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[chrisgrimes]

Hi Gang

Back from my trip to the land of Uncle Sam, successful trip and enjoyed most of my time over the pond, so annoyed at the prices of guitars over there.......... damned cheap for sure.

Home is where the heart is and mine is here in good old Dover, look forward to catching up with you all.

Best regards
Chris - Dover UK

[Jimboe]

Hey Chris,. Glad you had a pleasant experience on your journey to the U.S. of A. Home always seems to be more comforting when you`ve been away for a bit, don`t you agree?

Jim

[ZacAttack]

Hey man. Good to hear from ya and to hear you had a good trip over here and back. Where did you visit while you were here?

[Steelpriest]

Nice to see you are back home in Dover again and had a pleasant journey. I hope you drop in here again as often as you always did. By the way, did you bring a guitar home? When I remember right you were thinking of purchasing one in the USA.

[chrisgrimes]

Thanks for the welcome back, much appreciated.

It was aheck of a trek, missed out Florida area in the end, but spent lots of time in New York, Boston, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Chicago and Minneapolis.

I get on real well with our agents in US so only had to spend a total of 5 nights in hotels, the rest of the time I was at their various homes, with their families, you guys sure know how to make a limey feel welcome !! Worked really hard on sales with US importers and exporters.

Of course I was present during the build up to the election and was there for the day itself, I found it very interesting indeed, much the same as in the UK the 2 major contenders seemed to say anything to secure the vote, although they were distinctively different, I was particularly interested in the debate regarding dumping / burying tons of effectively nuclear waste in Nevada ?? Bush said he'd do it, Kerry said no, guess those folks in Nevada are now very worried indeed !!

I had never been to Chicago before, I loved the place..... damned cold though, more music stores than you can shake a stick at, and prices I could no believe, Fenders, Gibbos, Ricky's all at least 30% less than in the UK.

I decided not to run the risk of "smuggling" a new acquisition through UK customs, instead elected to come clean. My agents in Chicago are arranging to send my goodies on our joint airfreight services into London Heathrow, so my Line 6 Spider II 112, POD XT Pro amp modeller and shiny new American deluxe Tele will be flying over this weekend, after customs clearance (which I can arrange myself) I hope to have the delivery mid-week.

For the guitar I have to pay 3.7% duty, the amp is 2 % and the POD is also 3.70, UK Value added tax is 17.5% of the lot and I have still saved over GBP 400 !!!!

We handle imports to the UK for Line 6, only the product made in China, Macao and Korea, believe it or not they are not allowed to sell goods at reduced rates to any of their suppliers here in the UK !!! My next project is to try and tap into Rosetti, they are the UK importers and distributors for Gibson, Epiphone & Rickenbacker (BIGGGGGG BUCKS !!)

Look forward to catching up with you all soon.

Back to reality now, it's Saturday morning, 1030, 3 degrees outside and she that must be obeyed wants to go shopping, she has big withdrawal symptoms......... I'll get her in a good mood, and then over coffee and cake reveal that when the credit card statement arrives it will show some "incidental expenses " I incurred accidentally in Chicago !!!

Best Ones
Chris

[Steelpriest]

Hey Chris, have you thought about the currency difference? You bought two Line 6 products that need to be plugged in... I guess this american stuff is intended for 110 volts/60hz... I hope you have bought export models... ;D

[chrisgrimes]

Hi Steel

Yep I did suss that one out, the store in Chicago were great, they got the UK spec ones in for me in 2 days, don't ask me from where, I didn't ask, they didn't tell me.

It's interesting with the Line 6 stuff we do the import customs clearance for, there are seperate specs for EU & UK from the far east, it also affects the price slightly.

Their products are becoming incredibly popular over here. I'm still not sure about the modelling guitars they produce, I don't do a lot of recording at home personally, but guess they have their uses for those that do.

The Spider II is an amazing piece of kit, full 65 watt, with 12 amp models on board and a host of other effects, good enough for small venues, and it even has a headphone jack for home use when my family will be in, looking forward to giving it a go.

Chris