cold weather shipping

Got one coming from Victoria, BC, Canada, arriving before Christmas. I fully intend on letting it sit for many hours before attempting to open it. It's been 2 years since commissioning it so I'm all practiced up on the waiting game.

[stuartb]

I've waited the winter before shipping a guitar in the past. Any temperature below -5 degrees celcius - or below -27 F presents conditions that are a little to risky to ship.

If it's an expensive guitar, no sense in taking too many risks. I also fly the guitar overnight. Expensive, but get's the job done and the guitar moves through customs very quickly and does not get stuck in a cold storage area or outside, in a truck, overnight.

Stuart

[Misifus]

Originally Posted by DB Cooper

Welcome to AGF, Jeff! If you follow this 8-step process, you should have no problem with your new guitar!

1) First, place the box in an unheated garage, as far away from your home entrance as possible, where the ambient temperature is just above the outside temperature - leave it there for 12 hours.

2) Next, move it within the garage to a place near the entrance to your home - 6 hours there should suffice.

3) At that point, bring it into your home (still in the box, of course) and place it in the coolest part of your home - a basement or unheated attic would work this time of year. Leave it there a full 24 hours, just to be on the safe side.

4) Then move it to the living space of your home at least 15 feet from any heating vent - but don't open it! Another day there should get the box and its inner contents close to room temperature.

5) Now, very carefully, cut the packing tape and open just one end of the box. This will allow the cooler box air out and allow the warmer room air in - but perform this step with exact precision - you don't want to waste all this effort by taking a misstep here. Best to wait 6-8 hours.

6) Once you are confident that the box/room air is sufficiently mixed (time varies depending on latitude, humidity, air pressure, Zodiac sign, and amount of mojo), open the remainder of the box.

(Now this next step is tricky...)
7a) If the guitar is in a case, you must wait another 24-36 hours to allow the case air to warm to room temperature.
7b) If there is no case, you should be safe to proceed - with caution, of course.

8) Play and enjoy!

...

My word! All of that and more?

And here I used to carry my 1957 D-18 behind my back on a motorcycle in 25F temps. When I got to my destination, I sometimes waited as long as 15 minutes before opening the flimsy cardboard case - all to no ill effect.

-Raf

[fitness1]

Here's what I do when it's cold.....(say less than 40 degrees)


let the box set at room temp for about 2 hours, then open one end of the box and remove some of the packing material, let it set for another couple of hours, then pull the case out and let it set for another hour or two.

If it's below 20 or so, I may extend some of those times, it also depends on where it came from and how long it's been in the cold.

I do believe that some finishes will be much more fragile when it's cold, and more subject to checking when thrown around too much (too much impact)
regardless of acclimation time.

[jhsatt]

thanks for the info. I'm leaning towards the long waiting game. But that is easy to say now. I'm not staring at a box in front of me begging to be opened! Wish me luck! Jeff

[LoMa]

Well, I think htere are often dramatic temperature/himidity shifts that can occur during shipping. In planes or in the back of a UPS or FedEx truck...

And I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where temperature extremes are nearly unheard of and it rarely freezes or reaches 100 degrees in summer. Usually boxes are pretty near room temperature when they arrive at my home.

[DMZ]

I've always wondered why you shouldn't open the cold guitar in your cold garage to look at it or check it out very briefly as long as temperature is really close to shipping temps? (Remember that line on the really old "LIFE" cereal commercial..."I'm not gonna try it - you try it...hey, let's get Mikey!")

[JimR]

It's really a very simple concept. Whenever you ship a guitar, in it's case (usually made from wood and lined with foam and cloth) and packed in a shipping box with foam peanuts, paper, bubble wrap, whatever, all of those things that you have surrounding the guitar are insulators. They are not very efficient thermal conductors. It takes a considerable amount of time for them to conduct and absorb the ambient temperature. That is exactly what we want, slow temperature transition. But I've never waited more than 12 hours to pull a guitar out of the case, tune it and play it. And I don't live in an extremely cold climate.

[epaul]

Db's having some fun with hyperbole. (and if he is suggesting, by his exageration, that there may be some excess caution being displayed in this regard, I agree with him).

If the outside shipping temps are above 40 F, that isn't cold nor is it finish threatening. Being cautious in this situation would be taking the guitar out of the box but leaving it in the case for an hour before taking it out.


If the guitar is shipped in cold weather (below freezing), I open the flap on the shipping box right away and let it sit for a couple hours. Then I pull the case out and let it sit another couple hours (or until it feels about room temp, which takes about two hours). I regard that as being plenty cautious. I have opened several nitro-finished Martins that were shipped in mid-Minnesota winter, to good effect, using that exact procedure.

I would be more worried about shipping a guitar in the middle of an Arizona summer than in the middle of a Minnesota winter.


.

[hermithollow]

If you need to open the package to examine the guitar for damage, try to open it in the same temperature as it arrived in. Aren't some delivery vehicles heated? Ask the driver how warm the cargo area is.

[Haans]

I live in an extreme cold climate. When it get's below zero, I don't ship. When I receive, I take the instrument in case, in box, and let the box warm up to room temp. When it is room temp, I take the case out of the box and let it warm up to room temp. When the latches are warm, I crack the case and stick my hand in. If the top is cold, I leave the case cracked a half inch until I can stick my hand in and the top is room temp. After that I can remove the instrument from the case. Works for me...

[DB Cooper]

Originally Posted by epaul

Db's having some fun with hyperbole.

Who? Me??

[jwalker99]

I loved DB's paranoid parody. (Jeez I hope he was joking.) I just had a Beneteau delivered from North Carolina shipped cross country to So Cal. FEDEX dicked around with it for 2 days in So Cal so it has had some time to acclimate. It's been taken out of the box. As soon as the latches on the case feel like the latches on my other cases, (2 hrs.?) I'm going to open the case. Maybe I'll fire up a stick of sacred incense to lend the proper aura and good karma to the proceedings, I mean ritual. If the guitar splinters into pieces I will of course post the results.

[000-18GE]

Some of these case opening plans seem quite elaborate. The guys at Artisan wait 24 hrs 365/24/7 before opening any box that comes to them and they recommend those receiving from them do the same. Just wait 24 hrs no matter what and you should be just fine.

[Neal Pert]

I just bought a Martin the other day and it's shipping across a couple states in pretty cold temps. I'm planning to just be patient and give each phase (box indoors, then unbox and sit in case) about 12 hours.

Well, until it gets here, of course. Then all I'll be doing is pacing back and forth in front of the case, waiting to open it!