Ordering guitars from Tokai in America - import fees?

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aroomstudios

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I have contacted Tokai and they will sell me a guitar direct to America. Question is have any of you guys in America ordered direct from them? If so do you have to pay import fees once it gets to the States? I have ordered several guitars from Japan and other countries before and not paid import fees but all of the guitars were used from Ebay or Reverb. I know at least on some of them the seller wrote gift or undervalued the guitar so that may have been why there was no fees. I am sure Tokai will declare the full value of the guitar. So, I just want to find out first if I may get hit with a big import fee.
 
That is what I figured. I have gotten two items from Japan in the past year no fees. I did read online that it is only 6% if I do get fees from Japan to US for musical instruments. So, either way it is not too bad.
 
8.5% duty based on declared value & a $11 inspection fee so, for (example) a $1K guitar would be $85 + $11 = $96.

I haven't been hit with a duty in quite some time but when they do charge (some times) the box is opened & re-taped with US Customs printed tape.

You can only insure the item during shipment for up to the declared value.
If you have your seller undervalue the declared value, and the item gets damaged, then you could be stuck with a much lower insurance $$$.

I always have mine declared for actual value as I don't care to take the gamble.
 
Okay, thanks guys. I just ordered two guitars from Tokai (or started the order process today should be done in a day or two once I send over the payment). One is ready to ship and one is custom to my specs. I think these will be sent from Tokai at different times. So, if I do get hit with fees should only be for one of the two. But from what I see it would be very unlikely that I will even get a fee for one of them.
 
aroomstudios said:
Okay, thanks guys. I just ordered two guitars from Tokai (or started the order process today should be done in a day or two once I send over the payment). One is ready to ship and one is custom to my specs. I think these will be sent from Tokai at different times. So, if I do get hit with fees should only be for one of the two. But from what I see it would be very unlikely that I will even get a fee for one of them.


What did you order? Would love to see them
 
Stock one:

http://www.theguitarshop.jp/e_bass/e_bass1.html

The APB-COBRA YUICHI MODEL in white with rosewood fretboard.

The custom one is a ATE with SEB (ash/ash/ash) and upgraded pretty much everything in a nitro finish.

I will post pictures when I get them.
 
Got the guitars paid. There is a 3 week wait time to complete the CITES paper work as the bass has rosewood on it. So, I will get the bass in about a month. The custom ATE (tele) will take about 5-6 months to make.
 
Yeah, 5-6 months is longer than I though it would take. But that is okay though. This is the specs I got on it. Locking tuners, titanium bridge etc:

Basic Model: ATE98B OTM (Ocean Turquoise Metalic) US$740.00
(with Tokai Gig Bag)
SEB body: Ash+Ash+Ash +236.00
Canadian Hardmaple: +0
Canadian Hardmaple Fretboard: +0
Bridge: Gotoh Ti-TC1 Ni +19.00
Tuner: Gotoh SD91 MG-T Ni +19.00
Nut: Bone +0
Fretboard: 9.5 inche Radius +0
Pickups TE-Vintage MK3 (alnico 5) +0
Orange Drop Caps: +9.00
Controls: 1V, 1T, 3 Way Switch +0
The additional cost of the headstock top painting in OTM is +48.00
nitrocellulose finish +189.00
Sub-Total US$1,260.00

Tokai Tweed Hardshell Case: +95.00
Air Freight (EMS) with Hardshell Case: 170.00
With HSC and SH $1,525
 
Just got the Tokai APB-COBRA model bass. This thing is so much better than I though it would be.

315fy45.jpg
 
aroomstudios said:
Just got the Tokai APB-COBRA model bass. This thing is so much better than I though it would be.

315fy45.jpg

Wow, looks great!

Thanks for all the info on your purchase. Can you tell us who/what email address you contacted to place the order?

Are there any more details you can provide about their ordering process? I'm pretty interested myself and there's no ot her info about ordering direct from Tokai on the internet. Anything you can provide would be great!
 
Just sent you a PM @tureen.hurray


Contact form

http://www.tokaijapan.com/postmail-utf/postmail.html

Email

[email protected]

The guy that will get back to you is Shohei Adachi he is the President of Tokai. There is no minimum order and shipping is per guitar so you cannot get 2 guitars shipped in one box to save money or anything.

Tokai's Japan website below (this has everything on it) use this website with Chrome and it will translate it to English for you. The USA website only has 2 or so guitars on it. The Japan one has 30+ on it.

https://www.theguitarshop.jp/knowledge/knowledge1.html

You will see the price for stuff in Yen I think that is list price your price will be about 80% of that. Shipping to America was around $120-$150 or so per guitar. Depending on Hard or soft case as more weight is added. There is also a $50 CITIS fee if you get anything with rosewood on it. This takes 3-4 weeks to process. By bass had rosewood on it the tele I custom ordered did not.

Vol 30 catalog here (2018 catalog)

https://www.theguitarshop.jp/catalogue/catalogue-html/catalogue-page.html

You can order anything custom. Say you want the guitar nitro finish, or a custom color, SEB (http://www.tokaijapan.com/sebstructure.html) etc they can do it.
 

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