LeftyBassist.com

www.taniguchi-gakki.com is the link for another great lefty store you all should check out & see if they'll export. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip, and welcome to the board!

Yes, great store with an impressive stock. But no export, unfortunately. I've contacted them about 9 months ago when I was seriously considering importing a brand new Fender MIJ '75 Jazz Bass reissue and they wouldn't. They did, however, hook me up with a third party that actually physically buys the bass for you and will arrange both the payment and the shipping. The third party site was www.dankedanke.com

Jeroen wrote:Yes, great store with an impressive stock. But no export, unfortunately.

"We can send out the commodity to foreign countries."

Maybe it was only the Japanese Fenders then, as those are all non-export. But I was told by a sales representative by email that they wouldn't export the '75 Jazz reissue.

This guy has a store in Japan and he sells all kinds of cool Japan-only lefty Fenders to anyone around the world:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Jos-Music-S ... QQ_armrsZ1

I bought a Jaguar Bass from him a few months back - see other thread - and it got to NYC in like 3 days. Totally on the level operation.

I emailed Taniguchi years ago, and they said they will not export.

Agent00Soul wrote:This guy has a store in Japan and he sells all kinds of cool Japan-only lefty Fenders to anyone around the world:

The problem with Jo's Music Shop, Guitar Shogun and other Japanese dealers is that they pay RETAIL prices in Japan and then resell to foreign markets with an added profit margin. These retail prices also include Japanese VAT. If you were to get these instruments directly from a store like Ishibashi (like we used to able to), the instrument would be far cheaper.

I'm pretty sure that Taniguchi and Jo's are real shops that get the instruments wholesale from Fender Japan. I'm basing this on ads I've seen in the back of Japanese guitar and bass magazines. But I wouldn't be surprised if all these guys pad the price a bit for what is a pretty niche service when dealing exports. If one wants something bad enough and can afford it, one tends to buy it. Otherwise they couldn't stay in business doing it.

Hi again guys, thanks for the welcome & responses. I checked the prices of Jaguars, 5 string jazzes etc & most the prices seem to have about a $100-150 mark up on the converted regular retail prices here at Taniguchi. I've never bought from them but it might also be worth keeping an eye on yahoo.co.jp for used lefties, (no ebay in Japan) they do come up and the freight isn't that expensive. 1st, get on the homepage & go to the left column, click 2nd icon from top marked オークション, then next page click 6th from top marked ホビー、カルチャー again on the left and on the next page, in the top lefthand side search bar, type lefty or left hand in English, or better, copy n paste any of these; レフテイ or 左利き or レフトハンド and behold the treasures that await, hopefully bass but more often guitars(you may wish to inform our fellow lefty 6 stringers: remember, they were lefties BEFORE they were annoying guitarists!) (In English, lefty seems to yield more results than left hand).I live in Japan and these people are 99.99% straight up & honest so pretty secure as far as that goes but you may have trouble dealing with some of their English so keep it simple in the emails. Happy hunting, my lefty brethren!

Didn't a couple guys here buy Jaguar basses from Japan through a second party handler? Peter and Matt?

Me. It was Jo' Music via Ebay. No problems. See my review in the other thread.

Cool, there must be three of you then.

I bought my candy apple red Jaguar from GuitarShogun.com. I was amazed at the service. Got the bass within 4 days, quicker than some domestic UPS shipments I've purchased in the past.

And Ken of GuitarShogun seems like a nice and friendly guy too. I've contacted him about JB75-US/LH's in the past and he always replied very quickly and politely. The Yen was very high compared to the Euro back then though, so I never ordered one from him. A new JB75-US/LH would have cost me more than a new American Deluxe Jazz at the time when you add all taxes and duties, that kinda held me back

Lefty 5-string Jazz Basses?!?!?!

WTF?!?!!?

I HAVE to get one of those!!!

I totally need a "beater" to bring to all of my crappy smoky bar gigs, and that would be PERFECT.

Why in the hell don't they sell those here in the US?

UGH!!!!