how to pack/ship a guitar (on a budget)

Joined: 28 Nov 2007 Posts: 2106

a few of you were interested in this. and since i've shipped about 9 guitars over the last 3ish years, and each one always saying that the guitar was packed for a war, i thought i'd process it all together...

so, stuff you need:
from top, then bottom right to left:
-a guitar
-a case/hardshell/gigbag (hardshell and gigbags are preferred, but optional)
-clean garbage bag (you have these in your kitchen! go look!)
-apple pillows: you can get them free from any grocery store. just ask the guys/girls who are dealing with produce. if its a busy store, they will have tons of them. they are about 3ish cm thick, light weight, and they are flexible
-scissors (optional), duct tape, and plastic wrap (you should have this in your kitchen!)
-soft stuff, lots of soft stuff! you can get this anywhere that sells fragile products. go to a store that sells dinner plates and wine glasses. that gray sponge you see, i got those from a theater. theaters that still use old light projectors bring their light bulbs in these. and they are garbage for them. why not use it?
http://i.imgur.com/ThqWe23l.jpg

you would also need a box, or two, or three. you get these from guitar stores. you may have to go to a few guitar stores to find the perfect fit. try finding a triangular box to put the guitar in IF its in a gigbag or without any case. but if you have a hardshell case, then use a rectangular box. when you do get the box, inspect it. make sure the box is clean, no breaks/rips/tears, no water damage, and its not a super thin box either. this box will take a lot of punishment at the hands of UPS/FEDEX or other silly shipping companies...

also, there are at least two shapes of guitar boxes. one is designed for acoustic, the other for electric. pick whatever guitar you have! shipping an acoustic guitar in an electric box will cause damage as its too tight a fit. the opposite is true too as there is too much room for the guitar to dance around in
http://i.imgur.com/o3nQObv.jpg

thus far, the only thing it has costed you is duct tape (unless you have some roles in your basement/garage) and gas money. nothing major.

now, first things first, CLEAN the guitar! this means you polish it, you put lemon oil on the board etc. this allows you to inspect the guitar up close. in case you have any scratches/dents/cracks/breaks in the guitar. if there are any, now is the best time to tell your buyer. cleaning the guitar also gets rid of ANY dust that may scratch the guitar while its being shipped.

ask the seller what he/she wants to do with the strings. if he/she wants them off, slacked, in tune, or half a step down/up etc...i usually leave the strings on, but put tons of slack on em so nothing breaks under tension when shipping
http://i.imgur.com/tGmWMNq.jpg

next step, learn from ESP! when they get a new guitar, or when they ship the guitar, they always provide a fret board shield that is made of plastic. i dont expect you to find a plastic big enough to fit the board perfectly. if you do, great! if not, use cardboard. normally one long piece is good enough, but i couldn't find anything big enough, so small pieces worked for me. doing this allows you to protect the frets from any potential damage cased by the strings. you might have seen/felt some frets that catch onto the strings as the strings dinged them during shipping. prevent that!
http://i.imgur.com/fyZFcvJ.jpg

once you've secured the fret board, use plastic wrap around the neck. not too tightly, but enough so the board stays in place.

now, remember those 'soft things' you collected? now is the time to use them for the headstock. headstocks are probably the most fragile parts of the body on a solid guitar. and even if they aren't, a damage to the headstock can ruin the guitar. a damage to the body can be worked around with though.

i used the light bulb protectors around the headstock. i put the head on one side, making it a perfect pillow. then i wrapped a thinner piece on top, then again on the side. this protects the head from all angles. try not to use tape to secure the padding. why? tape squishes the padding, making the padding smaller, thus useless. use plastic wrap if you can.

http://i.imgur.com/gPb4jTW.jpg

now, if you did your box searching just fine, you would have come across these soft, white, rubbery/styrofoamy type of material in those guitar boxes. if not, then look around as they usually are left in the boxes by the stores. first, inspect it to make sure no dust or anything potentially dangerous is in there. use it to wrap the entire guitar

http://i.imgur.com/jI5gIMw.jpg

now, if you're using a hardshell case or a gigbag, line the bottom and side with more padding. same applies with just a box, but you need to line the sides with more padding:
http://i.imgur.com/cIMwQPa.jpg

place the guitar in the case/gigbag/box carefully, ensuring the entire guitar is protected just fine. zip/lock it up, and see if anything is moving around in the case. if it is, add more padding.

now, i haven't heard of this happening to a guitar YET, but seeing as how we have video evidence of UPS/FEDEX/USPS throwing their boxes around, and seeing as how canada post, and ups have left my product out in the rain a few times, i started taking safety precautions against it.

wrap up the box/case/gigbag in a garbage bag! remember those garbage bags from above? now is a time to use them. now, i understand this wont protect the guitar 100% from water, but any protection from the elements is good enough for me. you may want to seal the gap using plastic wrap or something if you want
http://i.imgur.com/Ub28LPp.jpg

next up, line up box one with more padding on all sides, place the guitar in it carefully
http://i.imgur.com/iOxwh5t.jpg

close the box, and see if anything is moving/rattling around in the box. if it is, add more padding.
http://i.imgur.com/USE0Oyw.jpg

now, place the box within the bigger box

no, this is not inception. you got two boxes, one bigger than the other. the smaller one goes in first. add padding inside the big box to ensure nothing is moving around. top, bottom, right, left, center etc. protect this guitar from all angles

http://i.imgur.com/X5rSvGT.jpg

next step is to rip off any old tags on the guitar that have addresses or if it suggests this is indeed a guitar. in case the shipping company leaves it at the door, at least it wont tempt someone from stealing it.

ship it off to wherever it is going

if done right, it should get there in tip top condition.

good luck!

and if you have any suggests for guitar shiper-ers, post em here too

Joined: 28 Nov 2007 Posts: 2106

seeing as how dean forum doesn't resize pictures...just click on those pictures yourself...i'm too lazy to