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#1
07-25-2013, 11:17 AM
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Shipping (and handling) to a show?
I'm wondering with the builders. Your traveling to a show like Healdsburg, it's an airplane ride for you. How do the guitars get there? Are they shipped separately or (horrors) checked as baggage?
Then once at the venue, do you handle moving them inside or is it a union shop? 
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#2
07-25-2013, 03:37 PM
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You need to very securely box up your instruments in sturdy guitar boxes, with plenty of padding, so that the guitar (in its case!) will not jostle around at all. Make sure it's suspended in packing material on all sides. Make it gorilla-proof.
I use UPS for my shipping, and I book transit online through my account. You can easily and securely set up an account at www.ups.com. You have a wide range of shipping options and costs, from Ground to Next-day Air. You can add an insurance valuation of up to $5000, which UPS recognizes as a high value package, and insofar as possible, they will treat it as such, because they don't want to have to pay for expensive, ruined guitars. But, for extra security, if possible, attach a rider to your homeowner's policy which covers the guitar's full value. You ought to be able to do this for one-time use. You can also schedule a pickup at your front door for a small extra charge. Make sure the UPS person signs and dates the shipping receipt that you print out when you are printing your shipping label. Of course, make sure there is someone on the other end to receive the shipment; and make sure a signature is required on delivery. In almost all cases, you are allowed to take one guitar and one personal carry-on item (Laptop, briefcase, whatever) on board a plane, so long as the case is small enough to fit in the overhead bin. I think 48" long by 18" wide is nominal. If you book your flight online, look for information on carry-on restrictions, and you'll probably find something that says one carry-on guitar is okay. When I go to the Healdsburg next month, I'm shipping two guitars to Luthier's Mercantile a week ahead of time; and I'm going to hand-carry the other one on my plane flight. Yeah, it's expensive to ship guitars, but the less chance for mischance, the better.
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Edwinson
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#3
07-25-2013, 03:44 PM
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At the Healdsburg show, all of the guitars that have been shipped to the Luthier's Mercantile are brought to the hotel exhibition area on Thursday afternoon, the day before the show. You can pick them up there, at the venue. LMI makes it easy for you.
There are usually several hundred guitars arriving, so it's a huge task for LMI to transport them all. We owe them our gratitude, big-time! Because there will be so many guitars there, make sure to put your name, or some other identifying marker, on each of your boxes, so you will be able to spot them in the crowd. BTW, if you are an official exhibitor, you will have received an exhibitors information .pdf in an email several days ago. Print it out and read it cover to cover, if you haven't already. Good luck, and have fun!
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Edwinson
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#4
07-25-2013, 03:47 PM
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Just as a general shipping precaution, I have gotten into a routine of taking photos of the guitar (all angles) on the day I ship, the case w/guitar, AND the actual packing of the box itself.
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Larry Pattis on Spotify and Pandora LarryPattis.com American Guitar Masters 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists Steel-string guitars by Rebecca Urlacher and Simon Fay Classical guitars by Anders Sterner
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#5
07-25-2013, 04:14 PM
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I am 19 miles from the Healdsburg venue, so it's less trouble for me than pretty much anyone. However, I will go to Woodstock in the fall, and that's a trek! I have tried many methods over the years, and my favorite is to carry them on as checked baggage. I use Calton or Hoffee cases custom made for the instrument most of the time, and certainly for traveling, so the safety of the guitar is of little concern. The safety of the case is another thing. I like to cut a standard guitar carton down to a trapazoidal shape as tight to the case as possible, cut a hole where the handle is, and carry it like a guitar. If I am going for more than a week end, I make the box a bit bigger and put my clothing in it as well. I have done this several times, including international travel, and there's been no trouble at all. Knock on wood.
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#6
07-25-2013, 04:43 PM
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One thought that hasn't been mentioned yet. Check out Heritage Insurance. They have a great plan for builders and I have found it to be a far better solution than the shippers insurance.
If memory serves Marc Blanchard had several get destroyed with a FedEx plane crashed and Heritage took care of everything with no hassles at all.
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#7
07-25-2013, 07:26 PM
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READ THE FINE PRINT with any carrier you choose. Usually it says something to the affect that you must have a minimum of 2" padding ALL the way around the instrument or the carrier insurance is null and void. We regularly use UPS because we have a hub 5 minutes from our shop and shipped our HB show guitars this afternoon
 We have a post office less than 2 blocks away and it is our LAST choice of carriers, nuf said...If you have biz insurance and are familiar with your policy you can save some money by insuring your instruments with the carrier for only the value of your deductible and then your biz insurance will cover the remainder, should anything adverse happen ;( If you are flying and checking your guitar as luggage I would suggest either a Case Extreme or a padded case cover to protect the case exterior and hardware.
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