Wow, that is crazy. I think it's already ridiculous that you have to pay VAT on the shipping charge, but inventing a stupidly high charge so they can get VAT off it is criminal (morally speaking).

Colortone is available from Stewmac - sometimes they refuse to ship it but lately seems OK. I actually meant to write Transtint rather than Colortone, but it seems they are the same product anyway bu...

Interesting, according to gov.uk the VAT threshold is only £15 (duty is £135). I guess there's a degree of luck involved as to whether the customs officer dealing with your package can be bothered to ...

Yes, Stewmac aren't cheap, but they have so many cool looking things. But with the Stewmax option meaning there's no postage on individual orders, it becomes reasonable to make small orders. When I fi...

Maybe the customer wouldn’t realise if an air guitar was handed to him/her instead of a transparent guitar. If it was me I'm sure I would. The improved tone and lack of bum notes would be a dead give...

I don't know if this has been brought up here before, but at 11pm on December 31st the rules on VAT for goods imported to the UK changed for the whole world, not just the EU.Basically if a consignment...

On the subject of court fights over patents, even when you win you can lose.I'm a Software Engineer and many years ago worked for Sensaura, a company that evolved from a 3d sound project in EMI's Cent...

That's a plus, the customer has to come back to you for a replacement.

I just came across this, rather interesting. It's certainly put me off Angelus leather dyes (which is a shame, because they can be found quite affordably, have lots of colours and look great when Dere...

The overall aesthetics of Tao guitars don't click with me, though I wouldn't call them ugly as sin, there are much uglier guitars.But the individual elements of their guitars are outstanding.

I'll agree with you, and there may be a legal argument that it's a functional decision and not really a brand identifier. I don't know if that argument has ever gone to court, or if other companies ha...

@russ I'd say the control cavity of the blue one has hints of Swiss Watch about it.

@Russ You just need to make it as neat as Tao Guitars do

That's pretty!

I don't know what timescale they do it over, but I know PRS let their necks sit for a period after each stage of shaping so they can assess how they move and fix any issues. I just looked at your face...

I was looking at square rods, not sure if they would act more like the strips. But quite frankly, if a 2mm strip will do the job, I'll go with that, sourcing them at a reasonable price seems to be a l...

Nice jig. Is there a reason you choose to shape the outline of the neck before routing for carbon and trussrod?

Caparison have trademarked the shape of their headstock, but not the tuner arrangement. This stuff really is a minefield!

They have two trademarks (well lots, but two we care about), one is for the shape, the other is specifically for the 4+2 arrangement, quoting from it "THE MARK COMPRISES THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE INSTRUM...

One thing I have learned today is that Ernie Ball trademarked the phrase"My guitar can kick you guitar's ass"(The trademark is now dead, so you don't need to worry about a cease and decist letter from...