US UK
I am from the UK and am thinking about importing a guitar and an effects pedal from a site in the US. However, i was wondering if the actual gear will work in the UK. Can anyone help?
# 1
YES - is the short answer, Welcome to the site..
Long story short =imported Kramer strat copy US to UK (for a project!!),shipping approx $40.
[ Months later they tell me i must pay Customs duty...not applicable as guitar's total value only worth £85.]
NOTE : Be sure to contact HM Customs and Excise to get a duty rating - if the goods are above a certain value you WILL have to pay.
An electric guitar produces a signal/tiny voltage through the pickups..... and should not receive one .......so you're Aok there....... most fx pedals work on 9to12 volts or so and are usually battery powered
.if you get a UK adaptor for it,as long as the polarity and output voltage is ok then you'll be fine. The only problem I can see is if you get a us adapter and try and use it in the UK (US voltage is about 110 volts,uk about 240v)
Long story short =imported Kramer strat copy US to UK (for a project!!),shipping approx $40.
[ Months later they tell me i must pay Customs duty...not applicable as guitar's total value only worth £85.]
NOTE : Be sure to contact HM Customs and Excise to get a duty rating - if the goods are above a certain value you WILL have to pay.
An electric guitar produces a signal/tiny voltage through the pickups..... and should not receive one .......so you're Aok there....... most fx pedals work on 9to12 volts or so and are usually battery powered
.if you get a UK adaptor for it,as long as the polarity and output voltage is ok then you'll be fine. The only problem I can see is if you get a us adapter and try and use it in the UK (US voltage is about 110 volts,uk about 240v)
Accuracy,you say? hmm interesting concept..
# 2
The only problem concerning UK vs US gear, is gear that has internal transformers. Like mentioned above, US power has 110V at 60Hz, European is 220-230V at 50Hz.
FX-pedals usually work on 9V batteries or external transformers(adaptors), which can easily be bought seperately, so, no problem there.
So, in short, anything that comes with just a power-cable, and not one of those black boxes attached to it, can/could cause problems. But even this can be overcome by using a converter I think.
FX-pedals usually work on 9V batteries or external transformers(adaptors), which can easily be bought seperately, so, no problem there.
So, in short, anything that comes with just a power-cable, and not one of those black boxes attached to it, can/could cause problems. But even this can be overcome by using a converter I think.
# 3
Thanks a lot for the information. I think i will try and find the guitar i was looking for in the UK, as i found out that the site were charging $150 to ship it here. Also it seems like it would be a lot of hassle, and maybe the money i would have saved on the guitar on sale, would have been spent on an adapter.
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# 6
Very much the same from what i see on the web, but US prices tend to be the same or less in dollars than they are here in pounds.
AS an example -You can get an ESP EC300 for $450 (about £300)but they're generally £500+ here!!.
Also US gets Faded SGs for $500, we don't get 'em at all and you can bet they'd be ,say, £600 if we did.
IT's even worse in Scandanavia if i recall.
AS an example -You can get an ESP EC300 for $450 (about £300)but they're generally £500+ here!!.
Also US gets Faded SGs for $500, we don't get 'em at all and you can bet they'd be ,say, £600 if we did.
IT's even worse in Scandanavia if i recall.
Accuracy,you say? hmm interesting concept..
# 7