The following is the information I send to all customers who courier their guitars to me for set up or refurbishment work. It details how I pack all the guitars that I send by courier. I’ve sent more than 800 guitars (as at Oct 2020) via courier – mostly Parcelforce – with a 100% no loss, no damage record. This record stands in the guitars I send out AND the guitars customers send me. It proves that courier sending is VERY safe, regardless of what anyone will have you believe in online forums.
One thing to make clear: with that 100% record you’ll understand why I make my packaging my insurance when it comes to sending guitars. Few, if any, couriers actually insure guitars so I don’t – apart from the occasional overseas send or if a customer wants to pay a specialist insurer premium. But as you can see, packaging really is the best insurance policy by miles.
General packing advice for courier sending:
For courier deliveries in the UK I normally use Parcelforce 48. To give you an idea of the dimensions / costs – my typical electric guitar (no hard case) parcel tends to be around 7 – 8kg, length 120cm width 45cm height 20cm for a guitar in a gig bag, wrapped in layers of bubble wrap and suspending in a tough custom-made cardboard box. This costs £16.40 for 48hr delivery. Acoustic guitars will have different dimensions and weight so please check your finished package before booking. Guitars in hard cases will make much larger and heavier packages. Parcelforce doesn’t seem to be too fussy about exact dimensions to the mm. Please bear in mind that very few couriers insure guitars (despite the fact that most of them will STILL take additional premiums from you regardless at the time of booking – you’ll just find out later that your item was in their ‘excluded’ list).
The secret of success using couriers is to create as much of a ‘crumple / buffer zone’ as is possible between all surfaces of the guitar – or the case containing the guitar – and the outside world and its dangers.
For a guitar without a case:
• Wrap the guitar securely in large-diameter bubble wrap and / or air bags and secure with packing tape. This will create a pressurised air ‘suit’ all round the guitar.
• Make end ‘bumpers’ out of rolled bubble wrap and tape them on to each end of the guitar. At the headstock end, tape this role side-to-side around the headstock tip (i.e. not over the front & back). This will keep the package shape manageable.
• Build a cardboard box around your guitar bundle. Full size cycle boxes are idea for this – a single side of one box is enough to pack a single guitar. This box will hold the guitar firmly and the compressed air held in the bubble wrap will keep the guitar safe. Try to avoid using those flat commercial guitar boxes because they’re too small to include any decent buffer zone. If you DO use one then treat it like a guitar in a hard case (see below)
Note: I’ve had guitars wrapped very thoroughly in bubble-wrap ONLY (looking like the legendary Michelin Man) that arrived here absolutely safely. In those cases the air buffer was so effective the guitar could fall over and bounce without any risk of damage.
For a guitar in a hard case:
Note: In my view, hard cases alone are not suited for courier transportation because they can give a ‘false sense of security’ and in many cases increase the likelihood of the guitar being damaged in transit. This is because most hard cases have so little actual ‘crumple zone’ between the electric guitar and the outside world that impacts are easily transmitted through to the delicate guitar. In addition too many cases allow the guitar to slide from end to end, increasing the damaging momentum in a drop or knock. Of course, a hard case also greatly increases the mass of your package meaning that when the case is dropped or tossed into a truck (as you should realistically expect it to be) there may even be a greater likelihood of damage because of the case. If all that wasn’t bad enough, bear in mind that transporting a guitar inside a hard case will also increase the cost of the courier.
If you DO want (or for insurance purposes need) to send a guitar in a hard case you need to treat the entire cased guitar as ‘the delicate item’.
• Ensure the guitar cannot move in the case. You can do this by filling any gapes between the guitar body and the end of the case with foam, cloth or bubble wrap and between the tip of the headstock and that end of the case. Avoid forcing material in there and leaving the guitar held under stress.
• Attach rolled up bubble-wrap bumpers to all the outside edges of the hard case
* Put the hard case in a larger box and fill any remaining space with bubble-wrap, air bags, crumpled paper to prevent the hard case from moving or coming into contact with the insides surfaces of the case
As a rule, acoustic guitars tend to have less mass and tend to be better fitting so are less likely to move from end to end in their cases and less likely to get damaged by the case.
Packing with bubble wrap
Making a cardboard box