The anticipation......

D

dcm_guitar

New Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
499
Location
San Ramon, CA
I've been looking to buy my first PRS for the last couple of months. Every time I got close to "pulling the trigger" I'd wait. Essentially, I got caught up in analysis-paralysis.

I FINALLY decided on an HBII. Most of my electrics are solid body. I have one semi-hollow (Gibson CS ES-339). SO, the HBII would fill a void. Great! I've decided on a model.

I had narrowed myself down to three guitars. One of them was a gorgeous PS HBII Koa. I hemmed and hawed and thought about it. I was leaning towards this guitar, but hadn't done anything about it. Basically I had guitar choice 1A and choice 1B. Then, the Koa guitar sold this past weekend. It was available on Reverb.com Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night it was gone. Sigh....

I decided not to waste any more time. so I ordered choice 1B immediately. It's an artist package HBII with fire red burst top and back, natural sides and a flamed maple neck with maple fingerboard. It's a pretty unique combo and I've never seen another one with the same aesthetics. It was located in Canada (Montreal), and I'm in the Bay Area of California. I ordered it yesterday afternoon.

I paid for expedited shipping, because the standard shipping was going to take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. I expected it to take about five days so to get from Montreal to my house in San Ramon with the faster shipping. However, I just got a text from DHL saying they expect to deliver the guitar to my home by end of day tomorrow!

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve............
 
dcm_guitar said:
I've been looking to buy my first PRS for the last couple of months. Every time I got close to "pulling the trigger" I'd wait. Essentially, I got caught up in analysis-paralysis.

I FINALLY decided on an HBII. Most of my electrics are solid body. I have one semi-hollow (Gibson CS ES-339). SO, the HBII would fill a void. Great! I've decided on a model.

I had narrowed myself down to three guitars. One of them was a gorgeous PS HBII Koa. I hemmed and hawed and thought about it. I was leaning towards this guitar, but hadn't done anything about it. Basically I had guitar choice 1A and choice 1B. Then, the Koa guitar sold this past weekend. It was available on Reverb.com Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night it was gone. Sigh....

I decided not to waste any more time. so I ordered choice 1B immediately. It's an artist package HBII with fire red burst top and back, natural sides and a flamed maple neck with maple fingerboard. It's a pretty unique combo and I've never seen another one with the same aesthetics. It was located in Canada (Montreal), and I'm in the Bay Area of California. I ordered it yesterday afternoon.

I paid for expedited shipping, because the standard shipping was going to take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. I expected it to take about five days so to get from Montreal to my house in San Ramon with the faster shipping. However, I just got a text from DHL saying they expect to deliver the guitar to my home by end of day tomorrow!

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve............
Click to expand...

Nice! I love that feeling! Congrats!

And, welcome to the Forum.
 
Cheers to that! So I probably shouldn't tell you about the Singlecut Hollowbody II that is also available? >:-)

Yeah, I've dawdled on purchases before, too, and lost them to someone else as a result. You end up coming to the conclusion that you can't own every guitar you want.
 
Congratulations on your choice of guitars! I hope you get many years of enjoyment from it. :)
 
Dusty Chalk said:
Cheers to that! So I probably shouldn't tell you about the Singlecut Hollowbody II that is also available? >:)

Yeah, I've dawdled on purchases before, too, and lost them to someone else as a result. You end up coming to the conclusion that you can't own every guitar you want.
Click to expand...

Right on! There was an alder ce on VR recently. I wanted it pretty bad but passed and as soon as it sold I was pissed at myself.

But in the end I may have come out on top. The wait just kills a guy!
 
D'oh!!

Tracking the package this morning, and it is stuck in customs in Cincinnati. The tracking step is labeled "Uncontrollable Clearance Delay". Sigh.....

Hope it clears soon, but it's looking like tomorrow at the earliest.
 
dcm_guitar said:
D'oh!!

Tracking the package this morning, and it is stuck in customs in Cincinnati. The tracking step is labeled "Uncontrollable Clearance Delay". Sigh.....

Hope it clears soon, but it's looking like tomorrow at the earliest.
Click to expand...


That sucks!!!!
 
So, I get a call from DHL. They send me a form that needs to be filled out. The Plant and Plant Product Declaration form. I need to list every type of wood in the guitar, the country the wood was harvested from, the scientific name of each type of wood, and the amount of each type of wood (by count or by volume)

I just told DHL that trhis was ridiculous and they could gladly send the guitar back to the merchant.

I tried to call the guitar merchant. It's in Montreal, so nobody spoke english. The one english speaker I dealt with was not available.

I'll be calling my credit card company soon and disputing the charge.

Our government in action. Fantastic.
 
Transaction cancelled. Sigh....... I should receive a credit in a couple of days. Then I can begin the search again.

I REALLY wanted that guitar.
 
dcm_guitar said:
So, I get a call from DHL. They send me a form that needs to be filled out. The Plant and Plant Product Declaration form. I need to list every type of wood in the guitar, the country the wood was harvested from, the scientific name of each type of wood, and the amount of each type of wood (by count or by volume)

I just told DHL that trhis was ridiculous and they could gladly send the guitar back to the merchant.

I tried to call the guitar merchant. It's in Montreal, so nobody spoke english. The one english speaker I dealt with was not available.

I'll be calling my credit card company soon and disputing the charge.

Our government in action. Fantastic.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have needed this. All they should have needed to know was that the guitar was made in the good ole USA, and was being shipped back into the USA. I think this is more of a DHL thing to. There are guys all over this forum that have guitars shipped into the US without issue. Just as many that have had them shipped out if the US too.

Bummer that it went down like this.
 
I patiently explained that the guitar was made in the USA and was being shipped back to the USA. I was told this was irrelevant and that all documentation requests must be satisfied by 9/24 or the item will be returned to the shipper. I replied that this was absurd and they were more than welcome to return the guitar to the shipper right now and didn't need to wait until 9/24. I then followed up with an email to DHL stating the same thing.

I called the music store in Montreal to see what they could do. There were no English speakers available. The man I spoke with on Monday was not available. Through broken French/English I got what I THINK is the personal cell phone number of the English speaker at the music store. I've called this number twice. There has been no answer and the voice mail set up is in French.

I called my credit card company and disputed the charge. They said they will credit my account and I should see it in two business days. They also said they will work with the merchant to try to get the guitar returned. In the mean time a beautiful PRS HB II Artist is sitting in US Customs in Cincinnati.

What a mess. I'll keep an eye on my credit card and as soon as the money is returned I'll be back in the market for a HB II.

Sigh......
 
Big plus 1 for the Rush lyric reference

Got a call from the English speaker at the music store (Miguel). He said he will try to sort it out tomorrow. I wish him luck. I told him I had already canceled payment, but if he could get the guitar out of Customs I would GLADLY pay!!!!

Oh, and to be fair it is US Customs who is being difficult, not Canada.

We will see how tomorrow develops. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
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