Most of the smaller components are packaged up in two boxes with some of the longer pieces of wood at the front.
The bottom of the box had quite a large hole in it but fortunately nothing was damaged.
This is the soundboard - still in one piece after its 6,500 mile journey and still covered in a light film of sawdust.
The first box contains the stand and the action parts including the jacks, the registers and the keyboard.
The second box contains the remaining wooden components.
Did you have troubles getting it through customs? Any tips on that?
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know TPW will only sell to US customers through one of their US based agents. The US $ list price of the kit includes shipping by air freight to the US.
ReplyDeleteI bought my kit through Gerald Self, who is in San Antonio TX. While I could have had it shipped direct to San Francisco and picked it up from the air freight company myself I chose to have it shipped to Gerald and he then shipped it to me. That cost me about another $400 to ship from TX to CA but meant that it was delivered to my doorstep and Gerald got to deal with any problems (of which, I believe, there were none).
I think that there are currently only two active agents for TPW in the US - Gerald Self and Anne Acker. I have communicated with Anne in the past and found her to be very helpful. Gerald has, however, built several of the TPW Neapolitan kits himself while Anne, as far as I know, has not.
I have been in discussion with Anne on these kits and a few days ago started the order. She indicated that it would be shipped to the international airport of my choosing and there would be customs fees. Which I'm fine with, but there's another chap on this blog service who got a TPW spinet kit through her and he had "issues" with customs at his airport.
ReplyDeleteHad I run across your blog earlier, I'd have gladly duplicated your action and pay Gerald to take delivery and send it along to me. But as I said, I'm already in the works through Anne. Also, my airport is 15 minutes away and I have a truck, so home delivery isn't as compelling as it might have been for you.
Having now gone through the process to get my kit - you did well to have Gerald Self be the middle man and send it directly to you...
ReplyDeleteWeirdest part: Customs is now a part of Homeland Security which means everything is militarized. The office I went to was full of lifers who've done nothing but push pro forma papers around for 30+ years. Ladies who are the absolute Grandma stereotype, Grandpas shuffling around like men older than they were. And every one of them was decked out like a SWAT cop without external body armor.
It was so surreal, it was all I could do to not burst out in laughter at the sight. I mean, short, fat Grandma with the glasses making bug eyes waddling around with a Glock 19, spare mags, mace, cuffs, night stick, etc, etc. Short, fat Grandpa shuffling like he uses a walker at home. Comic farce at its finest.
I sure felt safer against terrorists from the show...