Help Deciding and Buying from Japan

I am very new here and I am looking to buy a new MIJ LP. My budget max is around $1800 and I am based in the USA. This will replace a Gibson Les Paul Standard that I sold 3 years ago and although I have tried the new traditional models that is not a route I want to go given what I have experienced previously with Gibson.

I have searched through the threads here and was also able to try several Tokais and a Bacchus while on a recent trip to London. They were all great quality playable guitars so now I am looking to buy a new one from Japan.

My first question concerns choice. Of the guitars I tried the Bacchus Duke was my favorite although the usual variation between individual guitars might account for the differences between it and the Tokais I tried. So at the moment I am looking at an LS150 or a Bacchus Duke Standard both of which are very close pricewise. If anyone has any thoughts or comments about differences between them I would really appreciate it.

My second question is about actually buying from Japan. I have checked ebay of course but the selection is very limited (one LS150 and two rather heavy Bacchus custom models). I understand that there are some stores in Japan that you can deal directly with but it is not clear which ones might have Tokai or Bacchus. I have a couple of links from searching here but it looks like there are other stores which will work with you. Could anyone help in giving me some links to stores that will ship to the USA and are reliable.

Thanks so much

I bought my LS-150 form here http://en.item.rakuten.com/k-gakki/tok-ls150-vf/

More than perfect service and the guitar is also superb.

Matti

Matti,

Thanks so much that is very helpful.

Could you give me some more details of how the transaction when. Did you use the regular checkout and how was communication and the time taken before they shipped out the guitar?

Thanks

I've bought a few Fenders from Ishibashi in the past.
Smoothest online deals I've ever done, they use EMS Japan to ship, should arrive at your place in 4 days...I'm sure most of the Japanese online stores use EMS.

As far as I know there are no import duties into the USA.

Go for it...my suggestion, LS160 Violin Finish.

Thanks so much Diamond. I sent Ishibashi an e-mail asking about an LS160. It's not clear from their website if they will ship new items to the USA but they do have a nice looking used LS160 VF. VF would be my choice.

Why not buy a new Tokai instead? For $1800 you should be able to pick up any number of these LS-160 Tokais from Kurosawa Gakki and have them shipped with some change left over:

http://www.kurosawagakki.com/tags/search/1/0/168-1554-3258.html

Kurosawa Gakki is a large chain as well and seems to deal with international customers, but I don't have any experience dealing with them.
http://www.kurosawagakki.com/english/index.html

Silly me - Kurosawa is what Mattim used via Rakuten. Seems like a good option either way, I have used Rakuten before.

One possible benefit in dealing with Kurosawa directly is that they accept Paypal whereas Rakuten does not.

If you are paying by non-Japanese credit card I have found the exchange rates used for conversion on Rakuten to be very poor for some reason. Anyway, you have lots of options available to you.