Mailing a guitar

[admin]

Thanks, Blue Angel for your comments regarding Gibson.

It is only a this moment that I realize how lucky I have been in the shipment of a Gibson acoustic and Epiphone hollowbody.

Phew

[scoobster28]

Can someone give me a ballpark figure on how much it costs to ship a guitar. If I packed both myself, Fed-Ex quoted me around $150 each. I mention that becuase when I listed $150 as my shipping costs on EBay I was attacked by lots of people claiming I was overcharging. Some only listed $50 to ship a guitar. Where do I go to get rates like that? What am I missing?

USPS barely charges $65 each, so that would seem the way to go price wise. And that is for priority, which would be only 2-3 days. Anyone against using them please say so because it would seem that they are the best. And I would imagine they are less abusive of packages too.

[ken_j]

You can go to FedEx.com and calculate the shipping fairly accurate by using Zip codes, declared value, box dimensions and weight. I use a bathroom scale to weigh myself with and without the guitar and round up by one pound. Most guitars can ship CONUS for under $50. A bass will run a little more due to the longer box. Don't forget to ad in the cost of packaging.

[BlueAngel]

I forgot to say, just this week I was doing an estimate for a Gretsch (luckily one of the modern Korean-made reissues, but still quite a nice guitar and not all that cheap) which had been through an airport in a hard case. The case was not visibly damaged, but was not completely rigid (as most normal hardshells are not) and had been squashed enough that the pressure on the top of the bridge had forced the soundpost inside right through the back of the guitar, causing a very nasty split about six inches long .

Estimate: about $500 to repair it and refinish the back - it's not simple, the soundpost will have to come out before the split can be repaired and patched from the inside. Even with the case packed inside a cardboard box it might not have fared much better, if enough force was applied. But it would almost certainly have been undamaged if it had been detuned and the bridge taken off.

I hate seeing stuff like this, it's so sad when the owner thinks that because it was in an apparently good case, that it was safe.

[admin]

John: You are now speaking to the converted.

[paologregorio]

I would go to a place that throws out lots of cardboard, get some scrap cardboard, and cut my own box to fit tightly around the hard shell case. Here are instructions I had from Dale Fortune as to how to properly pack a guitar for shipping:

Pack guitar tightly in case with shrink wrap, peanuts, or newspaper so it cannot move inside the case.

Secure everything snugly inside case and pocket so it cannot move around.

Cut down shipping box so it fits snugly around case; packing the case inside another, larger outside box, with the case inside surrounded by popcorn/peanuts does nothing to secure the guitar(speaking from 20 years of experience).

[jps]

I prefer large bubble wrap to peanuts as the peanuts tend to disintegrate and create voids in the packing around the internal box/case, thereby allowing movement within the outer box. I wrap the bubble wrap with strips of packing tape to prevent it from sliding around.

[paologregorio]

I'd suggest skipping the outer box; if you pack it tightly inside the case, it's going to be fine; the outer box doesn't do a whole lot, if anything; I've had five different guitars shipped to me in the manufacturers packaging; none of them had an outer box, and they all arrived in great shape, in tune, and ready to play. None of these were gibsons of course, but They were three USVRI Fenders and Two Gretsches. Dale advised me not to bother with an outer box when I shipped my guitar to him. Follow the instructions I outlined in my previous post and your guitar should get there just fine. The outer box is just going to cost you extra shipping fees.

[BlueAngel]

I'd suggest skipping the outer box; if you pack it tightly inside the case, it's going to be fine; the outer box doesn't do a whole lot, if anything; I've had five different guitars shipped to me in the manufacturers packaging; none of them had an outer box, and they all arrived in great shape, in tune, and ready to play. None of these were gibsons of course, but They were three USVRI Fenders and Two Gretsches. Dale advised me not to bother with an outer box when I shipped my guitar to him. Follow the instructions I outlined in my previous post and your guitar should get there just fine. The outer box is just going to cost you extra shipping fees.

It also may encourage shippers to treat it even more carelessly if they don't recognise it as a guitar, and will certainly make it easier to stack with other boxes - ie probably under something heavy.

I'm not convinced it does no good at all though, especially if the box is a LOT bigger than the case and has 'crush room' all around it, which will also act as a slight shock absorber if the box is dropped. I really don't like to see a hard case sent with no protection at all, simply because most hard cases aren't all that hard - they can also spring open if dropped, sometimes... the hinges are often not that strong, and if the case flexes enough the catches can pop off too, unless they're the 'drawbolt' type.

Overall I would probably go for boxing the case, preferably with at least an inch of lightweight packing material between the case and the box on all sides - you actually don't want it too strong or pressing on the box is the same as pressing on the case.

Basically, shipping is risky to some extent no matter how you do it - no method is perfect, and what happens is probably nearly as much down to luck as preparation. Even a fully-armored flightcase can be stolen, or speared by a forklift - yes this does happen, and a flightcase isn't enough to stop it.


My 4003 arrived with just a shipping label on the case and nothing over the catches either, and it got here OK - but I have to admit I was pretty concerned until I opened it up and checked it. I also once received a couple of guitars from Yamaha's distributor which came in nothing more than the flimsy triangular cardboard shop boxes held together with three pieces of tape each! Unbeliveable... but also undamaged. I would highly recommend not doing this though!!!

[paologregorio]

Yes, box the case, what I'm talking about is not double boxing the case; see my first post.

-secure guitar inside the case so it can't move with plenty of packing material
-cut a cardboard box so it snugly fits around the case

Some packers stick this inside a larger, additional box with peanuts/newspaper, whatever. That's wahat I was saying to not bother with.

[BlueAngel]

Some packers stick this inside a larger, additional box with peanuts/newspaper, whatever. That's wahat I was saying to not bother with.

Ah, sorry... I didn't quite read it right - yes, double boxing is unnecessary.

But this...

-cut a cardboard box so it snugly fits around the case

...is not the best way of doing it - you want to have a space filled with soft packing material between the case and the outer box so if the whole thing gets crushed or dropped it won't transfer to force directly to the case and hence possibly to the guitar inside.

In other words, it's the inner box that you don't need in the double-box scheme - that one really doesn't serve any purpose. The outer one is the important one, even if it adds a few inches and costs a bit more to send.

The idea of packing everything really tightly is wrong, for the same reason as cars are no longer designed to be totally rigid, but have 'crumple zones' - to protect the occupants from high forces by deliberately allowing the outer shell to sustain damage and absorb the energy. You should make sure that the guitar can't slam about inside the case for the same reason as the people still need to wear seat belts, but the case itself needs to be cushioned gently from the outside box, not trapped tightly inside it.

[scoobster28]

If anything, this post shows that there are several ways to do it... and no clear cut answer. It makes me wonder how all of the guitar factories ship their guitars. Sure, when they are shipped they are not bound by sentimental value and concern over each individual guitar, but they still must be worried about damage.

[jingle_jangle]

I've received new guitars from a wide variety of manufacturers, and the packing is typically minimal to save on materials, labor, and postage.

I had a number of Korean guitars sent to me by a manufacturer (gig bags, not cases) and they typically ship UPS Freight Express in coffin-shaped boxes with foam blocks under neck and tailpiece, with guitars wrapped in poly foam sheeting or in sheeting bags. Believe it or not, 100% of these arrive in perfect condition. One 12-string Waterstone bass, however, shipped to me for a LS conversion for Tom Petersson, was shipped UPS Ground, and arrived badly broken and good for parts alone.

Fender Japan solidbodies typically ship in coffin-shaped boxes in gig bags, too, but the shipper (EMS, I think they're called) are superb, and i've never had one damaged in any way.

Best-quality acoustics are the best-protected, usually: shipped in cases, well-isolated by cardboard or vac-formed shock mounts, lots of air around the case on all sides. I received an $1100.00 Washburn 12-string acoustic from a shop on the other side of the country, packed loose (no case, no bag) in a big box with no external damage showing, that was wood chips and strings when I opened the box. Should have been detuned, I think.

RIC is smart--they put "GLASS" on their cartons.

[rikk]

I want to add to the Gibson tales. One day after rehearsal my guitar player put his '69 SG in his flight case, placed it in the bed of his pickup truck. When he got home (1.5 miles of back roads) the neck was clean off the guitar. It was fixed, but it was never the same.

[octagon]

Here are some links to webpages with detailed information about shipping guitars.

http://www.cbguitars.com/Packing.htm

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musicia ... king1.html

http://www.oldcloset.com/misc.htm