India

Ray

I work for an outsourcing company. At the moment we are at a client who has a couple other such companies onsite doing various projects. I am pretty much involved with one of the projects and on that project is a guy from India. But he has been here for sometime. He knows I am interested in guitars and so yesterday he tells me to make a list of the guitars I dig and mail it to him. So I ask him why? And he says that in two weeks time when his project is done he is going home for two weeks to check out some opportunities. So I ask him why are you asking me about guitars? So he says he doesnt know but maybe they can be got at a good price there. So I ask him what about all the taxes and other shit you have to pay to get them here? So he says to me he didnt ask me about that and do I think he hasnt got other stuff in here before? And he walks me out to the carpark and he shows me his big SLK something or the other and he asks me do I think he got this messing around with SAP? So I say to him maybe not and I ask him well what is his plan? And he says that if he can source the stuff in India and has a market in SA what's to stop him? I say to him I dont know but I know guitarists and they are a naturally suspicious bunch who wont take kindly to being ripped off with counterfeit stuff and all. And I tell him about the muscles and the tattoos and the 100 pushups and stuff. And he says that isnt his game, nothing counterfeit but he isnt sure of the availability but just investigating. But he is talking very low and soft and looking at me sideways like so I was worried.

Anyway, he says to me in just over two weeks he will be in Hyderabad and then some other big places where he says there are stores and outlets like I cant even imagine. And he says then he is going to give me a call. So, I dunno!

Keira-WitherKay

well if it's any help.when i lived in gulf states.... mostly UAE and bahrain there were music stores that were selling authentic goods at a fraction of the US and especially SA prices........ i brought home a fender USA deluxe strat , with confirmed serial number i did some checking ..... which was selling at time for about 16K here i bought new ...ok on a sale but for the equivalent of 7K in ZAR ...
and yeah btw i paid customs tax on the guitar of about 10 % of value about R750 still came in at below half list price here ......

so maybe its a legit offer ??? and maybe not ...... pity he does not travel regularly cos i would say test it on a cheaper item such as an SM 58 mic and see if it's a copy.... and yes especially the sm58 has amazingly close copies floating about........ but one can research it and find out ....

oh i lived in thailand too and truly i would not trust the gear from there ......... since the knock off market is huge........ and btw some useless info is in thailand they even have music stalls at their outdoor markets selling guitars and mics ect ...... and lots of kareoke gear ...... that country's huge on that ........but amazing to see a guitar stall at a market .........

Lethe

Lol, love the way you write.
Will be interesting to see what this guy comes up with. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

singemonkey

Well, there is the advantage of the "Asia only" guitars. There are a lot of Japanese guitars that are only for sale in Asia. These include all the high quality Gibson/Fender clones, but also Japanese Fenders, Japanese only ESPs etc.

I don't know about their availability in India. The weird thing about India is that, as a tourist, you don't tend to see much of the high end of the market - the new, larney shopping malls and such. So I don't know what high-end music stores look like there. But Asian and East Asian prices are very low. Speaking of Thailand, I needed a camera lens repaired after dropping the camera in India, and the Thai repairman at a well-regarded camera store charged me R100 for an excellent repair. ???

India does make some good guitars too, amazingly. They sell a lot of cheap, street guitars, like the Gibtone belonging to my girlfriend. There are also Givesons and other cheapy archtop acoustics. But I saw this youtube vid of an amazing Indian player, playing a great sounding/looking handmade acoustic. I'll try find out what it was called for the purposes of this thread.

In general principle though, I'm sick of the manipulation of global product sales - like the DVD region bull. These people are supposed to be capitalists, but they don't believe in market demand. Fender Japan can't sell outside Asia because their guitars are too close to MIA Fenders in quality? That's nuts. Why are the Japanese allowed to buy them then? I support in principle, anyone who wants to break this ludicrous "embargo" on Asian instruments - like our own Tokai SA.

aja

singemonkey wroteThere are also Givesons

So they increase fertility as well?

hmm...

singemonkey

aja wrote
singemonkey wroteThere are also Givesons
So they increase fertility as well?

hmm...

Give a Giveson. The gift that keeps on giving.

arjunmenon

Its been a while since i have been back home to India, but last i remember was a company called Tansen that made some pretty decent electric guitars. Now, they are busy manufacturing for Jackson guitars.
Regarding the prices in India for authentic gear, i'd say its pretty much in line with what you pay here in SA.
The thing about the gulf states though is that a lot of them don't charge import duty or only charge a very small amount as duty.

singemonkey

Are you from Kerela Arjun? My girlfriend says your name sounds Malayalum.

arjunmenon

singemonkey wrote Are you from Kerela Arjun? My girlfriend says your name sounds Malayalum.

Right on bro! ? I am from Kerala..and the language spoken there is Malayalam.

Your girlfriend's quite the brainiac i'd say :goodtimes:

singemonkey

Simpler explanation:

She's Malayali ?

Born in Trivandrum and raised in Eithiopia, Kenya and then (most third-world of all) Umtata ?

Although she is definitely quite the braniac.

arjunmenon

singemonkey wrote Simpler explanation:

She's Malayali ?
Born in Trivandrum and raised in Eithiopia, Kenya and then (most third-world of all) Umtata ?
Although she is definitely quite the braniac.

Way cool ?
My wife says i speak Turkey, 'cos every time she hears me on the phone with the family back home, she hears me go "gobble, gobble" ?

Strangely enough i was in Addis and later Nairobi early last week, and there's quite a few places in SA that are 3rd world compared to these two places (especially Addis Ababa).

singemonkey

Arjun Menon wrote My wife says i speak Turkey, 'cos every time she hears me on the phone with the family back home, she hears me go "gobble, gobble" Cheesy

Strangely enough i was in Addis and later Nairobi early last week, and there's quite a few places in SA that are 3rd world compared to these two places (especially Addis Ababa).

My girlfriend only really speaks Malayalam with her dad - so between the two of us, I think she's a little rusty ? I'm not too bad with sounds, and I can distinguish a lot more than many people, but Indian languages are really hard for people brought up speaking English. You just can't easily tell the difference between some of the consonants - like "d" vs. "dh," for example.

She will be jealous. She's never been back to either Kenya or Ethiopia. What do you do with all your inter-africa globe-trotting?

arjunmenon

singemonkey wrote My girlfriend only really speaks Malayalam with her dad - so between the two of us, I think she's a little rusty ? I'm not too bad with sounds, and I can distinguish a lot more than many people, but Indian languages are really hard for people brought up speaking English. You just can't easily tell the difference between some of the consonants - like "d" vs. "dh," for example.

Too true..and there are a lot of consonants like that, like the ones that would normally (in english) start with a T, R, K or N.
The missus says that i'm pretty ok with languages once i'm exposed to it.

singemonkey wrote She will be jealous. She's never been back to either Kenya or Ethiopia. What do you do with all your inter-africa globe-trotting?

I'm in the fruit export business...and it isn't exactly globe-trotting ? More like mucking around in Africa