Shipping A Guitar

[idealassets]

Over the past 5 years I have bought or sold a few guitars. For a 1966 F312 and 1972 F612 I actually paid for US Postal Service Express, which cost me about $75 more. For express service the post office guaranteed that the guitar would be placed in a temperature controlled compartment (70 degress) the same as the flight coach. All went well, and the buyers were happy.

Today I am sending 2 guitars with a choice of US Postal Parcel Ground service, with the other choice of FedEx or UPS Ground. Of course I can't afford the Express rate any more which was about $160 back then.

My concern is: Is ground transportation acceptable? Especially US Postal Service. I can hardly imagine a nice Guild guitar being put on trucks, postal jeeps, etc. being driven 100's or 1000's of miles.

Might anyone have any helpful comments about shipping?

Thank you,
Craig

I will explain that I have sold my 1968 Gibson EB2 bass, 1966 Guild Starfire Bass, and 2007 Guild F50 to help pay about $12,000 of totally unpaid medical bills in collection agencies that according to the local med facility billing dept: my Obamacare insurance- Assurant Health "refused to pay any" of the hospital bills for 2 emergency room visits and follow-ups. When I repeatedly called Assurant Health they stated "its because the insured (me) refused to fill out any of the required forms". When I asked what these forms were and to fax and send them to me, Assurant Health claimed that they had on record that they both mailed and faxed the forms to me (never explaining what "the forms" were), they again said that "the insured (me) refused to complete the required forms". Beginning 1/1/2016 I have new health insurance with Blue Cross, with no problems. Virtually no lawyer will take on a health insurance case of $12000 in charges. Sorry about that, but all will be well.

-I thought I would let LTG folks know that I haven't spaced out, but letting some things go to clear my credit rating.

 

[richardp69]

Hi there Craig. I think all of us get nervous when we need to ship a guitar, however we decide to ship it. I've probably sold and shipped 200 or so guitars over the last 15 years. I've always used USPS 3 day Priority Mail insured. I had one damaged guitar. It was a D 25-12 and to be honest I think the fault was probably my packaging and not USPS abuse. One or our members (Sandy) has said many times the most important thing is to make sure the guitar is totally stable and not able to move around in the case. I totally agree with him and that's what I do. I also typically double box the guitar and am generous with "peanuts", air bags, foam, wadded up paper etc. I'm sure I pay more than I'd really need to because of the weight but it gives me peace of mind for sure.

Good luck

 

[twocorgis]

In addition to what Richard said. Choosing FedEx or UPS Ground is actually better, because the guitar will get handled less as a rule, spending most of its time on one truck. I've never had a guitar damaged in transit (although there's a first time for everything I suppose), and I think a lot of the reason is that I pack them to be gorilla proof. Pulling the end pin, and completely immobilizing the guitar inside the case is key.

 

[AcornHouse]

I also use Fedex Ground. (I can get a decent rate going through my school.) As Sandy said, pack it right and your a good ways there.

 

[chazmo]

Hmm, I will put in a vote for USPS parcel post. It's the "slow boat" but it's cheap and I've been very satisfied with the USPS care. I've shipped several guitars that way.

 

[guitarslinger]

Not a fan of UPS with good cause. Never had any problems with FedEx. I have seen some damage with USPS but there insurance pay out is supersonic and hassle free. Packing and unpacking seem to be the greatest guard against damages for me.

 

[kostask]

A couple of ideas, feel free to use/not use them as you wish:

1. You can get guitar shipping boxes from the local music store, and they are (at least in my area) happy to have you take them away. My most recent shipment was a late 1980s Lys guitar. It went from Calgary to just outside Montreal. I went down to the local music store, and they gave me a Taylor shipping box from a guitar that was just put up on display. The Taylor shipping box was made up of some pretty heavy duty cardboard, and had pair of plastic inserts at the top and bottom that held the guitar case from moving around inside. The plastic was formed in such a way that it cradled the bottom of the guitar case and the top part of the guitar case (the headstock end). The guy at the music store refused payment, saying that it was one less box the store would need to pay to have taken away.

2. Inside the guitar case itself, I packed all of the open areas that didn't fit tightly between the guitar and the guitar case with cloth/rags. I didn't want to use bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts to avoid any possibility that they would affect the finish (nitro).

3. I put the guitar case into the Taylor shipping box, making sure the bottom of the guitar case was properly seated into the plastic cradle piece at the bottom. I then packed the open areas above the shoulders of the guitar case (neck area) with crumpled newspaper, put on the top plastic cradle, and sealed up the box.

I used Canada Post cheapest way, and the guitar got there in a week, and it was fine. The recieiver let the guitar warm up for 24 hours before taking it out of the box, and an additional 24 hours inside the case before taking the guitar out. Everything was fine.

I used an actual guitar shipping box because I figured that Taylor (or any other guitar company) designed their boxes specifically for shipping guitars properly. I think that any guitar company would have done the same, as they are all shipping guitars around to various places, in large quantities, and want to keep shipping damage to a minimum.

 

[Rayk]

I shipped mind to fla and it came back with a few more checks in the finish it was cold here when left via usps it came back fedex but otherwise handling seemed good both ways .

 

[bronzeback]

I don't know if it does any good or not, but I always put the shipping label on the long skinny side of the box. More likely for the box to be placed long skinny side down, then short skinny side down. Figuring if the box falls from an upright position with the short skinny side down that would be a bad thing.

 

[idealassets]

-Great comments. At one point I was buying enough guitars to always having packing materials to use when sending out. Today I went to a few stores and bought all the packing materials to do it right and make it look professional. I still have a few new unused guitar size boxes left over and will use them up.

My only concern is that many dealers manage to get their guitars on a flight, whereas all the new shipping costs dictate that I send via ground delivery or pay a huge fee. From the sounds of it ground delivery is not all that unfavorable.

-Craig

 

[idealassets]

-Great comments. At one point I was buying enough guitars to always having packing materials to use when sending out, but I haven't had anything new sent to me in a short while. Today I went to a few stores and bought all the packing materials to do it right and make it look professional. I still have a few new unused guitar size boxes left over and will use them up.

My only concern is that many dealers manage to get their guitars on a flight, whereas all the new shipping costs dictate that I send via ground delivery or pay a huge fee. From the sounds of it ground delivery is not all that unfavorable.

-Craig

 

[nielDa]

There's good advice here already - and elsewhere on the Internet. Some advice I got a long time age was "don't pack air," meaning don't let anything rattle, overfill the box with peanuts (or whatever) and pack under pressure. Also, I like those Taylor plastic pieces too - get some if you can.

One other thing I do: I find it's difficult to hold a guitar box - so I make a handle out of packing tape to make the box easier to carry (and less likely to drop).

 

[Rayk]

There's good advice here already - and elsewhere on the Internet. Some advice I got a long time age was "don't pack air," meaning don't let anything rattle, overfill the box with peanuts (or whatever) and pack under pressure. Also, I like those Taylor plastic pieces too - get some if you can.

One other thing I do: I find it's difficult to hold a guitar box - so I make a handle out of packing tape to make the box easier to carry (and less likely to drop).

Good idea

 

[adorshki]

One other thing I do: I find it's difficult to hold a guitar box - so I make a handle out of packing tape to make the box easier to carry (and less likely to drop).

Since all boxes go through sorting equipment like conveyor belts and loading doors/ports I'm kind of surprised it hasn't actually caused a problem at some point, if the handle snags on something.
It's one of the reason all the shippers have directions about acceptable packaging methods and "oversize" or "dimensional weight" cost adders.

 

[Smitch]

I really can't add too much other than the disappointment I often get with amateurish packing by folks that have no clue what they're doing.

However, in regard to your troubles with the health insurance, i'd suggest that you contact your state's Department of Insurance (DOI). They regulate insurance companies and insurance related commerce in your state, and should be helpful in being your advocate in this situation.

 

[john_kidder]

I'm in Canada, so my comments for United States options are particular to shipping outside the US.

From the receiver's point of view, USPS is far and away the best choice. USPS Priority (which twocorgis just used to ship the '58 F20 he just got for me), cost $69 to get a guitar from New York to Vancouver, estimated delivery time about 6 days. Being Canadian, I will have to pay a 5% tax on the value of the guitar - with USPS, that is a simple COD at the Post Office.

UPS or Fedex both charge an additional 5-7.5% "brokerage" fee, plus daily charges for storage, and they hold the guitar at their warehouses until payment is received - so, irrespective of their shorter claimed delivery times, it actually takes up to a week longer, and up to a couple of hundred bucks more, to get the guitar in hand.

I have never had a problem with damage, but that's probably because I send along a link to Joe Vinikow's (archtop.com) shipping instructions here. If you follow these rules a guitar in a decent case will not get damaged by the most gorilla-like shipper (short of running a forklift tine right through the box, case, and guitar, as happened to one Stan Rogers' guitars years ago). Even just paying attention to padding the headstock against whiplash (absolutely #1 source of damage) comes close to a guarantee of safe transit.

But please, if you're shipping outside the US, do your receiver a favour and stay away from the gougers at UPS or Fedex - USPS is simplest for the shipper, and reliable, fast, and inexpensive for the receiver.

 

[949Norm]

I ALWAYS just drive around to the back of my local Guitar Center, usually depending on the day there will be an assortment of boxes just stacked up there (WITH PACKING MATERIAL).....You want professional? Try shipping a Tele in a Tele box, or a Martin in a Martin box.....once in a while if there's nothing there, I walk in and ask, They have never NOT given me a box when Ive politely asked, I don't pay for any box or materials......Happy Shipping

 

[idealassets]

I really can't add too much other than the disappointment I often get with amateurish packing by folks that have no clue what they're doing.

However, in regard to your troubles with the health insurance, i'd suggest that you contact your state's Department of Insurance (DOI). They regulate insurance companies and insurance related commerce in your state, and should be helpful in being your advocate in this situation.

Thank you, I'll try that. Hopefully DOI is funded adequately to not get a run around.

 

[idealassets]

My 1968 Gibson EB2 bass recently arrived to a new owner in CA more than a 2000 mile trip. I got a positive on ebay for it, so shipping went OK for that heavy weight bass. I used UPS ground for it. So far that's one done, one on the way, and a few more to go.

The void in my guitar rack may be filled again later on.

 

[richardp69]

Voids in guitars racks are very bad and need to be addressed quickly!!!!