Update on ToneNerd Pickups Japan Relocation

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Alrighty. I shook the Jet lag (15hr diff). Landed last Sunday. Got ID cards and license on Monday. Furniture shopping Tuesday. Bought a car Wednesday and picked it up Friday and received my household goods Friday as well. New furniture arrived this morning and the rest next week. Had to get kids registered in school and get after school activities lined up. My dogs get here in 2 weeks. So, I’ve been super busy and I obviously have to get my house and personal stuff situated before I can get pickups rolling, but just want to let everyone know that I’m trying.

First week’s impression is that everything is cheaper than the US. No one buys new cars here because reliable used cars and repairs are cheap. I bought a van for my dogs with about 54000 miles on it. I paid $5800 out the door for it, and it came with a 2 year bumper to bumper warranty. A year of full coverage insurance was $540.




Having access to military bases is a huge plus. Pickup up a 65” LG OLED EVO TV for $439. Meats and processed foods are cheap and off base is super cheap for fruits, vegetables, and fresh items.
 
First obstacle. Me ordering parts USPS First Class is off the table. I ordered some parts shipped first class 4 weeks ago and crickets…… further research indicates 4-6 weeks. Originally Ineas planning to use USPS on the military bases, but they emphasize during orientation that business use is prohibited. I’ll have to order parts priority only. For shipping, I need to test some shipments time frames using the
1400 yen option to see if it’s as slow as the first class option. It’s really a bummer that the economic options are so slow. I’ll ship some stuff tomorrow to get a baseline.
 
scottosan said:
First obstacle. Me ordering parts USPS First Class is off the table. I ordered some parts shipped first class 4 weeks ago and crickets…… further research indicates 4-6 weeks. Originally Ineas planning to use USPS on the military bases, but they emphasize during orientation that business use is prohibited. I’ll have to order parts priority only. For shipping, I need to test some shipments time frames using the
1400 yen option to see if it’s as slow as the first class option. It’s really a bummer that the economic options are so slow. I’ll ship some stuff tomorrow to get a baseline.
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Well bummer dude. Guess it'll be a learning process. Does Roshi have any options to explore, or does he get all his stuff local?
 
Sorry for the prolonged lack of updates. This has turned into a logistical nightmare. Even in the states, I was had to use between 3-5 vendors depending on various orders. It common for one vendor to have standard baseplates, but out of stock with wide baseplates. One would have 4 conductor wiring but not vintage braid wire. Magnets were one of 3 vendors and magnet wire was always single source. I always made it work because I could do first class shipping was cheap and I'd still get parts with 3-5 days in Texas. Standard shipping is a complete shit show here. I can get stuff in 10 days or other times its 6-7 weeks. Same for me shipping back. No consistency. That said, I really only have 2 options.

1st option is to order parts and pay priority international shipping, in many cases multiple vendors for a single pickup. This adds considerable overhead to the cost of the pickup. Easily, doubling the price.

2nd option is to not use US sourced parts. While up till this point my parts were all US sourced, that means my vendors were based in the US. I'm pretty certain bobbins, hookup wire, some magnets and a few other parts were likely imported. I don't know because I've asked and never got answers. The industry lacks transparency. A big part of the cost is the magnet wire. I used Remington, which is without a doubt a US manufactured wire. I can get wire from Asia and cut my cost significantly vs option 1. I am pretty confident that several other winders that make hand wound higher output pickups are using imported wire. I say this because when I see a pickup that is high output around 16k+ and they say they're using plain enamel, that tells me a lot. I know there are using 44awg wire and I know that I have yet to find a US source for 44awg plain enamel. So, I think there's a precedence for winder to use imported wire. I think the tonal difference will have less to do with where its from and more to do with it now being the same size. The rest of the world uses metric while the US uses awg (American Wire Guage). So, the sizes will be in between. That happens to some extent now spool to spool.

I don't think option 1 is really an option.

Regarding option 2. Some of you have probably read my technical babbling about how inductance, resistance, and resonant peak all work together to provide for measurable characterizes. While I may not be able to get exact using new parts sources, I am confident the predominate feel and tone of the pickup right, it just may measure higher or lower DCR, but I can get the resonant peak and Q-factor in the right spots. The pickups would still be hand wound and carefully selected parts, but some parts would undoubtably Asian sourced, read between the lines. That said, I would be charging crazy prices like some bigger boutiques.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts. I need to decide one way of the other.
 
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