Duchy Brass - UK Brass Retailer

[jennyt125]

Hi Everyone,
I know a few people on this forum from Europe and the United States view my website so just to advise that Cash4Brass has now changed to Duchy Brass. I feel the name change better reflects the quality and Cornish roots of the business. In addition a new bespoke website has been designed and can be found at www.duchybrass.co.uk . All content and instrument listings have been added with photographs of all instruments to follow over the next few months. A feedback/comments page is also a feature and I would appreciate any responses from previous customers. Many thanks, Jenny

[vito4cal]

For those of you who are searching for good quality previously owned instruments, I highly recommend Jenny Thomas and her company Duchy Brass. I just recently completed the purchase of a B&H Sovereign Baritone from her. Since this was an overseas transaction and I would be buying the horn sight unseen, I spent a lot of time checking out her company. I was pleased to find that she has over 1,500 eBay positive reviews, including several positive reviews from other US buyers. The only negative comment I could find concerned an instrument that was damaged in transit.

Jenny was very accommodating and customer service oriented. I asked for several photos of the horn which she promptly provided. I had her play the horn and report about the intonation. She also provided a history of the horn. The horn was exactly as described and it also played as she described.

Jenny did a wonderful job of packing the horn so it would not be damaged in transit. The mouthpiece was shipped in a separate padded packing in the box so no damage would occur to the horn. She used a very study box that was wrapped and clearly marked fragile so the UPS folks would not drop kick it.

Furthermore, it was a very easy transaction. As soon as Jenny received my wire, she shipped that day. I had the horn in 5 business days, from the UK through customs to California - amazing!

She has a wonderful selection of instruments so if you are in the market for a pre-owned horn, I would encourage you to check out Duchy Brass.

John Gibson

[JTJ]

John -- how much was the shipping fee from the UK to California?

Thanks.

[vito4cal]

100 pounds which was about $150 USD. Not cheap by any means, but since I could not find a B&H/Besson compensating baritone in excellent condition within my budget here in the US, I had "to pay the freight" so to speak.

BTW, it was shipped via UPS and I thought they did a wonderful job. The horn cleared customs in one day.

~ John

[vito4cal]

One more update. I just received an invoice from UPS for customs duties and a brokerage charge.

The duties were assessed at 2.90%. The brokerage charge was $7.00. Total was less than $50.

~ John

[bbocaner]

2.9% is the standard import duty for a brass instrument other than for NAFTA countries and for restricted countries. Are you saying that the $7 fee is overpriced? I don't disagree there, but that's not all that unusual.