Should I...

david

...buy this strat?





Comes to 44,100 + 16,500 shipping, then 15,150 import duty/VAT.

Total = JPY 75,750/€527 assuming I get stung for tax.

Is it worth it? Will it beat a US Highway1/Mex classic reissue series/Korean lite ash series all of which are around my price range?

I honestly think this is the one.

david

Another Pic..

punchdrunk

i got three u.s tele and one jap strat and i doubt i'll be buying another one anytime soon

david

Thats Conalls strat? How do you find the build/playability?

punchdrunk

yeah it's conalls old strat,it's fantastic cause it's well played in and the neck feels great,although the frets need a little work nothing major
i put new pickups in and it makes all the difference (the only weak point on these is the electronics),this is built much better than my older jap jaguar
i can't say enough good things about the bare knuckle trilogy set
the only better strat pickups i've heard were on a real '63 dakota red strat
and actually even they were a bit nosier than the bare knuckles

david

Excellent, I don't think ~€500 is a bad price for a nice jap strat, even if it has shyte pickups. I love that colour and the aged parts

Ancient1

Damn that is nice. Don't be a fool and spend too much time thinking about it, at that price, there's nothing to think about.

Buy it before I do.

david

I should really buy a car though! But think of the guitars I could buy instead of my 3.5k insurance premium...

Fúck it, im buying it.
Do you email them with a link to a pic or something? Or is there a checkout?

punchdrunk

oh don't get me wrong the original pickups were fine,i'm just a talentless hack with more money than sense


go for it,looks like a beauty!

Karl Hungus

Buy an Ibanez.

david

Feck off! I need a strat! Unless you can point me in the direction of a suitably GAS worthy J-custom for 44,100 yen!

Man that strat is gorgeous

Voodu Child

freakonaleashx wrote:

Fúck it, im buying it.
Do you email them with a link to a pic or something? Or is there a checkout?

There is a secure website to submit your credit card details, and you also send them an email with your address etc. If you make an enquiry saying you want to buy it, you will get an email with all the buying details, and any of the lads here whove bought something off them could forward you the email to speed it up. (i have it if you want it)

I dont know too much about the fenders, but the Jcustoms dont last more than a day or two once they appear, so haste is very important. A nice natural finish Jcustom appeared on thursday i think, and was gone when i checked it again on friday. So run!!

Karl Hungus

Fine then, buy the strat.

david

voodoo_child wrote:

There is a secure website to submit your credit card details, and you also send them an email with your address etc. If you make an enquiry saying you want to buy it, you will get an email with all the buying details, and any of the lads here whove bought something off them could forward you the email to speed it up. (i have it if you want it)

I dont know too much about the fenders, but the Jcustoms dont last more than a day or two once they appear, so haste is very important. A nice natural finish Jcustom appeared on thursday i think, and was gone when i checked it again on friday. So run!!

That strat has been there for two months
Do they update the u-box regularly when items sell?

Yeah can you forward me the details. Ill PM you my email address

Voodu Child

That strat has been there for two months

Oh right, well i guess they dont get snapped up so quickly, so theres no rush. Im mostly interested in the ibanezs that pop up on the ubox, and the damn things dont last long at all. I try to check every day, but theres been the odd time where i havent gotten near a computer and have missed some brillaint bargains.

They take the guitars off the ubox as soon as they have a confirmed buyer (ie credit card submitted), but they also hold guitars for people for a couple of days, so its possible that you can see a guitar on the wesite, but when you email about it, you can be told that you are second in line or whatever. Thats happened to me again on a few Jcustoms. So ive taken to checking the feckin thing first thing in work in the mornings !!

Creamy Goodness

buy it you know you want to.

where's anicent1 when you need reassurance.

i'll be buying one myself allbeit with a rosewood fretboard once i get a job in the summer.

let me know how you get on with our japanese cousing (ie. ordering/taxes etc.)

Karl Hungus

Well, I was looking at that SRV style strat they've got on Ishibashi, so I won't say anything.

david

I knew strat gas would get to teh KH eventually! Anyway, the email is sent. Fingers crossed they still have it.
The price is really cheap, i see this guitar is an investment. Worth about €650 over here already I reckon

Karl Hungus

freakonaleashx wrote:

I knew strat gas would get to teh KH eventually!

Meh, it's nothing new. I had gas for the Lite Ash strat before, it's just Strat gas is weak compared to all other forms of gas.

Johnny Storm

That does look really nice. If it was me I'd ask them a lot of questions about fret wear etc first. Are you happy with its neck profile, radius, fret type etc ?
FWIW I have both a CIJ strat and a MIK Lite Ash Strat and the frets sprung on the MIK and needed some expensive work after a few months. The CIJ had a really beautifully detailed finish and was perfectly set-up when I got it. It has more of an authentic Fender vibe somehow. The MIK kind of looks more like a generic strat copy. Although the MIK actually sounds more stratty to my ears.
Anyway what I'm trying to say is, I doubt if you'll go far wrong with a CIJ Fender. Buy the feckin' thing! Worst case I'd imagine you could sell it and not loose much.

david

Cheers for the info, I emailed them so hopefully it'll be mine, you the MIK's look cheap, especially the headstock and such. I love the vintage vibe about that CIJ alright, the bridge and tuners look spot on. IMO its worth more than €500 anyway, so I cant go wrong at the price of a bog standard mex and a hardcase.

david

ZING!

Hiroaki wrote:

Used "STRAT MOD.LPB/M(#316469902)" is available now.
This guitar is modefied guitar.
The body is '62 reissue type, and the neck is '57 reissue type.
A few scratches and dents can be seen.
A little paints comes off on the dent.
Workling condition is good.
It comes with soft case.

Emailed them about body materials, pickups etc.

david

Oh yeah, he gave me a 500 yen discount on account of the scratches, 60,000 yen total, shipped.:rolleyes:

Karl Hungus

freakonaleashx wrote:

Oh yeah, he gave me a 500 yen discount on account of the scratches, 60,000 yen total, shipped.:rolleyes:

Hey, don't knock 500 yen, that's a pint you can have while waiting for the guitar.

Doctor J

Do it. Just do it.

david

Im waiting for some funds to be switched around. i.e. Get working and earning after my exams! This summer will be fun, working a 72hr week, €10 an hour, and working for 9 weeks. All of which will be spent on guitar shizzle.

david

I miscalculated, he actually gave me a 2,500 yen discount, Total is 58,000

Ancient1

Doctor J wrote:

Do it. Just do it.

I don't know how many times those words haunted me in my dreams....

Evil bastard.

Karl Hungus

freakonaleashx wrote:

a 2,500 yen discount

Why that's a whole drinking session right there!

Johnny Storm

FYI

Per the specs for a brand new st57-70TX on Ishibashi the 57 neck is maple , 7.25 radius and has vintage frets.

The '62 body has Texas special pickups, alder body, and is available in "Old lake placid blue" which looks pretty similar to the one you pictured and has aged plastic bits and bobs.

david

Yum, that guitar is mine, im ordering it awaiting a reply. I'll be sure to post pics when I get it!

Oh, is it advisable to get it shipped in a softcase? It seems a waste to drop another 15,000 yen on a hardcase when I can just use a perfectly good strat case i have lying around somewhere

Johnny Storm

Well, I got mine in a soft case and there were no probs. And not to worry you but my one was not "over-packed" by any means. Having said that why not email them and ask what they will do if it arrives damaged. AFAICR the shipping cost already includes insurance. As you say there is no point paying shipping and tax on a case if you already have one.

My one

Creamy Goodness

just wondering guys, do ishibashi sell hard cases aswell with their guitars?

thinking of getting one of these but would like one of the rectanglular hard cases to go with it, i can't see any mention of them on their site.

sorry for the off topicness.

david

Email them and ask them, I know that when emmet02 got his tele thinline from ishibashi, he got a nice fender hardcase with it. His tele is an absolute stunner too!

punchdrunk

be prepaired to sell a kidney to get a case off them...

david

OK heres the deal, I emailed them on the 29th ordering the guitar, sent off my details in the online form and emailed them my address etc. They replied three times asking me to email my address etc which i did repeatedly another three times. I've heard no response since, the guitar is still in le UBox and I've sent another 3 emails asking them wtf is going on. Did anyone else have have a breakdown in communication like this? Would they have shipped it or do they send you an order confirmation/tracking number? Gettin majorly pissed off here.

punchdrunk

from whay i've heard from guys on the FDP ishibashi run a very tight ship,order on monday arrives friday to happy customer kind of thing
they only ship tracked as far as i know?

Voodu Child

Never had any problems. Did you have 'International Order' as a subject title? And email it to the address I gave you?

Other than that, cant think of what could be the problem. Forward me your communications with them (blank out your address phone no etc) and ill see if i can make heads or tails of the confusion. Ive bought off them a good few times now, and had literally 20 or 30 emails back and forth about other guitars i never bought, always seem to be super efficient, good english etc.

Johnny Storm

I seem to remember that that online form was not intuitive. AFAICR I took a bit of a flyer and managed to press the right button. In addition to what Voodoo_child said I suggest email them and ask them did they receive your details from their secure server or whatever its called.
Other than that they are super efficient in every communication I've had with them.

david

I used the "international question" subject every time, looks like i may give old koichi a ring

david

They recieved the secure details but apparently not my emails...

Johnny Storm

freakonaleashx wrote:

They recieved the secure details but apparently not my emails...

Maybe "freakonaleashx" is a cuss word in Japanese?

david

Yargh.. Im fed up and my strat GAS spreading...

Karl Hungus

freakonaleashx wrote:

OK heres the deal, I emailed them on the 29th ordering the guitar, sent off my details in the online form and emailed them my address etc. They replied three times asking me to email my address etc which i did repeatedly another three times. I've heard no response since, the guitar is still in le UBox and I've sent another 3 emails asking them wtf is going on. Did anyone else have have a breakdown in communication like this? Would they have shipped it or do they send you an order confirmation/tracking number? Gettin majorly pissed off here.

Ok, it sounds like your emails might be inadvertently blocked by a spam filter. This happened to me once before when I was dealing with chrisguitars.com but thankfully it was all sorted very easily, so I imagine if you give them a ring, it'd work out fine.

Have you tried emailing them from a different email address?

david

I rang them a few days ago, broken English, couldnt understand my problem, I hung up and emailed them to cancel the order. I hope thats the end of it and i dont get a strat in the post out of the blue accompanied by a nasty CC bill as i've went elsewhere and decided to go for a nice jap custom tele, more about that later when it arrives.

david

Oh yeah and its not my gmail spam filter or email address either

Karl Hungus

freakonaleashx wrote:

Oh yeah and its not my gmail spam filter or email address either

Yes, but it could be their spam filter.

david

I dunno, they got a couple of my emails, so unless they reported my address as spammage then the rest of them should have gotten through