I am needing to have several acoustic guitars shipped from California to Kentucky. It doesn't need to be fast, just safe.
Any suggestions? (i.e., who to use, how to pack, etc.)
They all have cases. I'm sure it won't be cheap, but they are nice guitars . (One is a vintage early 70's Gibson Hummingbird). Of course they would be insured as well.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Interview guy: What is the source of your feedback?
Neil Young: Volume.
Slacken the strings, some people like to give a quarter turn relief to the neck. - remove the battery if any. Hobby supply stores will have silica packets, I'll toss a few in there for moister. I go dumpster diving at GC for guitar boxes to pack the cases in and wrap the cases in bags first.
There is only so much you can do in packing. Period. It is a gamble but I have shipped probably 50 instruments and have only had a damaged case a couple of times.
Go ground delivery, not air.
Insure you package.
Call the shipping company and tell them you are sending "Prototypes guitars" and you want to know how best to label them so that they will not be stacked or crushed and the best way to insured that they not be separated. Like any business there are "codes" for handling jobs for friends and family, chances are they can help you get the best results with out pissing off the guys in the trucks by writing "Fragile" 80 times in red letters. I learned that writing "prototype, 1 of 3" for instance, helps keep items together and shows the contents are not rare, or valuable and probably wont be very easy to sell, even when the cases are obviously guitars. People respect people trying to do a job, especially craftsmen and anybody who might want to take a look at a celebrity guitar (or worse) might not be as curious if its a "prototype". This might be me being paranoid or it might be me realizing that if I was loading a truck and came across a bunch of guitar case I'd have to fight the urge to take a harmless peek.
Take a hostage photo with a newspaper or a time print before packing it up, don't be too careful.
If you are sending more than a couple at once to one address use Old Dominion shipping in North America, DHL in Europe. The cost will be a lot less then shipping separately using the mail and both companies are grade A for handling. The Best.
