Trying to save the world

[r4garms]

Greetings Pitbullers,

I'm living in the north of Scotland and have a massive itch to start building my own guitars.

I've been researching for YEARS and there are only a few online retailers that are providing the kits I desire with the customer support I need and Pitbull, you crazy Aussie bogans, are pretty much top of the heap.

Trouble is, I'm quite determined to save the planet with every choice I make. You guys make no secret of the fact that you (like every single other supplier) get your kits from China. I have no (small) problem with that. It is what it is.

But I am worried that buying from you is either putting another link in the carbon heavy supply chain, or adding an extra shipping charge. You ship for free to Australia, but the shipping to the UK is no bargain. Oh, and I am in Scotland, so I'm tight AF.

What would you do if you were me?

Cheers,

[cork sniffer]

It's time to give up on hitting your head against brick walls. China is about to make EVERY other country irrelevant. Join in with them and enjoy the ride, they make great guitar kits :-)

[Simon Barden]

The shipping charge is not that expensive, considering it's flown and not sea-freighted. It's certainly cheaper shipping than buying something similar from the US. What is more expensive and that you need to consider is the duty (about 3%) and then the 20% VAT added on top of the price+shipping+duty and then the PO handling charge on top of that.

To minimise shipping costs, it makes sense to buy several kits at once, as extra kits are shipped at something like AUD$20 each.

The kits are sea-freighted to Australia, so that part of the trip is about as low-carbon as you can get. I believe you can have the kits direct-shipped from the factory, which cuts out the small amount of extra carbon that a 5kg package adds to a container ship output (although that will add about 3 months to the delivery as they have to be specially ordered), but which means that they aren't checked for any errors by PBG.

[Fretworn]

Hate to tell you this, but China are leaving most Western countries for dead when it comes to environmental awareness at a government level.

[JohnH]

I guess it depends how many you plan on building? I own my great-grandad's banjo-mandolin (who was, coincidentally, Chinese), which was built in 1922 (I think) and over the years was played by him, my nan and now me. I imagine my son or daughter will take it on at some point, and I hope we can keep it going another hundred years. Whatever the carbon cost of producing that instrument, I would argue it has well and truly paid for itself.

If you plan on building more than a couple then perhaps that's a different proposition, and others more qualified can help you out.

I do worry about these things too, but from what I hear from my Chinese friends (and as others here have said), China's government seems to be much more proactive in tackling these issues than ours.

Also, while I make a real effort at home to cut out single use plastics, recycle, compost, etc, I make more difference doing the same thing at work in one day than I would in a month at home. When I was working for a big name pizza franchise I would say I made more difference in a day than in six months at home - the scale of the waste was incredible. The comparison makes me feel better about the footprint of products I've purchased which I know I will look after and enjoy for many years.

[r4garms]

Hate to tell you this, but China are leaving most Western countries for dead when it comes to environmental awareness at a government level.

Oh, I'm aware of that.

My point is not so much knocking China's environmental credentials, or it's manufacturing dominance. It was more about a) double handling (ie: the kit traveling excessive miles from manufacturer to distributor to customer) and b) paying extra for that privilege.

Doubling up my order would make sense to reduce the freight charge per unit but, seeing as this will be my first, I'll have a few extra tooling/finishing costs to begin with. So the budget probably can't justify that outlay just yet.

But I thank you all for your contributions to this topic.

Cheers!

[Zandit75]

One drawback to shipping direct from the factory is missing an eyes on inspection of the guitar before it leaves the Pitbull warehouse.
It's all well and good to hope for the best, but I would certainly prefer to have the guys themselves inspect the to ensure everything is as it should be before shipping.

[Andyxlh]

#2 for the Pitbull guitar inspection, the stuff from China is outstanding, but Pitbull then put it all through a good checkup so what you get will work. They don't often make a mistake.