Shipping a guitar to the USA

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:15 am

I've got a fellow that is keen to send me a deposit on a commission of 2 guitars, but he lives in the USA.

The shipping of an instrument is something that was discussed a while ago, but I don't think anyone came up with a cost effective way. The one idea was to ship with the neck off, but that does require assembly at the other end. Not the most ideal way to send an instrument to a new owner.

Has anyone found a method that doesn't break the bank?

Localele · Post by **Localele** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:36 am

Hi Allen, I think in a good case with the tension taken off the strings.If they want a nice guitar it should have a nice case as well.Bugger is you have to freight the case over empty and then send it back full.Cheers.

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:40 am

My only suggestion Allen is not an overly good one I'm afraid, maybe if you could find someone in the USA with set up skills and willing to do the leg work you could arrange to ship to them with the neck off and have them ship to the customer once set up.

Cheers

Kim

ap404 · Post by **ap404** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:30 am

Allen, I ended up asking the two shops I have worked for ...

One has only sent 'bolt on' guitars to the USA thru AusPost, ( ~ $Au$150 ) the other uses TNT for everything on account and says to allow ~ Au$300 to send an electric guitar in a case to the East coast of the US and maybe Au$250 to the West ( IIRC ) these prices would rise for an individual without an account.

I was asking re: my set neck electric solid body guitars, but this will give you an idea for your acoustics. When I have actually shipped one I'll be sure to report back.

Basically any price we slap on a guitar in Australian dollars ( pacific pesos anyone ? ) looks like a bargain to people paying in Euros or GBP or US dollars ... but then I have to tell them about the bloody postage ... it has actually driven me to design some 'shorter' electric guitars ( based on old Silvertones ) to try to beat Australia Post's length limits ... and maybe I'll end up doing some bolt-on necks after all.

Cheers, Anthony

jackspira · Post by **jackspira** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:27 pm

Hi Allen, its a good question, and a major problem for all guitar makers in Australia I think. The only way around it as far as I'm aware is to cultivate a good relationship with a post office that will accept the oversized guitars. Once they are in the system they seem to get delivered no problem
As it is, to send an acoustic to the US or EU is now close to AU$600 via the major freight companies. By post its closer to AU$200, and the service is generally better too in my experience, its just those damn size limits!
jack

ap404 · Post by **ap404** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:48 pm

Once they are in the system they seem to get delivered no problem

Yep, this accounts for stories that people tell me of posting full size cased guitars at AustPost rates, once they stamp it it's not going to get questioned again ... I have had this work the other way when buying guitars from the US thru USPS, especially small town friendly mom and pop post-offices.

It's killing me having to turn down work due to these limitations.

As far as APost is concerned, I've been told that it's their steel mesh air freight crates that set the length requirement ( like the ones that you see at airports if you're freighting gear interstate. ), however items can fit at an angle in the crates and they will always make them fit if they've got that far.

Ho hum ...

Cheers,
Thanks for relating your experience Jack, Anthony

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:58 pm

With the way our dollar is, it's not surprising that Australian builders will be sending more guitars abroad. Over the summer I think I had about half a dozen sent to the US and Europe, and I can't recall any similar periods of international customers in recent years.

I'm a bit different with the Weisses in that I can get them securely padded in a 100cm shipping carton no worries. The hollow neck and lack of a joint in this area also means they're a lot less succeptible to damage from impact. All this means I'm quite happy to send guitars internationally without cases via AusPost. Never had any complaints of damage, let alone had to lodge an insurance claim.

With what it costs me to import cases I don't feel it makes any sense for me to sell them to international customers. When they can get the same case through a local dealer for significantly less than what they cost me -- let alone markup and international freight to them -- it's of no benefit to either party, considering the extra hurdles involved. Plus when I place orders for cases (usually in batches of four), the state of the packaging by the time it reaches me (via FedEx or UPS) leaves a lot to be desired compared with AusPost/USPS deliveries.

Can't be of much assistance with normal acoustic guitars etc., but I guess what I'm really getting at is that AusPost in my opinion is the way to go wherever possible -- cost, speed, quality of service are all second to none.

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:14 pm

If you were to encase the guitar body and neck separately into a sarcophagus of polystyrene foam it would freight fine. You then just need to arrange someone in the USA to assemble and forward the guitar in a good case pre-order to arrive at their shop. If you add the cost of assembly and freight forwarding in the USA to the deal, this would still more than compensated with the savings to be made by the customer for a quality case bought direct from the USA.

Cheers

Kim

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:12 pm

Good thoughts there fella's.

My wife dropped of some fret boards at the post office today, and asked them. They seem to think that it's no problem at all. I may just have to take a guitar in a case, and boxed up just to get a confirmation that it'll get into the system at this post office. See what transpires.

And if it comes to sending it disassembled then it's always an option.

Keep the ideas coming, and I'll get back to you with what I find out.

Dennis Leahy · Post by **Dennis Leahy** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:37 am

Allen wrote:... if it comes to sending it disassembled then it's always an option.

Keep the ideas coming, and I'll get back to you with what I find out.

Hi Allen,

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but a guitar with an adjustable neck solves the length limit issue, and does not require or warrant any glue once the instrument arrives. I would think any good luthier or guitar repair shop would properly attach the neck (according to the instructions that you would supply along with the guitar) for whatever their minimum fee would be. (1 hour ~ maybe $50US?) It wouldn't even take a good tech more than half an hour to attach an adjustable neck, string it, and get the neck angle / action set properly.

Dennis

jeffhigh · Post by **jeffhigh** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:46 am

If it's your one bolt externally adjustable neck Allen, I would consider that user assembly would be quite acceptable.
A sturdy rectangular box lined inside with mdf and then padding woulld be how I would go, with a separate box for the neck.

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:09 pm

Found out some more about using Australian Post for shipping. My wife took it upon herself to get to the bottom of whether a guitar is acceptable to ship. She called some head office, and the response was, that yes, there is a length restriction, so technically something the length of a guitar falls outside those measurements, but not to worry about that.

She was told that it comes down to the local post office to accept the parcel. They work on a commission it seems, so as long as it's not blatantly outside the size restrictions, there is usually no problem at all, and this person said that they regularly ship guitars. And was told that once it was in the system, no one ever would bother looking at it again.

Just to make sure that everything was good. she went into the local post office next to her work, where she's on a first name basis with the people there. She gave them the dimensions and was told that there would be no problem at all. In fact they had a lot more leeway when they shipped overseas than across the country.

Quoted price to ship that size of box up to 20 kg. was $162.45 plus insurance if required.

jeffhigh · Post by **jeffhigh** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:30 pm

I shipped a tele size guitar to Tasmania a few weeks ago in a box. Had an argument with the woman on the counter cause she was trying to measure it on the diagonal and was 5mm over the length limit. She claimed it was an OHS issue(ridiculous) and that the truck driver who collected it might reject it.
I convinced her to take it, and it got there fine.
I have had two archtops come from the usa by post and they were fine.
Probably still be safer in two packages as well as cheaper

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Shipping a guitar to the USA

Shipping a guitar to the USA

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