Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2009

A bit of a niche one, this, but any aspiring rock stars out there might be interested to hear that venerable music gear retailer Ishibashi is making a concerted effort to woo foreign customers. How? By adding an English-language interface to its mind-bogglingly diverse U-Box secondhand gear store, that’s how. At present, English speakers can only search through the listings of guitars, basses and effectors, but even these are pretty extensive, with over 4,550 products listed at the time of writing. Don’t expect rock-bottom prices, but you also won’t have to stay up all night trying to outbid other users on Yahoo Auctions. We know which option gets our vote.
www.ishibashi.co.jp/webshop/global