I need a 'how to pack an acoustic guitar for shipping' youtube vid

[Kerry Krishna]

I have a guy shipping me a guitar, and he has no Facebook, so can not see the extensive "how to ship a guitar" photoessay I have on there. Please Luthiers, I need a good Youtube vid that shows everything, and before you ask, I have just viewed about 25 of them, and they are all pretty pedestrian, and all have been found lacking. What is it that Luthiers send to customers?

[Ned Knepp]

Here's a link to the packing instructions Frank put on the dot com site;

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/GenMaint/Packing/packing1.... 

[Michael P. Lemieux]

Hello,

If you have Stew Mac's guitar repair guide book it has a very good article on packing guitars and amps. Just a thought.

Mike

[Kerry Krishna]

 Here ya go     facebook photoessay

[Kerry Krishna]

I am going to have to make up a vid  at some point soon to cover all the points.

 One thing that is never covered in these vids is the importance, when shipping vintage guitars, of tightening all the screws. One single screw falling loose during shipping  could result in an amazing amount of damage. 

 Here is the list I sent to the gent:  

You need to do a bunch of stuff to make it safe Ken.  First, if you are able to get an oversized box from any guitar store, big enough to ship an acoustic.  They are usually quite a bit bigger than the guitar itself, so you can get padding surrounding the guitar.

 There is some small pieces of tape used to secure things on the guitar, so please be aware not to put any tape directly on the finish of the guitar, as it will rip the nitro right off of it!

 

So:

 Tighten ALL the screws,  including the pickguard, tailpiece, screws both holding the machine heads on and the big flathead ones that  hold the post up. 

 

 Loosen all the strings, fold up a page of newspaper and  and put the newspaper between fretboard and strings, and tape it on, otherwise it will slide out.

 

Take off the wooden bridge, wrap it in crumpled newspaper and drop it in the soundhole.

 Put newspaper as padding under the trapeze tailpiece, and under the pickguard and tape it in place.  

 

  The guitar itself can not be touching the cardboard box at any point. The guitar should be floating in the case, with lots of crumpled newspaper on the bottom of the box before it goes in, between the top and back of the body, sides, lots under the neck, and especially at the headstock.  There should be lots of crumpled paper  on either end of the guitar. When finished packing, you should not be able the hear anything rattling if you shake it hard. Don't overstuff the newspaper in the box either, as it could stop the shock absorption factor, and also scratch/dig into the nitro finish on the guitar.  

  

 Please put lots of FRAGILE stickers on the box, (They are free at Post Office) and  put a piece of paper inside the box at the headstock end with both of our full address' and contact info. It should be the vera first thing that you see when you open the cardboard box.  This is in case someone rips the  outside mailing info off. (It happens many times a year. If the info is Inside, it will eventually return to one of us). 

 

 Please make sure if there are any delivery invoices of other addresses on outside of box, that you black marker them right out.  Also any and all barcodes! Super important! 

 

  So if done properly,  the box will not be bulging front to back either...

 

 

 

 So  I only except US PostalService delivery For  $15 extra, Expedited shipping will give you a tracking code for both of us, and sometimes it can REALLY move a box fast!  I had guitar show up 3 days afterwards all the way from Florida this way, but sometimes it has taken as long as 27 days too.