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How To Pack An Acoustic Guitar With No Case

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This explains our approach to truck shipping and packing an acoustic guitar with NO case. Vintage cardboard cases, gig bags, and foam cases are not adequate protection.

A lot of shippers think wrapping an acoustic with bubble wrap will prevent crush damage. Not true. The most common cause of damage to acoustic guitars shipped without a case is crush damage. Super wrapping with thick bubble wrap actually contributes to this damage.

The images below show a better way. The sides of the box are cut open only for illustrative purposes. Do not cut the box this way. Load the packing materials and the guitar in order from the open small end of the box.

Use a standard shipping box (51x21x8) for all acoustic guitars. This box is made of hard card board and are rated for cross country truck shipping. They can only be opened on the ends, not down the middle. These boxes are available at most Fed Ex, UPS, and Postman Plus stores.

Do not use a liner box. These are triangular shaped soft cardboard intended for use inside a hard cardboard box. These are not designed or rated for cross country truck shipping. There is a reason the guitar stores throw these in the trash.

Do not use a rectangular soft card board storage box such as what cases are shipped in. These open down the middle. They are way too soft. They are not designed or rated for cross country truck shipping of an acoustic guitar.

IMPORTANT! Always remove strings, bridge pins, saddle (if removable), and strap peg from guitar and place inside the body in a zip lock bag. Discard the strings. If the strap peg is screw in type remove and put in the zip lock. The foregoing will prevent most kinds of shipping damage. When left in place, the wedge shaped strap peg is easily forced into the tail block causing massive damage to the guitar bottom. If left installed, same can happen to the bridge. The bridge pins act like wedges and can be forced into the bridge causing it to split.

In the images below, the guitar is wrapped in a large plastic leaf bag. This prevents finish scratches. You can wrap the guitar in a single (only one!) layer of thin foam or 3/8 inch bubble wrap. Keep the wrapping to a bare minimum as this contributes rather than prevents crush damage.

Packing components are listed in order as added to the box:

Add an additional sheet of cardboard between side of box and where the guitar back will be. That was done here but you can’t see it in the image.

Add two 7.5"x 5" paper filled card board rolls: two in each bottom corner Note that the card board in the rolls has the corrigations running perpendicular to the long side of the card board.

Add at least 3 inches bubble wrap between guitar bottom and the two card board rolls.

Put the guitar in the box.

Place two sheets 3/4 inch bubble wrap between back of guitar and box side.

Add foam chips or bubble wrap between guitar side, lower bout and box side.

Add one card board roll on each side at the waist or slightly lower. These rolls prevent crush damage.

Note that the guitar is not crammed into the box with excessive layers of bubble wrap.

Add one or two additional layers of bubble wrap between the guitar top and side of box. Again, make sure the box is not packed tightly.

The neck is trapped between a thick roll of bubble wrap between back of box and back of neck and a thick layer (not a roll) of bubble wrap between fret board and side of box. This bubble wrap arrangement must be installed to protect against gear head whip lash.

Paper fill on either side of the and neck is acceptable.

We shipped a lot of acoustics without cases this way with not a single problem.

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