GibsonWarrior Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Since Gibson pulled away from the longtime importer in the UK - Rosetti, New Epi guitars (and Gibsons) are scarce on the ground to say the least. I have noticed this trend is the same in the larger European stores too. Elitists are completely ungettable!! Trawling the net i notice that Epi guitars are much more plentiful over the pond, with Elitist and JL Casinos plentiful. With all the major US stores unable to export to the UK this gives us in the UK a real bad deal. Why is the US market full of them yet we dont see any? Plus dealers cant get hold of them or even state when they will arrive. Does anyone know if this is set to continue or are Epi guitars (Especially the Elitist & JL casinos) going to be making their way to our shores soon?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bob Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 The situation has been like this for some time (ever since Rosetti lost whatever contract they had - when local dealers could order in ones and twos from Rosetti; at a price, but it was a least possible to see and play them first) and now seems to be getting worse. I have ordered from both GAK and Thomann in the past and had good results from both, but it means that effectively Epiphone is only available by 'mail order' now from these two dealers. I suppose Gibson must like this arrangement, but if they wanted to force willing Epi buyers to consider other makes (I've bought from Aria and Ibanez when I would have preferred to at least sample an Epi) they couldn't have planned it better. I've found the general standard of Epi's to be worth the extra trouble of searching them out, but it doesn't make sense - at least not to me. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkuss Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Since the change I've hardly seen any new Epiphones. In Glasgow there's one official dealer (guitar guitar) but to be honest I'd prefer to buy second hand Epiphones than pay the high price for a new one that's made in china. I think it will become harder to get a good quality epiphone in the U.K as less and less shops can afford the mass order deals gibson are offering. I'm lucky that I've managed to seek out two elitists in good condition. If the exchange rate improves I'd like to import a couple of guitars from america again but at the moment it's quite tough with the shipping taxes and low exchange rate. The Elitist Casinos (limited stocks) will be available in the UK this summer for £1000. My advice would be to start saving because they're well worth the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewy1281734128 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 play the guitar first wherever you can and buy online, ive had good experiences with GAK. although the bridges needed filing down, kept on snapping strings on a dot and a sherry. plus they're cheaper than stores, with an epi hard case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AS90 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Dawson's have a new contract to stock Gibson and Epiphone. They have stores in Altrincham, Bangor, Basingstoke, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading, Stockport & Warrington. http://www.dawsons.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AldoMcD1 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Since the change I've hardly seen any new Epiphones. In Glasgow there's one official dealer (guitar guitar) but to be honest I'd prefer to buy second hand Epiphones than pay the high price for a new one that's made in china. I think it will become harder to get a good quality epiphone in the U.K as less and less shops can afford the mass order deals gibson are offering. I'm lucky that I've managed to seek out two elitists in good condition. If the exchange rate improves I'd like to import a couple of guitars from america again but at the moment it's quite tough with the shipping taxes and low exchange rate. The Elitist Casinos (limited stocks) will be available in the UK this summer for £1000. My advice would be to start saving because they're well worth the money. Reverb in Jamaica Street are also an official Epiphone dealer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkuss Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 If they are then they're not doing a very good job of it. They have about 2-3 Epiphones and half a dozen Gibsons. I hope they turn that place around because it's a waste of good guitar selling space. Hopefully once they've tied up loose ends from Soundcontrol they'll be able to turn it into a good, well stocked guitar shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slasher1319 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 they have decreased but a way for u to locate some could be by www.amazon.co.uk. if u dont like this then u can look at the sources of the guitars from amazon.co.uk and actually got to the store to see and/or buy the guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjones200x Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 When i went to get my kramer striker (Gibson owned) I tried every possible company i could find listed on the net to get what i wanted. Each one i spoke to said its gibson not giving any dates to a delivery due to all the distribution changing recently. I ordered my guitar from GAK as ive used them before in the past and have been very happy however there estimated (at the earliest) despach date to me was october 2009! They said to me Gibson where a knightmare to deal with. My local shop refuses to deal with Gibson in anyway due to there odd contract clauses like having to stock the whole range and so on ect. He deals with yamaha and said they are easy and straight forward and you get what you want. Seems like other large companies can do it.?? Anyhow i havent noticed the epi's going out of stock yet but i found out that getting anything in the UK from Gibson was very hard and very hard to get a def answer on an arrival date. P.S. Got the Kramer striker from HWmusic megastore in the end. Also very helpfull. They are similar to GAK in a way and there service was great. Link if anyone wanna check out there site, (I dont work for them before you ask just a good alternative to GAK imo) http://www.hwaudio.co.uk/index.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewy1281734128 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Dawson's have a new contract to stock Gibson and Epiphone. They have stores in Altrincham' date=' Bangor, Basingstoke, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading, Stockport & Warrington. http://www.dawsons.co.uk/[/quote'] and they do the take it away scheme, i.e. you pay 10%, take the guitar away with you and pay the rest off over 9 months, interest free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkuss Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 There's an Epi Elite Les Paul on ebay at the moment £450 +£35 p&p. great guitars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggy Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Dawson's have a new contract to stock Gibson and Epiphone. They have stores in Altrincham' date=' Bangor, Basingstoke, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading, Stockport & Warrington. http://www.dawsons.co.uk/[/quote'] Basingstoke store has about three Gibsons (LP, 335 and a Melody Maker) plus a couple of Epi LP's and a 310. Frankly nothing to get excited about. If you're local to the area you'd be better off going to Andertons in Guildford or Guitar Village in Farnham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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