A significant development??

[rjgoos]

Stu Box has made an announcement:

http://www.bme.com.au/

He now has a "B" series of touch/tap style instruments, and appears pretty serious about selling them.


R Jay Goos

[Glenn Drakeley]

What will the shipping and import fees bring the total cost to ????
Stuart's instruments are of the highest quality and sound fantastic, just wanted to make people aware of the costs to get one stateside from Australia.

[a16931]

Hello RJ,

Thank you for the news. I have just contacted Stu and ordered an SRB-640. Strange that I had to learn about this opportunity from you, as I live in Brisbane, which is about 2,000 k north of Melbourne, home of BME.

I have been reading Tappistry for a long time, and would have bought a Megatar, but I don't want a bass scale instrument. So, this is perfect. I will let you know how this progresses, as I visit Melbourne on a regular basis, on business, so can get a first hand view.

Thanks again.

Best regards _ Mike

[rjgoos]

Yes, Mike, North Dakota, USA is about as FAR from Victoria as you can get on this planet...but perhaps it would help to know that I WISH I were in Australia...I had been asked to go to South Australia in September to work for a month, and I was planning on making it up to Vic to see Stu, but I had to cancel when my boss gave me the duties of a guy who retired.

Well, Mike, you really do need to try one of these out, and post your opinions.

I think your comments are well taken...perhaps not everybody wants a bass-scale instrument. As far as I know (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), the Solene and Box are the only two specialty tap instruments with a regular guitar scale.


R. Jay Goos

[rjgoos]

Glenn,

Stu contacted me by e-mail. He had some browser/site glitches trying to reply, so he wanted me to post the following:

Stu wrote:

>would you mind posting a reply stating that I'm not 100% sure on import fees yet as it is different for each country and needs to be researched but that I am doing my best to structure The B series so that there are no import taxes, hopefully this can be achieved by valuing the instrument at the min value required to not pay tax on, If something goes wrong in shipping I'd simply have to write it of as a loss and cover it immediately by sending out a new replacement instrument.<

[Glenn Drakeley]

>> If something goes wrong in shipping I'd simply have to write it >> of as a loss and cover it immediately by sending out a new >> replacement instrument.


Way above and beyond the call of duty on Stuarts part, may he sell a million over here !!!!! And when somebody in NJ-USA acquires one give me a call, i'd like to try it out !!!!

Glenn

[Glenn Drakeley]

With my Box JC-35 declared at full value the import fee came to $311.11, it also took three full months for the TNT Duty Department to request their $$'s !! It also looks like about $70.00 of the total was slapped on by TNT, an "MPF" processing fee and an "SEB" bond fee; TNT paid $241.11 to Customs, looks like 8.7% of declared value is the Duty, another 0.21% processing fee and $25.00 that there's no description for.

It would be real interesting to see what happens when Stuart declares a value of AU $0 for a JCB-34 !!

FYI TNT was the freight company Stuart used for delivery.

[rockola]

Originally posted by Glenn Drakeley
It would be real interesting to see what happens when Stuart declares a value of AU $0 for a JCB-34 !!

Since it is quite obvious that the instrument has value, Customs will use an estimate, and it's not likely to be smaller than the actual value.

[Glenn Drakeley]

>> Since it is quite obvious that the instrument has value, Customs will use an estimate, and it's not likely to be smaller than the actual value.


Declaring the instrument as a "gift" or "evaluation sample" would eliminate fees on my part would it not ??

[rockola]

Originally posted by Glenn Drakeley
>> Since it is quite obvious that the instrument has value, Customs will use an estimate, and it's not likely to be smaller than the actual value.

Declaring the instrument as a "gift" or "evaluation sample" would eliminate fees on my part would it not ??

If Customs buys your story, then yes. They might not.

[Glenn Drakeley]

Ola,

I don't disagree with anything you've said, there must be a way tho for my Uncle Stuart to send me a JBC-34 duty free for my birthday !!!! :)

[rjgoos]

Please don't take this as being definitive, this is all quite confusing to me.

I spent some time searching the US-ITC web site, to try and figure out how much the import tariff would be for one of Stu's guitars into the USA in 2004.

http://dataweb.usitc.gov/scripts/tariff2004.asp

I searched for "guitar" and "guitars" and got nowhere, as the listings were only for acoustic guitars (or in the brilliant way of government bureaucracy, "o/than w/elect. sound or ampl."). So I finally searched for "amplified" and got the following hit that seems to fit: "Musical instruments (o/than keyboard except accordions) nesoi, the sound of which is produced, or must be amplified, electrically." The import tariff for this category is 5%, or about $50 on a $1000 instrument (the shipper may also tack on fees, as Glenn has indicated).

Also, in the brilliant words of the government, the word "nesoi" means, "NESOI" means not otherwise specified or included. "

Like I said, don't take this as the absolute defining truth, but it was the best I could figure out.

Jay

[rockola]

Originally posted by rjgoos
The import tariff for this category is 5%, or about $50 on a $1000 instrument

This is close to what I paid when I imported a Stick. Curiously, the tariff was the same for all instruments, except harps (theirs was slightly lower for some reason).

Also, don't forget the Value Added Tax or equivalent, if it exists in your state/country. In general (as in, I don't know of any exceptions), the surcharges are all cumulative, and shipping is included when calculating the price.

[dkobayas]

i have a ??..is the sr model like 2 guitars? and is the jc model like a bass & guitar?

thanx,

[rjgoos]

Originally posted by dkobayas
i have a ??..is the sr model like 2 guitars? and is the jc model like a bass & guitar?

thanx,


The short answer, I think, is yes. It appears that the short-scale model is tuned like two guitars. Regarding the long-scale model, I don't know what Stu's preferred tuning is, but the picture on the site appears to be of a 5ths/4ths tuning, similar to a Chapman Stick.

You ask a very good set of questions, and hopefully Stu will clarify soon which are the "standard" tunings for these two instruments.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but the short-scale instrument seems interesting to me, could one do sight reading of classical guitar music, tap-style, with it?


RJ Goos

[dkobayas]

rjgoos...thanx for your reply...i just got a reply from stu box..
the sr's are usually set up as 2 guitars but you can use any configuration you want...the srs have the shorter scale so guitars works out best (stu's pref)... the jc does have a longer scale... he mentioned some people requested baritone tuning...but in the end you can tune to your preference...it looks like there is no nut per se so the gauge of string might not make any difference...this is only my perception, so don't take any of this as gospel...his site has a lot of his playing & wow...those instruments sound great as well as his playing...

[a16931]

Hello RJ, Glenn,

Glenn,
I see you have reserved JCB-34 #004.
I have reserved SRB-640 #004.
Does this make us cousins ?

Regards _ Mike