I'm Dan Sweigert, owner & founder of Offbeat Imports.

I'm a musician who is drawn to remote places like Bali to seek out new musical and cultural experiences.
So in October 2007 I decided to merge these interests into Offbeat Imports.

My tastes lean toward the exotic & obscure.
I travel all over the globe to seek out rare & unusual musical instruments & handicrafts.
I then make them available to you at a reasonable cost.

I want your visit to Offbeat Imports to be like a successful treasure hunt.
Be sure to let me know if there is anything you're looking for too, so I can be your
second set of eyes.

Contact Information:
Phone: 843-368-5172
Email: dan@offbeatimports.com

Mailing Address:
Offbeat Imports
3 George B's Court
Bluffton, SC. 29910

Secure Checkout:
When you shop at my store, Paypal handles all the credit card & payment information. Paypal handles over 220 million accounts worldwide and is one of the most well established & secure online payment companies in the world.

International Shipping:
We currently have no method for automatically calculating shipping for areas outside the continental U.S. If you would like to place an order to be shipped outside the U.S. contact me via email dan@offbeatimports.com and I will get back to you on the various shipping options & costs.

Refund Policy:
If you are not happy with your purchase, I will refund the cost of the item itself (However, I do not refund shipping) if you return it to me undamaged in the original container & shipping materials I sent it in within 10 days of your recieving it.

Offbeat Imports Newsletter:
I hate wading through large amounts of email as much as the next person, so I promise two things about our newsletter: 1) If you ask to be removed from the mail list, you will be removed, and 2) I'll only send out one newsletter or less a week unless there is a special reason (an appearance at one or more of the local marketplaces). The newsletter is designed to keep you abreast of new products, send you special coupons, to alert you to sales, etc. I also do not share my email list with anyone and keep your email addresses hidden from the other recipient's view.

Customer Reviews & Feedback:
Because we started out on Ebay back in 2007, we have accumulated a wealth of positive feedback which you can view here.

Events (Come visit me at the Offbeat Imports table):
This weekend I will be running the store at River Street Marketplace (502 E. River St. in Savannah, GA.) in the second building, Booth #70 every day from Friday, February 17th to Monday, February 20th. Hours 10am-8pm (Fri, Sat, Sun) and 10am-6pm (Monday).

Blog
For those of you who need help tuning or playing your new world music instruments, I have started a blog. My first article is about How to Tune a Kalimba.

Visiting Turkey
We just returned from our trip to Turkey and have picked up a wide variety of exciting new musical instruments. We have greatly expanded our stringed instrument section with kemences, and baglamas, sazes, uds, and tars are soon to arrive. I've also been diligently looking for more reed instruments and have found them in abundance; zurnas, duduks (my personal favorite) ,and sipsis all make a horn-like sound similar to a clarinet or alto-sax. We also have added more flute-like instruments including the ney (ancient instrument used in the Whirling Dervishes and numerous other traditional musics forms) and kaval (my favorite as it is easy to learn).

New Sound & Video Samples
For a long time you've been asking when I would get some sound samples up on the website, and that day has arrived! Because I'm not good at playing bowed stringed instruments or reeds, I have linked up to commercially made mp3s and youtube videos to demonstrate those. And those instruments I can at least play enough to demonstrate, I have created my own sound files so you can hear them.

Please keep in mind that the actual instruments I'm selling are the ones in the picture (not the ones seen in the youtube videos and not necessarily the ones heard on the mp3s). The purpose of the videos and mp3s is to show people how the instruments are played and give them a basic idea what the instruments sound like. As always, feel free to email dan@offbeatimports.com with any questions you have about the specific instruments for sale here.

Charities Supporting Peace Through World Music
Intercultural Journeys is a group of Israeli, Arab, Iranian (and other ethnic) musicians bridging cultural divides through music. It's founders include
Udi Bar-David, an Israeli-born cellist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Majid Alsayegh, a Philadelphia-based engineer who was born in Iraq. It's concerts in the U.S. and abroad, have included an Arab-Israeli violinist, a Syrian-Venezuelan percussionist, and a Jordanian-Palestinian oud player, among others. At a time when sectarian divides are worsening in the Middle East, and anti-muslim prejudice has grown in the U.S., Intercultural Journeys promotes vitally needed cross-cultural dialogue through music and art at interculturaljourneys.org.