Just browsing through ebay and they are applying import duty to items leaving the UK going to here in the sunny EU so, obviously, the same will apply for second-hand goods going the other way. Ah well, the FS section was beautiful while it lasted.
Saw him twice with Wong in late February just before everything went wrong. Great player. He really makes it look effortless. One of the gigs I had tickets to was Wong with the Metropole Orchestra in Amsterdam in May. I have no doubt it would have been amazing to witness in person.
Your 88 Thumb has the brass adjust-a-nut 1 with the rotating brass screws? It should be fine. With a Warwick you're more likely to find an issue with the B string fitting the bridge as the ball-end wraps on non-tapered strings can be too wide for the narrow slot in the bridge anchor, so try a B from a Warwick set initially.
I kept one years ago when I was playing in a free-form jazz-metal band. Strange things happened frequently and I'm glad I documented much of it. Those gigs, where we did not have any actual songs to play when we went onstage, were far more interesting than later years when I was in bands who wrote songs and rehearsed and such. For example:
Yeah, I know what you meant and it did not mean you were unsympathetic to the situation the shop is in, quite clearly. I think it's a social media thing infiltrating the forum, I've noticed a rise in it too.
It's no coincidence that Spinal Tap, SKOM and the Bros doc get lumped together. One is art getting too close to life, the other two are life imitating that art so closely as to make little difference. All three are essential viewing.