There's a 30% import duty on non-EEC goods, but the real reason we pay higher prices in the UK is that there are two more middleman stages for the goods to go through. The old adage is pounds for dollars - the dollar price is what you pay in pounds when it gets to this side of the pond. This works similarly for discounts, so if you find a discounted US price on the net, the cheapest price you will find in UK will be the same in pounds. The Seagulls and Michael & Patricks are better value in the UK than the big US makes because the supply line is shorter (two men and a typewriter in Huddersfield - no big offices to pay for).

It is almost always better to buy second-hand, but you do need to know what you are buying, and you can't always trust that "friend who knows about guitars" . I know that from the day I bought one for a friend which had a "lifted" bridge -and I had not noticed!


Buying from the US -
There are difficulties in buying second-hand from the US because the Americans tend to forgive repaired cracks, which we do not in the UK. Youi may find a crack unacceptable that an American would just put down to the climate. I remember looking at Dave Van Ronk's old Guild once, and thinking that in GB it would have to be stood on to look that bad! On the other hand, if you buy from a trustworthy supplier in the US there should not be too much trouble, particularly if you buy new. You do not have the opportunity, however, to try the stock and find the really good ones. The real trick in buying a guitar from the US and importing it yourself is in evading the customs duty. This is illegal, and you should be ashamed for even contemplating it. But some people do it by making sure that the transit insurance from the US end is really low, like $200 on a $2700 guitar. The customs men rate the duty on the insured value, so the duty you pay is lower. You can insure the goods from the UK end, so if there's a mishap you are properly insured. There are a few (two or three) customs men who are trained to spot this dodge by valuing the instrument properly, and they work at Heathrow and Dover, so if you import your instruments via Birmingham/ Manchester/Luton/Glasgow they are unlikely to pick up on it. The savings of buying a US guitar direct are so good that it is worth the risk - if you don't like it, you can probably sell it privately for what you paid for it.