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An Aussie buying from musicians friend


tpurgatoryt

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I was looking around on musicians friend, and alot of the guitars in the used section ship to australia (where as alot of the brand new guitars dont)

 

would it be a bad idea to buy a used guitar from america?

i assume it would have to past some sort of "quality control" so they know

its deffinatly playable, and they tell you and show you the extent of the

damage if there is any, which is usually only light scrathes.

 

I was looking at en Epi LP Plus top pro fx for $399 plus $71 p&h which in totalt is $470, but in AUD is $460.

 

And for that guitar in store in australia is about $700 - 800

 

Its unbeleivably tempting... [drool]

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I was looking around on musicians friend, and alot of the guitars in the used section ship to australia (where as alot of the brand new guitars dont)

 

would it be a bad idea to buy a used guitar from america?

i assume it would have to past some sort of "quality control" so they know

its deffinatly playable, and they tell you and show you the extent of the

damage if there is any, which is usually only light scrathes.

 

I was looking at en Epi LP Plus top pro fx for $399 plus $71 p&h which in totalt is $470, but in AUD is $460.

 

And for that guitar in store in australia is about $700 - 800

 

Its unbeleivably tempting... [drool]

It's a great idea IMHO, most recent thing I got from them was an Egnater Tweaker valve amp, wanted one for ages, cheapest I could find in Oz was $599, got it from MF for like $420 or something, including shipping, THIS THREAD will shed a little more light on that. Thing is if you buy anything electrical, make sure it can handle our 240V, the Tweaker has a 115V - 230V transformer, just a matter of flicking a switch.

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From what I read of the prices you Ozzies have to pay, I think it is bad for you to buy ANYWHERE!

 

Kidding aside, RASTUS is the man to hear from. He has experience in these matters.

 

I don't understand the reasons why in Australia the prices are so inflated, and certainly is has more to do with the MAN there than shipping and exchange rates.

 

Of corse you may have to give up such things a warrenty stuff and so forth, but sometimes you just have to stick it to the man.

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It's a great idea IMHO, most recent thing I got from them was an Egnater Tweaker valve amp, wanted one for ages, cheapest I could find in Oz was $599, got it from MF for like $420 or something, including shipping, THIS THREAD will shed a little more light on that. Thing is if you buy anything electrical, make sure it can handle our 240V, the Tweaker has a 115V - 230V transformer, just a matter of flicking a switch.

 

Anything electrical meaning sotmhing that needs to be plugged into a power outlet yeah? not a guitar itself right?

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Anything electrical meaning sotmhing that needs to be plugged into a power outlet yeah? not a guitar itself right?

Yeah mate, probably should have expanded that a little.

 

Another great source for guitars is Guitar Fetish, they come already with Alpha pots and switches, GFS (their own brand) pups and Tusq nuts, so most of the mods many do to their Epis have already been taken care of.

 

GFS Site

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I was looking around on musicians friend, and alot of the guitars in the used section ship to australia (where as alot of the brand new guitars dont)

 

would it be a bad idea to buy a used guitar from america?

i assume it would have to past some sort of "quality control" so they know

its deffinatly playable, and they tell you and show you the extent of the

damage if there is any, which is usually only light scrathes.

 

I was looking at en Epi LP Plus top pro fx for $399 plus $71 p&h which in totalt is $470, but in AUD is $460.

 

And for that guitar in store in australia is about $700 - 800

 

Its unbeleivably tempting... [drool]

 

Hi tpurgatoryt,

 

I work at Musician's Friend. All of our used gear goes through an inspection prior to being made available for sale. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to email me at forums@musiciansfriend.com and I'll be happy to help.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Baker

Night Supervisor

Musician's Friend

1-800-449-9128

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Hi tpurgatoryt,

 

I work at Musician's Friend. All of our used gear goes through an inspection prior to being made available for sale. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to email me at forums@musiciansfriend.com and I'll be happy to help.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Baker

Night Supervisor

Musician's Friend

1-800-449-9128

Hi Chris and welcome here, the only problem I have with MF is their use of UPS for shipping, they are absolutely useless at international shipping, please give a USPS option, and you'd have more of my money than I do, LOL.

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Nice guitar you have there.

 

Yeah i looked at there site but nothing I really fancy.

They have a whole bunch of just about every Epi, Gibson and Fender guitar equivalent available, and as I said, most of the stuff people upgrade on their Epi has already been done. I'd prefer an Epi for a lot of it too, but if you ever want to save money, that's one very good option, I'm on a pension, so money matters to me big time.

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Hi Chris and welcome here, the only problem I have with MF is their use of UPS for shipping, they are absolutely useless at international shipping, please give a USPS option, and you'd have more of my money than I do, LOL.

 

RaSTuS,

I'll make sure the right people get your feedback. I know we get a lot of people asking for this, so it may be an option soon.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Baker

Night Supervisor

Musician's Friend

1-800-449-9128

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Hi Chris and welcome here, the only problem I have with MF is their use of UPS for shipping, they are absolutely useless at international shipping, please give a USPS option, and you'd have more of my money than I do, LOL.

 

how BAD are they? because at the moment MF is looking like my first and easiest option to get guitars from america? like so long as theyve never lost your guitars and such.

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Hi Chris and welcome here, the only problem I have with MF is their use of UPS for shipping, they are absolutely useless at international shipping, please give a USPS option, and you'd have more of my money than I do, LOL.

 

Also what's their packagin like?

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They are truly woeful, they always get it wrong going through customs and end up costing you way more than needs be, not only in money, but also in time. That Egnater amp got here from the US less than 3 days from when I paid for it, then it sat in Sydney for more than 2 weeks, I can not advise against them strongly enough.

 

The only shipping company I've ever had problems with, not only that, but every time they were involved, they ballsed it up (at least 10 times), and in a very big way, STAY AWAY from them. They never once got it done correctly.

 

EDIT: the packaging is basically however the product is packaged from the manufacturers, so it depends on the manufacturer. Epi isn't packaged all that great, but still on par with most of the other guitar dudes. A lot of the guitars I have bought in were second hand, by which I mean, more than 10 years old. There's a link to "Some of my collection" in my signature.

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They are truly woeful, they always get it wrong going through customs and end up costing you way more than needs be, not only in money, but also in time. That Egnater amp got here from the US less than 3 days from when I paid for it, then it sat in Sydney for more than 2 weeks, I can not advise against them strongly enough.

 

The only shipping company I've ever had problems with, not only that, but every time they were involved, they ballsed it up (at least 10 times), and in a very big way, STAY AWAY from them. They never once got it done correctly.

 

there goes my hope of getting a epi from america [crying]

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Not really, several things can be done to help mitigate their incompetence, have the guitar listed as "a solid body electric guitar", this means that the guys in customs are far less likely to want to quarantine it for fumigation, nearly every acoustic guitar will be quarantined due to all the open wood involved, so if it's simply listed as "guitar" in the description they are more likely to open it and check it, because the term is just way too ambiguous, and pray like crazy.

 

There are other companies who don't use UPS for shipping too.

 

BTW: see the EDIT in my previous post.

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RaSTuS,

I'll make sure the right people get your feedback. I know we get a lot of people asking for this, so it may be an option soon.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Baker

Thanks very much for the quick reply Chris, I have had a similar discussion with another of your guys, can't remember the full details off hand, all that stuff is on my crashed hard disk, but the more you guys are aware of the incompetence of UPS in international shipping, the better, I sincerely hope this is indeed something that is reviewed by you (collectively), it is a major stumbling block in any further business I (and many others I know of) conduct with your company. Thanks again for the reply.

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Not really, several things can be done to help mitigate their incompetence, have the guitar listed as "a solid body electric guitar", this means that the guys in customs are far less likely to want to quarantine it for fumigation, nearly every acoustic guitar will be quarantined due to all the open wood involved, so if it's simply listed as "guitar" in the description they are more likely to open it and check it, because the term is just way too ambiguous, and pray like crazy.

 

There are other companies who don't use UPS for shipping too.

 

BTW: see the EDIT in my previous post.

 

How would i go about them listing the packagin as such?

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