Budget Baritones and Tariffs

Erik S

Erik S

Well-known member
I've been shopping cheap(ish) baritones semi seriously, and one of the cool looking options is this Jet model:


That reverb listing would be $587 shipped to me, plus whatever tariffs are applicable for a new made in china guitar shipped to the US from the UK.

There's also this "Gear4Music" listing that would be $506 shipped plus tarrifs.


Curious to hear about any experiences paying US tariffs on China guitars from China or the UK, also opinions on cheap baritone options. My other leading contender would be a used Squier paranormal baritone cabronita telecaster with P90s for somewhere closer to $400. Gretch G5260 is also in the mix somewhere.

Do I have it right that tariffs should be charged based on the China origin even though the shipper is in the UK? Maybe that would be 10%? Hopefully on the goods price, not the shipped price? Is it all just a crap-shoot and who know's what you'll be charged?

All the tariff stuff is gross and annoying, and my impulse is to avoid it, but I do keep looking at that guitar...
 
I can't speak to factoring in tariff prices and all that, but I would imagine the tariffs would be placed from the country of origin in terms of shipment, so if that's true I imagine you'd be paying the UK tariff? But also who the hell knows this shit is all up in the air and changes constantly anyways.

I will say, I did just get a Squire Classic vibe baritone on Reverb for $300 a couple months back and really really like it. I like that it has a slightly shorter scale length (but I know some people dislike it for that so it depends on what you're looking for), it plays great, and sounds awesome. If it were me, I'd keep an eye out for NON-import guitars that are used and ship from the US. Probably easier to deal with all around than trying to factor in tariff pricing and all that.
 
Tariffs are based entirely on country of origin. Shipped from China or made in China and shipped from Britain, the tariff will be the same . Tariffs on goods imported from China are currently at about 45%. The shipping company will charge a fee for handling the tariff transaction. Expect to pay a total of about 50% of the sale price.

On the plus side, you won’t be charged sales tax. Your state govenment/tax board will have no knowledge of the transaction. Of course, you can always mail in the sales tax to your state if you’re feeling guilty,
 
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Aentons said:
Isn't it that seller pays the tarrif and they include that in the price to the buyer?
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That would be way easier. I think that's an option for sellers, and there are companies/ products where that's being done, but as far as I can tell from adding guitars to carts, doesn't seem like the case on the stuff I've looked at.

jwyles90 said:
I can't speak to factoring in tariff prices and all that, but I would imagine the tariffs would be placed from the country of origin in terms of shipment, so if that's true I imagine you'd be paying the UK tariff? But also who the hell knows this shit is all up in the air and changes constantly anyways.

I will say, I did just get a Squire Classic vibe baritone on Reverb for $300 a couple months back and really really like it. I like that it has a slightly shorter scale length (but I know some people dislike it for that so it depends on what you're looking for), it plays great, and sounds awesome. If it were me, I'd keep an eye out for NON-import guitars that are used and ship from the US. Probably easier to deal with all around than trying to factor in tariff pricing and all that.
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I played a friend's squier tele baritone yesterday and really liked it. I've got an infatuation with this jazz bodied one, but one of those teles would be the easier, cheaper, and smarter option for sure.

grapeSoda said:
Tariffs are based entirely on country of origin. Shipped from China or made in China and shipped from Britain, the tariff will be the same . Tariffs on goods imported from China are currently at about 45%. The shipping company will charge a fee for handling the tariff transaction. Expect to pay a total of about 50% of the sale price.
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Thanks. That's the answer I needed, and suspected but didn't want to be true.
 
I built a baritone from parts about fourteen years ago, so tariffs weren't an issue, but you could follow the same strategy today: I invested in a Warmoth neck and boughy a whole Squier classic vibe '69 thinline. The guitar, plus the neck, plus new pickups still cost less than what I would have paid for a MIM equivalent and I got the neck profile and pickups I wanted!
 
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Aleph Null said:
I built a baritone from parts about fourteen years ago, so tariffs weren't an issue, but you could follow the same strategy today: I invested in a Warmoth neck and bough a whole Squier classic vibe '69 thinline. The guitar, plus the neck, plus new pickups still cost less than what I would have paid for a MIM equivalent and I got the neck profile and pickups I wanted!
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Building guitars sounds a lot like the proposition of building guitar pedals.

Sure, I can built one rat pedal cheaper than buying one, but there's no math I can do that would suggest getting into pedal building was a frugal choice. :ROFLMAO:

Once I open the floodgates on guitar building (or amp building) that's going to be another whole money and time vortex. It'll probably happen at some point but I'm not ready to jump into it right now.
 
On top of the tariffs, private shipping companies (UPS, DHL, FedEx) will also hit you with exorbitant and seemingly arbitrary “brokerage fees”.
Try to ensure that it’s USPS bringing your stuff into the country if you have any control over it.
 
pricklyrobot said:
On top of the tariffs, private shipping companies (UPS, DHL, FedEx) will also hit you with exorbitant and seemingly arbitrary “brokerage fees”.
Try to ensure that it’s USPS bringing your stuff into the country if you have any control over it.
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Yeah, I've read some of those horror stories.

Sadly the extra cost and potential headache is pushing that particular guitar off my shopping list I think.
 
Doesn't Firefly have one of those Baritone options and they are from the US?

It's so depressing here in New Zealand, we don't have these cheap quality Chineese brands and shipping from the the UK / Europe is the same price as the guitar.
 
@Erik S Looks sweet! Any initial setup problems such as high frets or sharp fret end? I’ve never even played a jazzmaster much less a baritone jazzmaster. Certainly not opposed to it though.
 
bluedmc777 said:
Any initial setup problems such as high frets or sharp fret end?
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I saw a couple reviews that noted remarkably nice fretwork for a guitar this cheap. Fret ends are super smooth and polish seems nice, although being a used guitar I can’t say for sure whether it’s been worked on.

I’ll do some setup work at some point (probably when it gets new strings), and get the rockers out to really assess the levelness of the frets, but there’s nothing bad enough to make me want to stop playing and take it apart.

There was a thread here a while back with a lot of talk about super cheap counterfeit style guitars direct from China on eBay, and people generally being pretty impressed with them. I’m no guitar connoisseur and I have pretty limited experience with expensive guitars, but I feel like I’ve seen more people unhappy with the quality of expensive guitars than cheap ones.
 
Erik S said:
but I feel like I’ve seen more people unhappy with the quality of expensive guitars than cheap ones.
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At least for me, I have greater expectations with more expensive items—pretty much with anything. And no matter where it falls on the “expensive” scale—one persons bargain is another’s stretch, to an extent.

That said, I think that we’re closer to having some sort of parity (between true bargain price anything’s and upper tier ones) due to automation and scale. In our pedal world, if you strip away the pesky notions of design ownership, patents, etc., those $25 import pedals seem to be fairly identical to their $175 counterparts. Even a few years ago, it would’ve meant getting crappy knock off jacks and switches that you’d need to replace in a few months, but now those cheap knockoffs are getting pretty nice too.

Then, there’s also the notion (which seems to be at least somewhat evidence based) that our local (US made, etc.) guitars are not subject to great quality control, and that many import lines are being more carefully looked at before their put in their boxes. A few years back I bought a new Martin 00-18—and was aware when I bought it of several minor, to me, issues with it. And now, I have that “binding coming off” problem that seems almost epidemic with current Martins (at least their US made ones). It’s hard to dream up an excuse for this.

About 20 years ago, when my son was 12, he wanted to play bass, so I looked at some options, and got him an SX 30 inch Jazz bass, I think for $75. I still have it in my rack and play it on occasion.

Great looking baritone! Enjoy it. At this point I think I spend about 40% of my playing time on a baritone.
 
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