ilovefuzz.com

We've probably already been over this, but why does Fender Japan have all the cool stuff? And, as a USA person, is there a place I can buy new MIJ/CIJ stuff? Maybe from a certain eBay seller or somethings....

Rakuten.com? Japan is just generally cooler.

I've seen a lot of great reviews about this place here:

http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/eng/

Yep Ishibashi seems like the best place to score MIJ guitars. I'm not speaking from personal experience but every time I see this question asked anywhere online Ishibashi gets rave reviews.

Yeah Ishibashi has the ninja express shipping and a whole department of people that speak english to deal with international customers. I'm pretty sure they only do international sales on used items though http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box/e/. There are pretty good deals that pop up if you keep your eyes peeled, even after like $150 shipping.

There are ebay sellers that sell the cool stuff but i don't think i've ever seen it priced reasonably, it's always like several hundred dollars more expensive than it should be.

Yeah, you can't really go wrong with Ishibashi. They have stores all over Japan and know how to pack and ship. I hate buying guitars without playing them first, but the quality of new Japanese Fenders is amazingly consistent so you're unlikely to buy a dud.

The Japanese pop culture has a different "aesthetic" than we do in the USA. It's extremely trend and fashion forward. A lot of companies test what would be considered "risky" versions of product there prior to bringing them into the USA.

I know this is a fender thread, but Ishibashi has some dope Gibson basses. LPs, Rippers, and an RD.

& the orange mustang bass they have looks dope.