Ordered from Japan recently?

[soliloquy]

Not sure if anyone else has been having any issues with ordering out of Japan. Folks on the mylespaul forum have been having lots of issues when ordering from Japan, mainly in shipping.
Apparently Japan is being very strict with the rosewood ban, and its impacting anything leaving the country.

Even if guitars dont have any rosewood in them, they are gettting hit with lots of shipping delays, or shipping cancelations.

I'm wondering if anyone else on this site has come across that?

I ask as a guitar i'm interested in popped up on reverb. debating...

 

[MaxOfMetal]

@narad has mentioned how messed up Japanese shipping is since the pandemic.

 

[soliloquy]

for reference:
https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/tutorial-on-japanese-guitar-auctions-and-importing.452468/
https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/rosewood-from-japan.452853/#post-9834376
https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/wtf-is-going-on-with-shipping-from-japan.452483/

 

[AltecGreen]

I just bought a bass from Japan last week. No issues other than needing some paperwork on the US side once it reached US customs. It took 3days from shipping to arrive. Shipped via FedEx. This was expensive but so was the bass.

A friend recently bought a guitar from Kurosawa and it reached him in five days from ordering to the US with no issues. His guitar had a rosewood fretboard. Also shipped via FedEx.

I’ve received a few other non-guitar things from Japan this week also with no issues. It’s usually 3-4 days from shipping to arrival.


The proxy services always seem to have issues with guitar paperwork even pre-COVID. EMS made this easier because there seems to be less scrutiny with EMS. In the two cases above with instruments, they were purchased from a big dealer, Ikebe in my case and Kurosawa in the other. DHL and FedEx have been reliable from Japan but it costs more.

If costs is a worry, then wait till EMS is back online before buying from Japan.

 

[JimF]

That's strange as CITES has excluded musical instruments from the rosewood shenanigans last year.

 

[AltecGreen]

That's strange as CITES has excluded musical instruments from the rosewood shenanigans last year.

It is excluded but the forms when shipping still need to be filled out. A lot of the proxy services do not want to deal with the paperwork. It also seems like the requirements vary from shipping service to shipping service.

The OP referenced a thread where the proxy service, Zenmarket, would not ship the guitar via FedEx due to paperwork issues but could ship it surface or DHL. The buyer was wary of DHL costs. I would have chosen DHL from the beginning rather than FedEx. I have had to do more paperwork with FedEx than any other service.

 

[narad]

Not sure if anyone else has been having any issues with ordering out of Japan. Folks on the mylespaul forum have been having lots of issues when ordering from Japan, mainly in shipping.
Apparently Japan is being very strict with the rosewood ban, and its impacting anything leaving the country.

Even if guitars dont have any rosewood in them, they are gettting hit with lots of shipping delays, or shipping cancelations.

I'm wondering if anyone else on this site has come across that?

I ask as a guitar i'm interested in popped up on reverb. debating...

Yea, so I had a look at your links. I don't want to be too harsh on the mylespaul guys but they're misreading all the info right in front of them. I have to scoff at the guy who's suggesting they don't know the laws. I've been on the phone with the wood guy in the export office, and he knew more about it than me, which in turn is probably a little bit more than the mylespaul guys since I shipped a ton of my guitars out of Japan the last two years while sizing down. There's nothing changed with regard to rosewood policy, and they're generally more lax now on these things than 2 years ago.

It's not any change with shipping policy -- they're not dealing with the export office, they're dealing with these middlemen resellers that handle the shipping. Not understanding this is the cause of a lot of information regarding guitar export from Japan right now. Why they are incapable of shipping those guitars, I have to speculate, but I imagine it just has to do with avoiding situations that could turn out to be very costly for them, both in terms of real cost, and in man hours. It's not difficult to export a guitar from Japan -- it's quite similar to that of any country -- but that's not always a trivial process either, and I think the export office is pretty diligent overall. I've had phone calls to check up on about 30% of the guitars I've sent out (or at least those valued > $2k which is about the threshold for requiring a stop at the custom clearance office during export). No one did anything wrong in those cases, but it's like, okay, you put down rosewood, can you explain about the species? Who made it? Is there documentation to verify it? etc. It was a very long conversation to explain that I didn't lie when I said there was no wood on the Aristides I was exporting, and it required him reading their promotional info, etc. I assume that's time that the middleman services just can't justify financially. Just my guess.

So where that leaves you is, if the seller is a big chain, you're pretty safe. They know what they're doing. If it's a purchase through a service like buyee, it's super risky right now, and that's sort of regardless of what's in that particular guitar. You might have more luck taking that risk if it's a cheap guitar, maybe below $1500, because it'll likely not go to that office. But I haven't talked to them in about 8 months and shipping policy has changed a lot during covid. Or I imagine there's some middleman service that would take it on, provided it doesn't have brazilian or some actually protected wood, but I don't have any experience with any of them. I generally hate them as they kill my chances at getting good yahoo auction deals.

As @AltecGreen mentions, EMS is the best bet, but EMS valued over ~$2k will still go through that office regardless (or will require the forms for processing there, at least). That's a policy especially enforced by EMS and may be a little bit more luck-of-the-draw with other services. Waiting for that is not so much a solution to this problem IMO, but rather the high ship costs of Fedex/DHL. There was some hope that the olympics would bring a shit-ton of planes in/out of the country and it would clear the EMS backlog, but we just cancelled accepting foreign visitors for the games, so there goes that idea.

Anyway, hope that helps. It's not a great situation, but it's not the situation as described on mylespaul either. And I sympathize, I've been waiting like 10 months to get my ESP to the US for repaint, and 4-5 months to get my IIC to mesa for modding. I have to check every few weeks and it's been stagnant for a long time.

 

[soliloquy]

Yea, so I had a look at your links. I don't want to be too harsh on the mylespaul guys but they're misreading all the info right in front of them. I have to scoff at the guy who's suggesting they don't know the laws. I've been on the phone with the wood guy in the export office, and he knew more about it than me, which in turn is probably a little bit more than the mylespaul guys since I shipped a ton of my guitars out of Japan the last two years while sizing down. There's nothing changed with regard to rosewood policy, and they're generally more lax now on these things than 2 years ago.

It's not any change with shipping policy -- they're not dealing with the export office, they're dealing with these middlemen resellers that handle the shipping. Not understanding this is the cause of a lot of information regarding guitar export from Japan right now. Why they are incapable of shipping those guitars, I have to speculate, but I imagine it just has to do with avoiding situations that could turn out to be very costly for them, both in terms of real cost, and in man hours. It's not difficult to export a guitar from Japan -- it's quite similar to that of any country -- but that's not always a trivial process either, and I think the export office is pretty diligent overall. I've had phone calls to check up on about 30% of the guitars I've sent out (or at least those valued > $2k which is about the threshold for requiring a stop at the custom clearance office during export). No one did anything wrong in those cases, but it's like, okay, you put down rosewood, can you explain about the species? Who made it? Is there documentation to verify it? etc. It was a very long conversation to explain that I didn't lie when I said there was no wood on the Aristides I was exporting, and it required him reading their promotional info, etc. I assume that's time that the middleman services just can't justify financially. Just my guess.

So where that leaves you is, if the seller is a big chain, you're pretty safe. They know what they're doing. If it's a purchase through a service like buyee, it's super risky right now, and that's sort of regardless of what's in that particular guitar. You might have more luck taking that risk if it's a cheap guitar, maybe below $1500, because it'll likely not go to that office. But I haven't talked to them in about 8 months and shipping policy has changed a lot during covid. Or I imagine there's some middleman service that would take it on, provided it doesn't have brazilian or some actually protected wood, but I don't have any experience with any of them. I generally hate them as they kill my chances at getting good yahoo auction deals.

As @AltecGreen mentions, EMS is the best bet, but EMS valued over ~$2k will still go through that office regardless (or will require the forms for processing there, at least). That's a policy especially enforced by EMS and may be a little bit more luck-of-the-draw with other services. Waiting for that is not so much a solution to this problem IMO, but rather the high ship costs of Fedex/DHL. There was some hope that the olympics would bring a shit-ton of planes in/out of the country and it would clear the EMS backlog, but we just cancelled accepting foreign visitors for the games, so there goes that idea.

Anyway, hope that helps. It's not a great situation, but it's not the situation as described on mylespaul either. And I sympathize, I've been waiting like 10 months to get my ESP to the US for repaint, and 4-5 months to get my IIC to mesa for modding. I have to check every few weeks and it's been stagnant for a long time.

Thank you for this!
Since i'm in Canada, my situation maybe a little different than those in the States. I'm also getting conflicting info regarding if EMS is shipping to Canada or not.

The guitar i have in mind is an Edwards costing $950 CAD, and another $150 shipping, so it is less than the price you mentioned above. Gotta save up another week and pull the trigger on it.

Though I wonder if I, too, will run into issues

 

[narad]

Thank you for this!
Since i'm in Canada, my situation maybe a little different than those in the States. I'm also getting conflicting info regarding if EMS is shipping to Canada or not.

The guitar i have in mind is an Edwards costing $950 CAD, and another $150 shipping, so it is less than the price you mentioned above. Gotta save up another week and pull the trigger on it.

Though I wonder if I, too, will run into issues

Ah yea, it does matter. I don't know why, but I could ship a guitar to Australia when I couldn't even ship an amp chassis to California (both via EMS). But I don't know where Canada falls in that since I never asked, and I never saw the information posted -- this always just comes up when I'm talking to them at the post office (for export, JapanPost is basically a front for EMS).

Can you post the listing? It's hard to know without seeing who the seller is. If you can link it back to like Ikebe or Kurosawa (like sometimes even the random users listing things are just themselves listing store stock), you'll be in good hands. If it's just a random guy, I wouldn't bother with it. If it's Edwards, I assume an example of that model should come up again under better circumstances, and the risks and hassle don't seem worthwhile for maybe a 6-12 month lead on the guitar.

 

[soliloquy]

its this one:
https://reverb.com/ca/item/39002994-edwards-esp-eclipse-ma-135c-2015-white-made-in-japan

This particular model doesn't come up too often. There is another one on reverb for significantly more than this. If it was their les paul customs, then i could hold on, but the eclipse on the other hand is somewhat rare.

And I tried looking up the store on google and didn't find their website. So perhaps its just a store selling directly on reverb.

any input on this would be greatly appreciated

 

[MatiasTolkki]

@narad has mentioned how messed up Japanese shipping is since the pandemic.

1. Plandemic.

2. Japan shut down all international shipping for quite awhile, and currently the only ways to ship to the US are DHL and surface through the Japanese post office. Nowhere else is shipping there. Even to Russia, Japan is only allowing surface shipping, and EMS is only working for people in Europe. I know this for a fact because i work for a company that ships overseas right now and I see it every day.

 

[narad]

its this one:
https://reverb.com/ca/item/39002994-edwards-esp-eclipse-ma-135c-2015-white-made-in-japan

This particular model doesn't come up too often. There is another one on reverb for significantly more than this. If it was their les paul customs, then i could hold on, but the eclipse on the other hand is somewhat rare.

And I tried looking up the store on google and didn't find their website. So perhaps its just a store selling directly on reverb.

any input on this would be greatly appreciated

Are you dead-set on the Fishmans? This one has SDs and is priced better and is at BigBoss, who will likely not have any issues shipping it to you.

https://www.digimart.net/cat01/shop58/DS06620532/

The one you posted could still be floating around at some other big shop. I'm staying up til 3am to get a call to Naylor in Texas...oh the joys of overseas living... so I have to call it quits for the night. But honestly I don't think it's such a rare model.

Edit: oh! yours does have the SDs. Damn I'm tired, somehow my brain read the stickers as the Fishman logo.

 

[soliloquy]

Ah yea, it does matter. I don't know why, but I could ship a guitar to Australia when I couldn't even ship an amp chassis to California (both via EMS). But I don't know where Canada falls in that since I never asked, and I never saw the information posted -- this always just comes up when I'm talking to them at the post office (for export, JapanPost is basically a front for EMS).

Can you post the listing? It's hard to know without seeing who the seller is. If you can link it back to like Ikebe or Kurosawa (like sometimes even the random users listing things are just themselves listing store stock), you'll be in good hands. If it's just a random guy, I wouldn't bother with it. If it's Edwards, I assume an example of that model should come up again under better circumstances, and the risks and hassle don't seem worthwhile for maybe a 6-12 month lead on the guitar.

Are you dead-set on the Fishmans? This one has SDs and is priced better and is at BigBoss, who will likely not have any issues shipping it to you.

https://www.digimart.net/cat01/shop58/DS06620532/

The one you posted could still be floating around at some other big shop. I'm staying up til 3am to get a call to Naylor in Texas...oh the joys of overseas living... so I have to call it quits for the night. But honestly I don't think it's such a rare model.

Edit: oh! yours does have the SDs. Damn I'm tired, somehow my brain read the stickers as the Fishman logo.

for what its worth, i dont really care about the pickups. I was going to pull them out and put in some sort of white covered pickups like EMGs, or something else in white, and add chrome hardware and white pickup rings.

Though the one you posted above is at a better price, and not sure if used or new, but seems like a good deal.

humm, interesting...

and get some rest!

 

[AltecGreen]

Though the one you posted above is at a better price, and not sure if used or new, but seems like a good deal.

That one is used.

 

[Crumbling]

Are there any Digimart seller I should keep in mind that will sell directly to foreigners without a forwarding service? Ikebe and Ishibashi I can deal with directly, but their used section is a bit limited

 

[AltecGreen]

Are there any Digimart seller I should keep in mind that will sell directly to foreigners without a forwarding service? Ikebe and Ishibashi I can deal with directly, but their used section is a bit limited

Kurosawa
Nico Nico
Blue Guitars (as well as their sister stores Red Guitars, Black Guitar, Green Guitars)

 

[MatiasTolkki]

Are there any Digimart seller I should keep in mind that will sell directly to foreigners without a forwarding service? Ikebe and Ishibashi I can deal with directly, but their used section is a bit limited

Rockin here in Nagoya ships direct, but i know the guys there and they probably use gurgle translate to deal with overseas buyers.

Digimart is just a site that compiles all sorts of guitar shops throughout japan into one location, so you can order from any shop youve never heard of because you live in Sapporo and the guitar you want is in Okinawa (for example).

If you dont understand japanese, the best thing to do is find shops, like Ishibashi, that have English web pages. It'll limit access to what you can get used (new not so much) but it will be MUCH easier for you to find stuff or contact the people there for something you want. Ishibashi is also the largest chain in Japan, and I've gotten lots of stuff from them before. Trustworthy. However, dont expect anywhere except for probably BigBoss to actually know how to deal with floyd roses, because most techs dont know the first thing on how to deal with them, regardless whether the guitar ships overseas or not. I had to learn how to do it myself because most of those fucks didnt know what they were doing and screwed the tuning hardcore.

 

[cacborg]

I ordered a guitar from Japan around the end of the week before last. It shipped last monday and arrived via FedEx on Friday. I couldn't believe how fast it arrived. It was from an importer on eBay, so it may have been in the US already, I'm not sure. The listing did say "ships from Japan" on it though. I didn't have to do any paperwork or pay anything from customs. I figured it would take a couple months to get to me, I thought it was pretty odd, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how fast it all was.

 

[Crumbling]

Rockin here in Nagoya ships direct, but i know the guys there and they probably use gurgle translate to deal with overseas buyers.

Digimart is just a site that compiles all sorts of guitar shops throughout japan into one location, so you can order from any shop youve never heard of because you live in Sapporo and the guitar you want is in Okinawa (for example).

If you dont understand japanese, the best thing to do is find shops, like Ishibashi, that have English web pages. It'll limit access to what you can get used (new not so much) but it will be MUCH easier for you to find stuff or contact the people there for something you want. Ishibashi is also the largest chain in Japan, and I've gotten lots of stuff from them before. Trustworthy. However, dont expect anywhere except for probably BigBoss to actually know how to deal with floyd roses, because most techs dont know the first thing on how to deal with them, regardless whether the guitar ships overseas or not. I had to learn how to do it myself because most of those fucks didnt know what they were doing and screwed the tuning hardcore.

Yea that's fine, I do my own setups anyway. My Japanese is terrible but I can get by navigating sites and listings, and there's people I can ask to translate. I was just interested in stores that are willing to do the paperwork and ship internationally themselves so I don't have to deal with 3rd party shipping forwarder

 

[Fenriswolf]

I just ordered an Edwards from Ikebe, and I asked them about and they said the don't have any problems shipping to America.