New Love Rock and Getting Her to USA

I would appreciate any info list members could provide on what to look forward to doing a deal with a music store in Japan, then having guitar shipped to USA. I'm looking at buying a new LS200 from Yoshi at Universe, but concerned about the proper secure way to send his money, and to assure that new Tokai is not anything short of factory mint condition upon arrival here. I read in one post about a new Love Rock with some minor scratches on back, possibly from photo shoot, and want to avoid that problem. I wonder if the specific guitar purchased could be hand picked by a friend or relative in Japan?

Hey Ramsale,

I bought my LS-200 at Guitar Universe so maybe i could be some help.

If you decide to buy a guitar from him, he will send a secured link to enter your credit card information. Just like buying something online. (If you use Microsoft Internet explorer, check to see that there is the little yellow padlock on the lower right of the screen when you're at that link.) Real simple and painless.

I had a few very light scratches on the back of mine as well but i took that Dunlop 65 carnuba wax and it took them out. Very light handling scratches, gone with some wax.

I thought he quoted me about $200 to ship a guitar to the states, but i just noticed that he is the one that is selling all the tokai's, greco's, orville's, aria's, etc on eBay and he is quoting $106 shipping to states. $106 is a good price. It is much faster than if I sent it USPS from the military base i'm at and it's only $20-30 more if he sent it.

I dont think there would be any problem if you had someone look it over at the store. I'm not sure how many LS-200's he has.

It does come with a hardshell case which is very nice and a good measure of safety when shipped.

I think it you will get a guitar that as fresh as probably you can get. I too was a little leery of getting a banged up guitar, but besides the very light scratches on the back, it was perfect. Maybe the scratches werent even from him, could be from factory. Like i said before, wax took them right out.

Well, i'm out the door for a party, i'll check in later.

Good luck!
Dana

Just remembered, also inquire about duty fees, import taxes, i cant remember what they're called. That could be why i was quoted that much. There is a 5% consumption tax (equivalent to our sales tax) in Japan.

Also the yen to $ rate isnt so good now. ?117 - $1. It was around ?127 - $1 when i bought mine.

Dana

Dana: Thanks for info. I have son and brother in Japan soon and might have one of them check out the store... I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

Sending an international postal money order is cheaper but safe and it takes a week reaching Japan.Dealing with Yoshi is no problem,don,t worry about.

I have some time, so maybe I'll send the money order instead of plastic. I'm just torn on the choices of neck profile and model. I really think the 200 series is beautiful, but am also looking at the Universe "Limited" for half the money in the satin finish, which is also very attractive.... Choices, ya gotta love it...

I just looked at that "limited" model they have online. Very interesting. I'm sure you'll get the same top notch craftsmanship, just different materials. And i'm sure you'll have no problem finding something to do with the extra cash you'll save.

I wonder if it's just rosewood fretboard and a plain maple top (or a laminate i think), instead of ebony fretboard and flamed maple top on the LS-200. Oh yeah, the open humbuckers as well. Comes with a nice case too.

Too many decisions indeed! :wink:

Dana

One way I have dealt with sending credit card info overseas is to send 4 to 5 seperate emails with your credit card info: example:
first email: 444-xxx-xxxx-xxxx
second: xxx-555-xxxx-xxxx
etc. etc.
Seems to work? Haven't had my identitiy taken yet....
but if they did, they'd owe a lot of money! :lol:

I did a direct wire transfer when I bought mine from Yoshi. He sent me his bank details, I gave them to my bank and they handled it for a charge of ?15.

A hardcase is esential, I think.

I had some similar scratches on mine when I got it, but they were easy to poilish out - I was told not to use wax by a luthier who said that the laquer was very thin on the LS200's and it could get wiped off.

I also had some laquer damage - small cracks at the neck joint and around the 3-way switch. Hadly noticeable, but there. You pay your money and make your choice - I knew the risks of long-distance blind buying and can put up with such superficial damage.

Paladin2019 said:

I did a direct wire transfer when I bought mine from Yoshi. He sent me his bank details, I gave them to my bank and they handled it for a charge of ?15.
I also had some laquer damage - small cracks at the neck joint and around the 3-way switch. Hadly noticeable, but there. You pay your money and make your choice - I knew the risks of long-distance blind buying and can put up with such superficial damage.

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I had a couple of questions, what store is Yoshi from? Universe, and do you have the web address? Also, which cleaners are recommended for thes finishes? Thanks for the info!

Here is the web address for Yoshi at Guitar Universe:

http://www.cyborg.ne.jp/~universe/unihome.html

I use the Dunlop 65 care kit. I've heard of people using NuFinish on nitro tops, MacGuire's polish of some kind, and something by Dupont.

Dana

Dana said:

Here is the web address for Yoshi at Guitar Universe:

http://www.cyborg.ne.jp/~universe/unihome.html

I use the Dunlop 65 care kit. I've heard of people using NuFinish on nitro tops, MacGuire's polish of some kind, and something by Dupont.

Dana

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Thanks for the info!