To open or not to open (the case)

[GracieBass]

Hi,

New to the forum, how cold does it have to be before you need to worry about waiting to open the case?

Tom

[jingle_jangle]

Very cold, but the temperature differential is the key here. If it's freezing outside and warm inside, best wait 24 hours. There's no reliable way that I can describe to shorten this or make guessing easier. If the instrument is in a shipping box, and you know it's coming from a cold location, you open the box and the case is frigid externally, wait.

[henry5]

Paul, I wish I'd known this in 1996 when I received my 1st 4001CS....

[GracieBass]

Very cold, but the temperature differential is the key here. If it's freezing outside and warm inside, best wait 24 hours. There's no reliable way that I can describe to shorten this or make guessing easier. If the instrument is in a shipping box, and you know it's coming from a cold location, you open the box and the case is frigid externally, wait.

Thanks,

I have BBR 4003fl that is being delivered today and I do not want to screw it up.

Tom

[johneek]

Paul, I wish I'd known this in 1996 when I received my 1st 4001CS....

Shaun, I don't even know exactly what happened, but what you wrote makes my teeth itch......

[johnallg]

I have BBR 4003fl that is being delivered today ...

Congrats on the new FL and welcome to the forums! We'll expect pictures, of course.

[johnallg]

... but what you wrote makes my teeth itch......

When that happens to me it usually means it's well time I visit the loo.

[GracieBass]

I have BBR 4003fl that is being delivered today ...

Congrats on the new FL and welcome to the forums! We'll expect pictures, of course.

Thank you!

And I will post some pics as soon as I can.

Tom

[Ender Zed]

I know most of you like Rick pics, so here is one:



That's just as much as I am going to see forthcoming hours.

I always love that "Glass Handle with Care" sign on the Ric box.

[henry5]

Paul, I wish I'd known this in 1996 when I received my 1st 4001CS....

Shaun, I don't even know exactly what happened, but what you wrote makes my teeth itch......

Let's just say it was minus something or other outside and I'd had the fire on full blast all morning trying to keep warm, and I didn't wait 1 minute before opening it.....the bass just sort of misted over before my eyes! Luckily no long term issues, but I nearly fainted!

[berth]

Hopefully today yet another case will arive with dutch postal services (who deliver usps packets over here). It was with Dutch customs before the weekend allready. The weather is at least 10 degrees Celsius at night, probably more. The difference in Temperature outside/night inside/day will be no more than 8 degrees Celsius I think.

Does this case still need a 2 day quarantaine treatment?

[kiramdear]

If it's been sitting in customs for days then you probably don't need to wait. I'm guessing just a few hours would be OK if the outdoor-indoor difference isn't too much. Temperature doesn't vary too much from town to town in Holland, if I remember. You're not running central heating in August, are you? When the outside of the case feels normal I say go for it. Toe nou! Say, what other basses do you have in the stand behind the box?

[berth]

If it's been sitting in customs for days then you probably don't need to wait. I'm guessing just a few hours would be OK if the outdoor-indoor difference isn't too much. Temperature doesn't vary too much from town to town in Holland, if I remember. You're not running central heating in August, are you? When the outside of the case feels normal I say go for it. Toe nou! Say, what other basses do you have in the stand behind the box?

We live not very far from Schiphol Airport/Customs office so temperature hardly differs from there to here and we are indeed not running central heating yet but it wont be long as it is getting colder fast.

The basses you see in the Picture are my 4000 MG and my 4001 JG FL.

[beatlefreak]

Does this case still need a 2 day quarantaine treatment?

It's the middle of August. Where's this bass being shipped from - Antarctica?

The waiting period only applies to winter time, when the temperature differential is from freezing to room temp - In other words (20° C or greater). Open the box.

[seyesbass]

This is interesting because when I go out gigging I cant wait 24 hours before opening the guitar cases.
I presume its to keep the bass in showroom condition.
You can be a bit over cautious with all this stuff and as far as the CS is concerned its going to crack and discolour if you merely look at it.
A couple of years ago I was doing a gig in Preston during a really damp freezing winter weekend and I decided to use the V63 for the encore.
It had been on its stand for over two hours in the ante room behind a curtain side stage where the temp was a good deal cooler (you could see your breath) than in the main club.
When I put it on all the chrome misted up with the humidity and I gave it a wipe to no avail and it just kept on misting. I carried on using it for another twenty minutes like that and as far as I can tell it has had no adverse affect on the bass whatsoever (you can check the pics on the registry). I think if you stand a bass in the mid summer heat of Arizona and then wander through a sauna on the way to putting it in a deep freeze at the local butchers then there may be a problem. I always remember my friend Dave Carr and his 4003 that the paint booth guy baked by mistake .It was a car spray booth and he just put the heat on by force of habit which is Ok for your Ford but not your Rick!. The bass was totally unaffected by this treatment and the neck was as straight as an arrow. Needless to say Dave re-stripped it and re-painted it (Blue Boy by the way).
The main problem with opening any guitar case as far as my experience has been is when the other half says "I hope you are not thinking of making a noise with that thing while Desperate Housewives is on!" ..now thats a problem no one on this forum has an answer for.