Import duties in isolation aren’t too bad (the rate depends on the item, country of manufacture and country of origin) but the VAT on top is the real killer at 23% of (Item cost + shipping cost + Duties).
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Yep. Legit retail chain. Bought a bass from their Shibuya store.
Ikebe 
Another excellent chain. I’ve bought two from them.
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Yeah, the privilege of paying tax on tax.
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That’s recockulous.
Y’all need to start throwing crap in the ocean.
Worked for us.
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You forgot the processing fee by the local authorities (plus 25% VAT on that)!! 
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Fresh Guinness ain’t worth all that @HowlinDawg !
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@Mac Too bad I’m not back in WA. If its a German 5er you are looking for I’d sell you mine.
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Oh there’s no chance of another Warwick being added to my collection @SubsonicRob .
What with tractor breakdowns, house repairs and fencing I’ll be eating 2 minute noodles for the foreseeable future
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Looks like something from “The Walking Bass”.
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Been out of the BassBuzz world for a spell. Too much stuff going on. Anyway.
I wouldn’t say I’m a Dream Theater fan, but Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory is an AMAZING album that I can - and often do - listen to over and over again.
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Looks like termites got it.
Actually looks fragile to me, sure it’s not but don’t like that aesthetic. YMMV though, boring world where we all think alike
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X-Posted from GAS, at the suggestion of a commenter:
Part 1:
I was poking around local classifieds today and noticed this available from a hobbyist lefty luthier who lives in my neighbourhood:
The neck is recycled from a 32" Yamaha, but he carved and finished the body himself. 
It’s solid as a rock and it plays like a dream. The neck pickup is an absolute beast. (None of this is really a surprise - I am a returning customer.)
Also, how cool are those tuners? They look like ginkgo leaves!
The vol/tone pots are a bit meh (too loose/cheap - a stopgap, just what he had on hand), but he will be replacing those before I take it home.
Part 2:
I picked up my new semi hollow-body bass last night & learned a bit more about it, too.
My neighbour, the lefty luthier, based the body on the Gibson ES-335. The back is poplar and the front is spruce - made from scratch & finished in his workshop. (I can’t believe the effort he put into the ombre/sunburst finish alone!)
The neck pickup is a TV Jones Thundertron (and lives up to its name), and I forget what he said about the bridge pickup - basically a generic humbucker of some kind.
This is my first experience with a chambered or semi hollow-body, so I hope you’ll forgive me for geeking out over something that may or may not be stock in trade of this body style… but I feel like I’ve suddenly got onboard reverb and overdrive hiding in this thing. It’s wondrous. The natural resonance/reverb at times approaches the lower/less intense settings in my spring reverb (Gamechanger Light Pedal).
I ran the bass directly into my Quilter Interbass (cab sim/mini head) and played through headphones, so nothing fancy… yet! But the combination of this neck pickup and the Quilter – wowzers. A lot of crunchy roar (especially for flats), and very easy to add colour and expression to the sound with only small changes in plucking or fretting.
The coin on the headstock is an old Irish 10p. My neighbour and I both have Irish surnames & ancestors, so I find this detail particularly charming.
Sorry about the slight blur - cellphone is old & worse for wear:
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Very nice! Congrats.
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@MikeC Thank you! Never a bass I thought I’d own, wasn’t looking, but it was love at first pluck. Like a rom com starring a bass.
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Now that’s the magic! It’s a very unique beauty. I’d love to play it (except for the whole lefty thing, that is). 
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@joergkutter I think that’s the first bass I’ve seen with that style of fret board that hasn’t looked like a dadaist science experiment - very balanced and “finished” looking! The fret markers don’t hurt.
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Very beautiful bass. But make mine a 4-string, please.
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