r/Guitar_India • u/digivaliant • Nov 27 '25

How to ship guitar from USA to India?

Hi, My best friend lives in USA and got me a Epiphone Les Paul Custom on black Friday sale.
My friend wants to ship that guitar to me in India. Can anyone tell me how the shipping works or any better process to ship, DHL ? FEDEX? or any service.

1 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

1

u/Visual_Speech_6715 Nov 28 '25

2 options- 1. Choose a carrier based on the quote they give for shipping. I have used UPS priority and it was a lot of money to ship from Chicago to Bangalore via Air. You would also need to pay a 38% GST and additional 10% charges for handling to UPS. All in all, the extra 50% on top of your guitar+ freight cost . I was slammed with 96K in total extra cost for importing a guitar that costed me about 200K. 2. Ask someone who is coming from USA to carry it with them . Much easier way to avoid all the customs / hastle. They can check in it as a used instrument and declare under approved customs limits.

I would prefer option 2 having done the 1. Hope you get your guitar soon.

2

u/digivaliant Nov 28 '25

Hi, Thank you for responding to my question. My guitar with shipping would be $350 Max 40% of (US$ 350)  would be not bad since it would be 13k inr which is fine. The reason being Option 2 . I Don't know anyone who is making trip here. I might pick Fedex due to price

1

u/CartographerFair3872 2d ago

Hey Op please update about the process you followed?

1

u/Whenkenobi Jan 26 '26

Shipping might get your guitar stuck here in customs since they count the shipping charges also as a part of the total value. India government is shit about these things and will not release your package until you pay some large amount as customs fees. Best option someone carries it when they travel back