Stefan Sobell 40th Anniversary Guitars

[Guitars44me]

Looks KILLER! Hopefully your papers will happen FAST.

I am sure we all can't wait to hear all about it. I am ready...

Salud

Paul

[jaymarsch]

So exciting! Beautiful guitar.
Best,
Jayne

[jonnymosco]

It looks gorgeous. I need to record on Stefan's Verona soon, so may get to see yours too if it's still around.

I'm guessing the shallower body results in a more focused sound...

Jonny

[Tim Porter]

Thanks, all! I'm studying up on the forms I may need. Stefan already has clearance to ship it out of the UK--I need to get the US to see that and allow him to ship it to me. I guess my U of Chicago law degree may come in handy. . . .

We shall see.

[Tim Porter]

Originally Posted by jonnymosco

It looks gorgeous. I need to record on Stefan's Verona soon, so may get to see yours too if it's still around.

I'm guessing the shallower body results in a more focused sound...

Jonny

Jonny, I'd love to hear about it if you get to see/play it.

[Tim Porter]

[Very long story short: I got my new Sobell via DHL in approximately 6 days shipping time and it’s stellar. Read on if you’re interested in the CITES rabbit hole experience and especially if you plan on importing a pre-convention Brazilian guitar.]



I’ve received my new Stefan Sobell 40th Anniversary guitar! It’s one of Stefan’s Martin Simpson Signature Models (Mk III), and has Brazilian back and sides and a German spruce top. I agreed to have Stefan build me this guitar in October 2020 and it was finished in March 2021, so Stefan was actually quite quick in completing it. Stefan kept in touch while building but he doesn’t tend to send periodic photos. If you’d like to see his building process, however, here’s a great set of very recent posts on the News section of his website: https://www.sobellguitars.com/news-page/

This was Stefan’s and my first attempt to ship a pre-convention Brazilian guitar from the UK and we took it slow, slow, slow because the stakes are so high if you get it wrong, i.e., if we blow it on the paper work there are no second chances—the guitar gets impounded and most likely destroyed. Brazilian rosewood went on the CITES no-no list in June 1992, so the wood had to have been out in the world (and verifiably so) prior to then.

Stefan’s end turned out to be the critical one—he was able to provide receipts to the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency—UK CITES Management Authority (“APHA”) to show the wood’s provenance and the fact that it was pre-June 1992 wood. This enabled APHA to provideStefan with an export certificate (with a copy of Stefan’s original receipt attached).

The US side of things is more confusing (and I’m a lawyer—yikes). A reasonable reading of the regs of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) suggests that one needs to get a separate approval of the US authorities to import the guitar. So I dutifully opened an FWS account and filled in what looks like the required form and sat back to wait.

After about 7 weeks, I got a perfectly friendly email from an examiner who had a couple questions, mainly whether the guitar was indeed a newly built instrument made partially from pre-convention Brazilian rosewood. When I confirmed that this was the case, he emailed back to say that the FWS would not require a permit application from me because these were pre-convention materials and that he’d be refunding my application fee. He clearly relied on the UK’s certificate, which of course was totally fine with us. (It's pretty clear now that the US end of the process is addressed by the Lacey Act form, see below.)

At this point, we had an export certificate from the UK and the email from the FWS saying we did not need a permit from the US (which for all intents and purposes is as good as a permit, as a practical matter). Then we had a to wait a bit longer for Stefan to renew the UK certificate because we had been so cautious that the six month term of the UK cert had expired! I know that Stefan was also consulting fellow luthiers in the UK about their experiences with this and he got comfortable enough to get the guitar on the road.

It turns out that the only shipper that seemed to have any clue about CITES importations was DHL (UPS was hopeless), so that’s who Stefan chose. Stefan has a shall we say somewhat idiosyncratic way of packaging his guitars but recall that I have 5 other Sobells, all of which have arrived flawlessly in all types of weather over the years.



Taped on the outside of the mummified case were 3 items: (1) a copy of the UK CITES documentation (and we included a copy of the FWS email); (2) copy of Stefan’s receipt made out to me for my purchase of the guitar; and (3) a Plant and Plant Product Declaration filled out by Stefan that goes to the US Dept. of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for compliance with the Lacey Act. The third item contains a breakdown of the composition of all the guitar’s components, e.g., Dalbergia nigra back and sides and Picea abies soundboard. This form gets down into the weeds enough to include the sitka braces, wenge neck and ebony fingerboard and bridge, all with their proper Latin names and weights in kilograms.

DHL took the mummified-in-multiple-types-of-bubble-wrap case and kicked off the importation process and customs clearance. They fronted the approximately $1,700 customs fee (arrghh), for which I immediately reimbursed them online. I was able to track when it got to JFK, cleared customs and then waited for the next day’s delivery cycle to kick in. All the signs were good and Stefan and I were emailing back and forth to remind each other to keep fingers crossed. The delivery was projected to take 5 days when the case was first delivered to DHL in Northumberland and in the end it took one day longer. The envelopes on the exterior of the case had clearly been opened and examined, but the guitar was not opened during any part of the trip. The guitar and Hiscox case were in flawless condition upon arrival.

The tone and playability are amazing; hopefully I can do some sort of recording of it soon.

[Jimmy Caldwell]

Tim,

Congratulations on your new Sobell! It looks magnificent and I’m sure it sounds even better. I’ve not had the pleasure of playing one or even seeing one in person, but he’s on my list of luthiers that I’d love to know more about. Hope you’re well!

[Guitars44me]

What a lovely guitar. Have FUN with it and make a lot of nice music!!!

And, what an interesting long and involved process to get it shipped. Wow. But it is safe now and no doubt happy in that beautiful lineup!

Cheers

Paul

[iim7V7IM7]

Congats Tim... (what a journey! I am glad that it turned out well .)

[Tim Porter]

Thanks all!

Picture of the back:

[Deft Tungsman]

What a beauty, man!!! A sweet addition to your drool-worthy collection, proof that sometimes too much of a good thing is indeed a great thing.

Thanks for sharing all the info and pics.

No need to wish you a happy new year, but I'll do so all the same.

[jklotz]

What a stunning guitar! It's modern with a subtle nod to a traditional one. Man that guitar is beautiful! Congrats and I'm glad you got all that import-export business sorted.

[gitarro]

What beautiful old growth brazilian rosewood of the sort that we never see anymore nowadays.

[Michael Watts]

Congratulations! What a gorgeous instrument!