TL first build,

[Alm_63]

How does customs affect such private imports?

He put it through for $995 so no duty, but customs left the case for now caked and smashed the pick guard.
But Dave sent me new one for free, which is why I recommend him.

[Alm_63]

Very very very nice!!

[wazkelly]

Read up a bit more on the old Marshalls and discovered I actually had one of the early JMP Metal Panel ones from '69 onwards so it may have been early to mid '70s. Bought it second hand with a new Wasp slant front quad box fitted with 4 x 12" Greenbacks for $950 early 1980 and that same rig would be worth at least 3 - 4 times more today. It is the rig shown in a couple of the prior photos. Nothing beats the feeling that comes from the sound pressure of a seriously cranked one of these as you can actually feel the chords as you played and the mid range feedback was to die for. Had to use a Boss Overdrive Pedal for gain control as these required way too much volume before suitable distortion arrived unless you wanted to sound like Angus Young with plenty of volume and just a slight amount of edgy gain driven distortion which was very much 'the sound' back in early 1970's.

[wazkelly]

He put it through for $995 so no duty, but customs left the case for now caked and smashed the pick guard.
But Dave sent me new one for free, which is why I recommend him.

Shame that most overseas ones seem to be selling for nearer to $2k or more thus exceeding the $1k customs limit. Seen new 4003's for $3,999 on either Gumtree or eBay from a shop at Nerang on the Gold Coast and it makes the overseas imports look the cheaper way to go. Due to budget restrictions I will most likely have to target used 2nd hand ones available in Oz instead.

[Alm_63]

Waz ,
There is one at Dave's for $1.3k us.
Might be worth a look?

[wazkelly]

Waz ,
There is one at Dave's for $1.3k us.
Might be worth a look?

Thanks Bruce, Had a look and he has 4 in stock but as they are all over $1k USD will need to work out how much import customs cost might be?

[Alm_63]

Was, mine was a touch over $1k and he made accomodations in the paperwork for me ;-)
The shipping is the killer sigh.....
I wish the Australation a Gretsch distributed would realise that they are seriously damaging the brand here,
I saw a Maton JB4 fret less on line the other day, I nearly drained thee bank account, but I just couldn't do it. :-(

[wazkelly]

So many temptations but only so much budget and also feel your pain.

[Alm_63]

Doing the last setup pieces, filing the nut.
I got a set of Hosco files off the net.

[wokkaboy]

nice one Bruce, worth having a set of nut files.
on the home stretch now