Shipping a laminate archtop

[troika]

I've listed a guitar that I own on local craigslist. It's a 60s German no-brand plywood archtop. If it doesn't sell, I'll consider eBay, but wanted to draw from your collective experience on safely shipping it. I don't have a hard case for it. I do have a good gig-bag. It, packed in a cardboard box with some bubble wrap? Would it be okay?

Safer to sell it locally, of course, if that works.

Thanks for advice or opinions.

[offhand35]

Depending on what your selling price is going to be I would do one of two things:

1: get a basic archtop case from MF. Pack the guitar securely in the case, and use the box the case came in to ship the whole thing.
Look here for cases:

archtop case Search | Musician's Friend


2: If I had to ship in the gig bag, I would double box the bubble wrapped guitar. You would have to find a "guitar box" for the guitar, then find a larger guitar box to put that into, or fabricate something to fit.

I have shipped amplifiers using #2 and guitars using #1 with good success.

The contents need to be solidly packed and protected. I have shipped things I was a little casual about packing, and regretted it.

[Bill C]

+1 for offhand35's first method.

I've shipped a few high-value guitars without mishap by carefully following archtop.com's shipping instructions.

archtop.com: shipping your guitar

[thenoviceguitarist]

Well I'm not sure how much this costs, but if you don't feel comfortable packing it (or don't have supplies) you can take it to a UPS store/ svc center, and they'll handle the packing and shipping. I'm sure this is at a premium, but I'm sure you can negotiate that all into the shipping costs with the buyer.

[spiral]

+10 to all the above. double box it. ideally a cheap chipboard case inside of a guitar box that has peanuts will get it there. Make sure to read the link Bill C posted paying attention to the details about string tension, tailpiece padding, and, headstock padding.

Originally Posted by thenoviceguitarist

Well I'm not sure how much this costs, but if you don't feel comfortable packing it (or don't have supplies) you can take it to a UPS store/ svc center, and they'll handle the packing and shipping. I'm sure this is at a premium, but I'm sure you can negotiate that all into the shipping costs with the buyer.

This is good advice.

UPS will not insure guitars above a certain amount of money unless UPS packs it themselves--for a cheaper guitar it may not be worth it but it is worth noting. To save a little cash i have just brought my own materials and had them pack it. This is so they can claim responsibility for the packing job should it get damage. The conspiracy theorist in me also think the box gets tagged as UPS packed so it is treated better (i know it's likely not true but i rest easier!).

[troika]

Thanks guys. Method 3, I suppose is that since I'm in Seattle and Joe V set this guitar up, I could consign it through him and let him ship it. My thought was 1) Sell craigslist 2) eBay 3) Joe, but maybe I should reverse 2 and 3.

or look for a cheap case. I wouldn't have thought about taking things like the bridge off. I suppose if I were selling ebay, I could ask the buyer if they would like for me to do that.

[jzucker]

bubble wrap will work well if you have enough of it. Just maker sure there is a enough of a barrier around the body and neck so that the sides of the instrument are always protected by at least 3 layers of 3/4 bubble wrap. If you cannot do that, you should get a case.

[Steve Z]

My experience with asking for UPS store to pack a guitar is that the cost is extraordinary high... like Sky Rocket high.

Guitar boxes can usually be obtained from a music store, though you might have to find out what day thy usually get shipments and arrange for a box to be saved as boxes tend to be recycled quickly these days.

Another item to consider is plan the eBay auction so that it ends on a Friday or weekend. This way you can ship the guitar on Monday, which will help reduce the chances of the guitar sitting on a truck or non-air conditioned warehouse over a weekend.

I have great success shipping FEDEX. If you have a FEDEX shipping center in your area, then go directly there to ship as it will cut out the extra cost of authorized FEDEX shipping locations (stores).


Cheers,
Steve

[spiral]

Originally Posted by Steve Z

My experience with asking for UPS store to pack a guitar is that the cost is extraordinary high... like Sky Rocket high.

The cost is usually in the boxes and peanuts which is why i suggested bringing your own. If you are shipping a guitar that is over a certain dollar amount, they won't insure it unless they pack it, so you may not have a choice. I'll try to figure out what the maximum is.

[82Benedetto]

I ship a few guitars, and I'm always learning along the way. I've shipped internationally as well and have found little problems I wouldn't dream of and have learned from them (quickly.)

You'd be surprised....even if your guitar is in a case, surrounded by foam, and packed in a box, you can still incur damage. Shipping is not gentle, so you better make sure everything on that guitar is secured and protected well.

Archtop.com provides pretty good instruction, but you can never be too careful when packaging.

[troika]

You guys have kind of talked me out of it. Would be better to sell locally or I may consign to through Archtop.com, since they're local to me and he sat the guitar up. He would probably ask for a lot more money that I will anyway, so I may come out even.

I have no idea what it's worth, but it's not "high value". I have it priced at $500 right now. Might not be worth that much, might be worth more. It's a good acoustic player's guitar and it's kind of cool looking, but it doesn't have any cache that goes with it that makes it valuable. Still, if I sell it to someone they and I both want it to get to them safely, so I need a plan.

Thanks for the advice.