Official Luthiers Forum!

I know this is a debatable topic. I have shipped many guitars, but mostly back and forth from a finisher so I leave the neck unattached. My current build is for a customer in Canada so I will be shipping it to him completed. It seems that other than pure abuse by the carrier, the #1 problem is whiplash and a broken headstock.

I was reading a page by Jean Larrivee and he insists that you leave the guitar under full tension when shipping because this stabilizes the headstock. He even states that all the big manufacturers do this.

I called Martin and Taylor today and they always ship their guitars at full pitch. They ship more guitars in a week than all of us combined.

Clearly it is important to pad the headstock to prevent any movement and decrease the risk of a whiplash break.

What do you guys think.

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Good info Andy and I would have guessed that reducing the tension would be the smart play. Guess I am not very smart.....

If this is what the big guys do they should know.

Case and packing is a big factor but I ship with the stings just tight enough so they do not flop around I had one peghead broken in shipment but that was before I swithed to Ameritage cases. If the neck and body are properly supported in a case (can't move around at all) I would think this is a non issue. helps to add some support packing under the peghead

Agree with the Larrivee POV.
Also, pack the headstock area with crumpled up newspaper, tightly, there should be pieces both above and below the headstock. The ideal fit will cause the headstock to push down and compress the paper beneath it, and the case lid should compress the paper onto the the face of the headstock. Lay a piece of paper flat on the HS face if you're concerned with scratching it, then crumple some on top. You should need to apply some pressure to close the case. The idea being to absolutely immobilize the headstock and have it surrounded with shock absorbing material! Things like packing peanuts or bubble wrap are much less effective.
Cheers

I do the same as Michael, loosen them, but not all the way.
I also place as strip of masking tape over the bridge pins. We don't want a renegade pin floating loose in a case now do we?

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Agree with the fool above that the HS needs to be fully compressed, but I use bubble wrap covered in felt to do this - the case will not close without pressure.

As for string tension, thats a tough call IMO .... I lessen the tension, as do many others. As for tension stabilizing the headstock, explain how so many Gibson/Martins end up with broken headstocks simply from falling on their faces (I know I have fixed enough of these, as have others) ... In my thinking, the tension is adding to the shock of the forward fall, and certainly causes more than it saves. The short grain of a one piece neck behind the E tuners (plus the HUGE cavity Gibson uses for its truss rods) now has the tension of the strings pulling on it .. the smallest of shocks snaps many of them.

When shipping you take your chances .... I drop the tension, and pack solidly - no breaks yet.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Interesting topic. I know when I have unpacked new guitars from Martin, Larevee etc. they are never at full tension when they arrive. Another point is heat during shipment. I'm sure it can get hot enough in the back of the brown (or white) trucks to potentially do damage to your glue joints, the bridge specifically.

I always take my tension down and fill every available space in the case with packing material.

Louis

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

More to the point is whether these will be shipped ground or air. The pressure in a cargo hold on a plane will cause the tension to increase a good bit, so if under full tension, the headstock can be snapped off. This happened to a former teacher's old L5. Via ground shipping, full tension won't hurt and can only help for reasons stated above.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I take almost all the tension off. I'm concerned about heat damage. A guitar can get pretty hot without being damaged if there is no string tension to pull things out of shape.

If it gets hot with the strings tight, youever receives the guitar won't like the action !!

Mark

There seems to be alot of talk of padding up the headstock......I pad up the entire neck as well. The way I see it, when a guitar gets dropped.....the neck and headstock are travelling at same veocity. The guitar his the ground....the small section of the neck resting on the support stops but headstock and neck keep going....crack! Whack a wooden ruler over the top of a chair and see where the thing breaks.