Bringing a guitar from US to UK

[SomeguyUK]

Hi all,

So I'm going on a trip to the states soon, and I'm thinking of buying a guitar over there. Might as well take advantage of the exchange rate and save a few hundred quid.

If I do it, I'm gonna be getting something really nice - I'm talking £1000+ worth of guitar.

However (apart from the problem of getting the guitar back in one piece), I'm worried about getting a guitar through customs without paying tax etc.

Has anyone here actually done this before? Did you get pulled up for bringing a new guitar back?

[TheyCallMeVolume]

You'd have much more trouble with an old guitar seeing as it might have now-banned woods, ie Brazilian Rosewood. I don't think you'll have too much of a problem though, but I'm not the most experienced here as I've never gone across the pond. Just think though, plenty of bands travel overseas with all their gear and have no problem.

[Philosoful]

I took my Conklin back about 3 years ago and laughed at how easy everything was ;)

[Hammerheart]

Post all the price tags labels and receipts ahead of yourself. Nothing is going to get you caught but price tags dangling about :D

[gordiji]

Take a guitar with you(cheapy) & part ex it for something nice. If customs bother you say its your guitar that went out with you.

[Nadz1lla]

"It was a gift from my Aunt. Suck it, customs dude!"

or

"Yeah I'm in a band, I accidentally left this at another band's house that I was staying at while we toured over there, so on this, my yearly visit overseas, I picked it back up again. Man, I've missed my axe!"

If they didn't see you buy it, they have no proof. 

[AndyR]

"... Suck it, customs dude!"

:lol:

Probably leave this bit out for best results!

[richard]

I just took a look at PRS and Tyler guitars on Google and it was a matter of seconds to find out how to date them by serial number. If I can do it so can Customs. You might need a good story and strong nerves.

[Philly Q]

I just took a look at PRS and Tyler guitars on Google and it was a matter of seconds to find out how to date them by serial number. If I can do it so can Customs. You might need a good story and strong nerves.

Now I'm imagining HMRC employing guitar experts to catch out would-be smugglers.  You could have a nice little guitar chat.... before stumping up your VAT, import duty and penalties.

[darkbluemurder]

You'd have much more trouble with an old guitar seeing as it might have now-banned woods, ie Brazilian Rosewood. I don't think you'll have too much of a problem though, but I'm not the most experienced here as I've never gone across the pond. Just think though, plenty of bands travel overseas with all their gear and have no problem.

An ever increasing number of artists have a rig in the Americas and Europe to avoid excessive transportation costs and the customs/VAT issues - at the expense of dual equimpment and related maintenance costs. If you travel with the instrument you from outside the EU you can bring the stuff into the EU on a temporary customs basis, thereby avoiding customs and VAT (paperwork though).

The banned wood issue is real, though. Customs clerks are becoming more and more aware of it and learn how to decipher serial numbers and make sense of them. If they can do that for detecting banned woods they should also be able to do it for verifying any story presented to them.

Cheers Stephan

[Brow]

Now I'm imagining HMRC employing guitar experts to catch out would-be smugglers.  You could have a nice little guitar chat.... before stumping up your VAT, import duty and penalties.

Apparently they were starting to do this a while ago.

So as to stop people taking out a Squier and bringing back a Custom Shop Fender for example.

[Alex]

I relocated once from the US to Germany. Part of me moving - no questions asked.

Edit: Obviously I didn't have a tourist visa for either country though.