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Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on March 16, 2011 at 1:22pm

I start with the right box.  My wife's company gets shipments of power supplies and the boxes are long but narrow and square.  The cardboard these are made with are heavy duty (thick).  I also collect packing material, mainly cut foam (the firm stuff).  I work for a company that installs AV gear so I get packing material from things like video switchers and stuff.  Then I use a knife and sometimes a hot glue gun to re-make them into two end supports, one that fits the box in tight and the other that locks the headstock in place.  Then I make a couple of supports for the neck. 

If something like this is not an option for you, I suggest going the double box route.  Wrap the instrument in bubble wrap, and place in a box where it fits tightly enough so it won't move (use more wrap if needed).  seal it and then place that box into a bigger box using packing peanuts to fill the space.  Make sure there is at least 4" of space between boxes and that the peanuts are packed in tight. 

This way, most impacts the outside box takes, the inside box won't suffer from.  If the gods of UPS are not with you however, stuff happens.  I've seen some messed up shipments.  Luckily none of mine.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on March 16, 2011 at 1:22pm

Liberal use of bubble wrap for starters, plus any spare styrofoam or peanuts you might have lying around. Make sure they can't slide around inside the box.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Pruett on March 16, 2011 at 1:34pm

Check out Witchita Sam's moving sale posts here - he has some pictures of a really solid idea using 1 1/2" or 2" foam insulation board and liberal amounts of packing tape that looks very secure. Several folks have posted testimonials of those homemade shipping boxes making it overseas just fine.

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Permalink Reply by Glaze on March 17, 2011 at 12:50am

Jason

 

Ask your local music store for some guitar boxes.  The larger guitar boxes are used for guitars shipped inside of guitar cases to protect them during shipping.  All expensive guitars are shipped this way.  

 

The cheaper instruments are shipped in smaller boxes without a guitar case.  I have seen bolt on necks with the screws holding the neck on the body ripped out of the guitar body when the shipping company was not too kind to the guitar box without a guitar case to protect the guitar inside of the box.

 

Shipping a CBG with no case?  Double box it or pack it extremely well in one box of the right size.    

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Jason W. on March 22, 2011 at 8:13am

Thanks guys. I've got lots of packing paper and boxes from ordering materials and tools online. Good tips.

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