Official Luthiers Forum!

For those of you selling your guitars, what brand of cases do you prefer to ship in? Anyone ship in hard bags like those from Access or Mono? Ever had a guitar damaged during shipping?

If my guitars will fit in a standard case (and there is a lot to be said for ensuring that before you start) they get a standard off the shelf TKL case. If they don't fit a TKL I have a custom case made by Cedar Creek (TKL's custom department). They are beautifully made, always fit perfectly, are expensive and long delivery.

If I know I am going to ship the guitar I keep the box that the case came in (they are different size) with all the packing materials and simply ship in that. I haven't shipped all that many but have never had a problem, including on guitar that was shipped to the EU. Remember that most retail stores get their inventory shipped usually by UPS and any guitar order on line will be shipped the same way. Pack it right, insure and don't worry.

I'm going to add something to my previous post. I just got back from trying to ship a case back - it was the wrong size and the company I bought it from gave me a return authorization. It a pretty large case (Super 400 archtop size) and I paid $25 shipping when I bought it. UPS quoted me over a hundred to send it back, FedEx was 80 something, I couldn't get in the door at the post office but the guy at UPS said they would be close to his price. I finally took it to the company I used to work for - they have an account with UPS and it was 50. I used to remember shipping guitars all the time for $35.

Just a heads up.

Yeah I pay anywhere from $50 to $120 shipping guitars all the time. Depends where they are going. It's definitely not cheap.

I shipped one ups for around $50. Including $1k insurance. If I wanted 4k insurance it was like over $100 just for the insurance. Does everyone experience similar?

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Pat

I insure for $3000 and usually pay somewhere around $100 to ship with USPS. USPS seems to usually be less expensive than UPS for me.

Last year I shipped a guitar from the US to Austria (semi hollow body, TKL case, packed in the TKL cardboard box) and USPS was by far the least expensive

Same here, shipped one to Russia and USPS was the cheapest.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

What was the cost if you don't mind my asking?

US Priority Mail, 30 pounds, total postage and fees $126.84. That's why I had so much trouble with UPS and FedEx wanting around a hundred to ship an empty case across the US.

btw - if you ever do decide to ship out of the US I can tell you my experience with customs paperwork. Might be changing with ALL rosewood going to appendix 2 of CITES.

Wow that's such a great price. I shipped a guitar from the US to France several years ago and I remember it costing nearly $500.

Yeah, UPS and FedEx would have been twice that or more and when I took it to a dedicated shipping place the price was obscene. As I recall one of the things that made USPS so reasonable is that I did everything on line and simply walked into the Post Office with the box and the paper work. I sent another package to Indonesia (parts and tools) and it was about 60 bucks USPS - again, did the paperwork on line.

I think another reason USPS is so much less expensive is because it's run by the US government. USPS loses billions of dollars every year. If it were a private business they'd have gone under years ago. We get cheap prices in the moment but our taxes ultimately pay for it.