Help buying a guitar - UK.

[jonajon91]

A friend of mine is buying his first eight string over the coming months. The way he is doing it is buying it through the school because schools don't have to pay VAT on anything (wahay 20% off!).

Now after a good few months of shopping around, seriously, it's become a hobby of ours, his heart seems to be set on this Agile 827.

His problem though is that due to the smallprint, the school wont buy outside of the UK. We tried to think of ways around this and we thought that our local(ish) guitar shop would be able to ship one in and then the school gets it from the guitar shop, but they wont ship it in because there is nothing in it for them (why would they?)

So I come to you for help.
How could we work around this / get the school to get this guitar somehow.

If the worst comes to the worst, what guitar shops are there in the UK that are likely to stock a few 8 strings. I'm thinking somewhere quite specialist like THIS, but for guitars.

Cheers

 

[TimSE]

You can't get an Agile in the UK and definitely not from the Assisted Purchase Scheme. I work in music retail and have been dealing with Rondo directly for exclusive distribution rights but it fell through. Very gutting!

So the short answer is no.
You will have to get an 8 string from a UK store as you cannot buy outside of the UK due to the schemes T&Cs.
You're best option is either Nevada Music or Andertons:
Electric Guitars, Bass Guitars, Amps, Drums, Keyboards & Effects - Nevada Music
https://www.andertons.co.uk

Don't go to Denmark street in London. They will rip you off because they can.

 

[jonajon91]

Really? Denmark street is bad? I went there when I was about 13 and I didn't really know what I was doing, but everything seemed great at the time.

 

[Winspear]

It's a really expensive place. Nice selection of instruments for sure but they will indeed rip you off.
I'm having some work done right now on a bass by a guy there just because it's local and I know I can trust him, and it's quite expensive.