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Aussie's experience with buying basses from USA?

U

ual

Aug 12, 2010
86
0
Perth
#1
Hey guys :) I have my heart set on a MusicMan Stingray as I just recently played a couple and they were mind blowingly kick ass and I'm considering importing one (a Classic) from the US (since our dollar is so strong it'd be stupid not to buy from USA since it's so much cheaper) but I'm wondering what's everyone's experience with importing in from America? What I'm mainly wondering about is a) is it common for them to go missing/take too long/get damaged and b) how long would it take?

I also see that TB'ers get a 5% discount from Bass Centre so I'll probably order through them if that discount also applies to me.

Thanks :)

P.S. I'm mainly directing this post towards Aussies/Kiwis (derpthreadtitle) but anyone outside of the US who has imported is defintely welcome to post, I'll appreciate it just as much.
 
#2
As far as I know, no authorized US EBMM retailer will sell an EBMM instrument and ship it out of the US. New, you will have to buy one through an Australian dealer.

Your best bet is to find a used one here, and have the seller ship it to you. Customs will be a lot, but will quite likely be less than buying one in a Australian store.
 
#3
Anything over AUD1,000 attracts import duty, under $1,000 - nothing.

Otherwise there shouldn't be any problems shipping the bass, particularly if it's new in the box. The shipping is not cheap.

So, you'll pay: bass (possibly minus 5%) + import duty + shipping = price
 
#4
I live in Brisbane and have purchased several basses from talk bass members from the US, and I must say they have been very easy to deal with and have taken great care in packing. So in my case all good experiences. Also I spoke to the guys at bass central and they are very helpfull too.Good luck with your purchase.
 
#5
Cheers guys, I just emailed BassCentral about it so hopefully they can confirm whether they ship EBMM basses to Australia or not.

@zola, I think I might try to find one on TB first if I possibly can, thanks for your input. One thing, could you give me a rough timeframe it took for the basses to arrive from the US?
 
#8
zola07 said:
Well where I used one of the main carriers I had then within seven days, but that cost around 400 dollars us. I now get them pulled down and sent by US mail for under 200 us dollars and get them usually within ten days. Its worth waiting.
Click to expand...

Really, that fast? Here I was assuming it'd be one of those 4-6 week jobs haha
 
#10
Another problem with ordering overseas is dealer restrictions (e.g can't ship a certain brand outside of US). But a way to get around that is to use a post forwarding company who will buy it for you and ship it over. I've used priceusa.com.au before and they were good to deal with but there's a few others out there
 
#11
if you arent going to have it sent dissembled (some private sellers may not be comfortable taking the neck off...) make sure that you ship the bass in a hardshell case as well as all the usual packing materials. i bought a bass from the US and it cost me about 120 to ship it in its HSC and arrived within 2 weeks.

if you can swing it with the seller and want to take the risk, ask the seller to mark the value under 1000. i chose this as the bass i bought was valued at about 1100 and i was willing to risk losing $100 in an insurance claim and avoid paying what would amount to about $250 to $300 in duties and processing fees.
 
#13
I had a mate import an axe from the US; it was picked up by customs. Due to the fact that it was a wood product, it was sent to an quarantine inspection centre.

He had to foot the bill for the transportation to and from the inspection centre, as well as a fee for the inspection. It ended up costing him an additional approx $800.

At the end of the day, there is a chance that this will not occur; however, you need to have the funds available just in case.

Worse case scenario is that you don't have the money and they incinerate the bass....

There are risks to importing axes.
 
#15
ual said:
Hmm, that seems bizarre that they'd do that for a bass. But what can you do. Cheers for all the help guys, I'll definitely put it to use when the time comes :)
Click to expand...

mine was probably a different scenario,...
actually tried to find a fretless 5 string in all of SA/adelaide,... no go... found out Ibanez make them but not the australian catalague which sucks.

I ended up paying what the recommended price of the bass if it was in australia which included them pretty much making the bass for me as it was out of stock in most places in US or something... had to wait 3 months but its now the only bass I play,...

hopefully things work out for you :)
 
#16
I got my bass from bass central and I live in NZ, but I got my buddy from Albuquerque to grab it on the way back from his Christmas back home, turned out around about a grand cheaper than buying it from the shop, and I got "the" bass with "the" finish I wanted. Also he arrived back in NZ around big day out, so with all the musos there customs didn't look twice at another instrument case. He did shell out for check-in luggage though.

The reason I brought a bass unseen is because of what I had heard about EBMM's reliability, consistency and CS. And although the bass was awesome, in great shape, and is still my true love, it shipped with an intermittent faulty coil on one of the pickups, but because I didn't buy it here they wouldn't let me take it in to an official dealer to get it fixed, however they did let me send the pickup back for a replacement which was only around ten bucks. Lucky I got an HH and it was the neck PU which was faulty so I was able to continue to rock with the classic bridge PU in the meantime. So yeah, beware of bypassing the dealer.
 
#17
ive got a customs form here...boils down to about 5% of the cost, so about $100 plus a sneaky 48.50 they charge you if you want to pay by credit card. thats the basics of it of course it could be quarantined for being a wood product but i dont have any experience with that
 
#18
jordie65 said:
ive got a customs form here...boils down to about 5% of the cost, so about $100 plus a sneaky 48.50 they charge you if you want to pay by credit card. thats the basics of it of course it could be quarantined for being a wood product but i dont have any experience with that
Click to expand...

Ohk, that's tolerable I guess. So buying a brand new EBMM SR4 Classic comes to about $2000 AUD.... which is about 1500 cheaper than what they'd charge you here haha. I might scope out the used market first (if the Classic's even have one yet) :D
 
#19
I imported a Fender Custom Shop P Bass from Bass Central to Germany. The guy at the store (Beaver Felton) was super friendly and helpful all the way :). The bass was also reasonably priced, for US customers, although it worked out very expensive for me :(.

The bass cost nearly $3,000 and shipping (with expensive insurance) was about $400 (IIRC :hmm:). Once it got to Germany, Customs took hold of it and attached a bill to it for 19% of the total (local sales tax), then 4% of that total for Import Tax and then another few Euros for some administration charge :rollno:. Amazingly, I had the bass in my hands within 3 days of ordering it :eek:!

So, the morale here is to check your Government's website and see what it says about sales and import tax. IME of importing stuff (from Japan and the USA), it somehow always costs just that bit more than you'd reckoned on :p.

Incidentally, have you seen this really cool MusicMan expert/enthusiast website yet? Link Removed

It's not the 'official' Ernie Ball one, but is run by a private collector in Australia (Gavin, is his name - top bloke! ;)) and is a great place to learn more about the history of these outstanding basses :) .....
 

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