The Steel Guitar Forum

Yes, British ingenuity is certainly something to behold.

However, Canadians invented the zipper and Velcro! If it weren't for those, we'd all be standing there with our &!#&$ hanging out!


Mike

Roger - The Brits did not invent television. They invented the MECHANICAL tv which was doomed by its inferior resolution from its inception. Electronic television as we know it today was invented by philo t farnsworth - a 14 year old boy from Utah. (I figured this thread had gone so far off topic my reply was kosher)

And the zipper is Swedish.

To return to the original topic...I'm certain most of the reluctance to ship steels long distances and over international borders comes from the difficulties in shipping as well as negotiating an instrument's way through Customs.And I'm just as certain that our little community is much more strongly focused on the music our instrument makes(when we get it right,that is) than on cultural and national differences between our members.

But that is not to say there isn't a large-and increasing-amount of political and cultural discord in this country.In some quarters that has the side effect of a certain amount of truculence in response to being called out,even though most of the calling-out is being done by Americans on the other side of the cultural-political fence.Perhaps the "keep it in the U.S.A." bit that Sven (quite perceptively,IMO) took note of is a small part of that side-effect.

Abe Levy wrote:Roger - The Brits did not invent television. They invented the MECHANICAL tv which was doomed by its inferior resolution from its inception. Electronic television as we know it today was invented by philo t farnsworth - a 14 year old boy from Utah. (I figured this thread had gone so far off topic my reply was kosher)

True enough, Abe. The Brits didn't invent television, per se. But the BBC does make television a lot more pleasurable to watch!

Could this thread be a strong contender for the 2013
'Furthest Off-Topic' award?
And wasn't it a Scot who invented the original TV...not a Brit?
(Although the Brits came up with 'Downton Abbey'. And the Yanks created 'The Jerry Springer Show'....er...Vive la difference!)

And let's not forget that the American Top Gear is dreadful, while Clarkson, May and Hamster are delightful...
Every time we steal a British show, we ruin it.

As a Scot don't get me started on Scottish inventions, suffice to say that if it weren't for John Napier inventing logarithms, especially natural logarithms, it's doubtful if any nation would be exploring space never mind air flight. James Watt and steam locomotives also springs to mind.

And good job for the rest of the world that we're generous enough to allow you to drink our malt whiskies (absolutely nothing to do with the revenue it brings in )

But really, I think all nations in the world have their worth and contribute to the general pot of knowledge and skills which we all use in our lives, especially after the invention of the web, where we have access to almost limitless info these days from all corners of the globe.

Back on topic.

TBH I don't blame people for not wanting the hassle of shipping internationally, if that is the reason for not wanting to sell abroad.

I agree to a certain extent with those who would like to maintain their heritage, but it's a two way street, i.e. I believe that many of the classic British red telephone boxes were bought and exported to the USA when they were replaced in the UK.

I think we have a shared heritage and we should focus on our similarities rather than our differences. The sons shouldn't have to pay for the sins of the father, sort of thing

After reading your postings to my original post, I notice that my English that I obtained in school isn´t as good as I hoped it to be… It´s sometimes hard to really understand the essence of a sentence…

Let´s recapitulate: I got a bit upset when reading an ad saying “…and let´s keep it in the good old USA.” I thought that sentence was an act of pariochalism, misdirected selfishness or whatever, saying that good instruments should remain on American soil. Why? I don´t know… It wasn´t the first time I´ve read things like that on the forum and I guess that´s why I got upset.

The responses pretty fast got into the hassle with shipping steels which some had experienced or at least feared they could be experiencing. Some said the hassle basically is five minutes of filling in the customs form, others suggested the steels run severe risk of getting damaged in the transport and there are problems with packing the steel properly and safe.

Ok, let´s agree there are problems... Problems with filling in the customs form, problems with packing the steel for a safe transport and the steel runs a risk of getting damaged in the transport.

Now, if my initial reaction was wrong and there´s no other reason not to ship outside the US: Could these issues be solved?

Myself, I would like to see the World as a quite small place where we´re quite close to each other and where small problems such as customs forms and transports ought to be tiny obstacles that easily could be removed and bring us all closer.

Generally we here on the forum are quite confident with each other, many of us know someone who knows someone who can validate the honesty of a seller and I guess there are other ways to determine the status of an object for sale to satisfy a buyer.

I actually think there are ways to make it easier to sell steels to other continents and at least to Swedish buyers.

I will start to investigate how to achieve just that. There are ways – I´m sure of that. I´ll get back on the topic when I know how!

Anyway, this thread could, as Tony Boadle said “…be a strong contender for the 2013 ´Furthest Off-Topic´ award…” 

It´s been quite fun and I thank you all for your comments and participation and wish you all a Merry Christmas!

/Sven