably incur import duty plus VAT.

Someone asked about the MIM Tele's- in my opinion they are pretty damn good. I am not saying that because I have one-ok well maybe I am but when I bought mine, it was from an idiot who wanted a stupidly low price for it. I didn't spend too much time thinking about it as I figured that for that money, I could probably spend cash fixing it up and still be quids in. In fact, I found it to be a well made guitar with great finish and playability. A pickup swap was all it needed to turn it from a good guitar to a tone beast.
I used to use it for noodling around on at home-as often as not it was played acoustically and then I recently bought a small 10 Laney Cub amp and wanted to try all my guitars out on it.The Tele sounded so damn good that I took it to a gig that night and I wondered what the hell I was doing leaving it at home. Since then, it has been to every gig and I am doing a small solo spot of original material next week and the Tele is lined up to be my weapon of choice.

In conclusion, a MIM Tele is good value and I think would hold its own against a Japanese model- certainly mine does and I have played many Teles over the years-maybe not quite as many as I have Strats but a very close second.
One final point(and I think I may have mentioned this before) is that I blind tested my Tele against an old one a few years back- where I recorded both in a studio I was working in. We had a hard time telling them apart when listening back- that was shortly after the Country Boys were installed.

[Philly Q]

I'm actually curious about this. I know Warmoth P&P is like $100 to the UK. But do you have to pay anything extra to have it shipped to the UK in terms of import fees, etc?

Having bought a LOT of Warmoth parts ( :lol: ), I can safely say that yes, you will have to pay VAT at 20%, plus import duty and the courier's admin fees.

If you buy a neck that's, say, £200 including shipping, the import costs will add nearly £50 on top of that.

[Keven]

I wonder how warmoth works for canada. it's not like the wood goes overseas when going to me!

[Philly Q]

I wonder how warmoth works for canada. it's not like the wood goes overseas when going to me!

Do you normally have to pay import taxes/charges if you buy from the US?

I may be wrong, but my impression from studying (mostly) Japanese dealers' ads on eBay, reading forums etc is that people in the USA don't normally have to pay any charges on imports?  Which, if true, is surprising.

[Keven]

it all depends. i've had to pay import for my biasrite which i bought from the us but was delivered through ups. I've had to pay duty on my first BKP order which also had t-shirts. but on my subsequent 2 orders it all went through easily.

i bought quite a bit of parts and kits to build effect pedals and never had to pay duty. just shipping.

i think it has to do with the size of the package. one small box won't do much, but a bigger thing like a guitar might attract attention and thus duty charge?

[dani]

i humbly suggest giving tommy over at usa custom guitars a call. quality of wood and workmanship is top notched plus they believe in tap tuning the body and neck wood to ensure nothing goes out of whack.

did i mentioned tommy is a really nice guy to work with?

alternatively, i will choose to go with mij fenders if brand name is a must. more consistent in workmanship over the mia or mim.

[Nephilim]

i humbly suggest giving tommy over at usa custom guitars a call. quality of wood and workmanship is top notched plus they believe in tap tuning the body and neck wood to ensure nothing goes out of whack.

did i mentioned tommy is a really nice guy to work with?

alternatively, i will choose to go with mij fenders if brand name is a must. more consistent in workmanship over the mia or mim.

Does he only do the body shapes he's advertised on his website? Or does he do other body shapes like the soloist, etc?

[Keven]

i did forget about USACG!

thanks!

[dani]

@ nephilim: i believe that is all they do but give tommy a call and see if they can cut what you want.

@ keven: no worries buddy. glad to be of help.

[Nephilim]

@ nephilim: i believe that is all they do but give tommy a call and see if they can cut what you want.

@ keven: no worries buddy. glad to be of help.

I've just emailed him since being in the UK. Its just more of a Soloist shape that I wanted to improve upper fret access, so it's nothing like a really complex design. Cheers neways :)