OT: Shipping an amp head and cab

[DominicPerry]

I have an 18 watt head and 2x12 cab I want to ship to the US. Any recommendations please for crates/boxes/flightcases? And any preference for air freight, surface, particular carriers?

Dominic

[bcorkery]

Cary on? :p Just don't hide it under your clothes!

[Bill Park]

Dom,

I've done a fair amount of shipping stuff around, and I can only warn you that the state of shipping today makes this a very risky decision. Photograph everything. Take out insurance. Cross your fingers. Consult your local bone shaker. Seek absolution from the Pope.

I built a custom plywood and foam case to move a 1960s vintage 2x12 Silvertone amp, in fabulous shape. UPS delivered the package to the customer with the transformer ripped out of the bent chassis, a speaker broken, the tubes knocked out of their sockets and some broken.... a video projector shipped in an ATA flight case on wheels had the puncture marks where the forks of the forklift penetrated the case and destroyed the projector... I watched as the UPS guy balanced a Tascam tape deck on the back of his truck. It too was in an ATA flight case, being returned tome from Tascam, and I watched as the deck fell to the street with enough force to send the reels through the foam, plywood, and plastic laminate.


A highly padded ATA case on wheels is your best bet. When we moved from Pittsburgh to Florida I built custom boxes on wheels for everything fragile, out of plywood and 1x3 with lots of padding. Too big and heavy to lift, on purpose. Everything was ramped and rolled, and nothing in those cases broke. These boxes contained everything from all of my vintage guitars, drums, recording gear and mics, glasswear, mirrors, TVs, my Dunlavys, and piles of framed vintage posters behind glass.

If you trust them to provide wheels, they'll throw your amp around, roll and tumble it, and maybe use various carts or dollies, but if it is on it's own wheels the chances for mayhem are reduced. Not eliminated, but reduced. take out the tubes. If the chassis looks as though it needs a little extra support, fit in some bracing between the transformers and some other solid surface. And pad. Pad pad pad pad.

[DominicPerry]

Thanks Bill. I'm sure your horror stories are true, but don't artists/bands do this all the time? There must be a way of getting it done reliably without too much risk. I'm not sending it to anyone - it's for me. I can't leave it behind!

Dominic

[Microstudio]

Go to the UPS Store , they will pack it and ship it. You will not pack it better then them. I handed them a Yamaha S80 Synth, they packed and shipped no problem. Handed them my Mesa Boogie Studio Caliber amp and they boxed it up and shipped it no problem.

[Bill Park]

Thanks Bill. I'm sure your horror stories are true, but don't artists/bands do this all the time? There must be a way of getting it done reliably without too much risk. I'm not sending it to anyone - it's for me. I can't leave it behind!

Dominic

On the other side of the same coin, I packed an original 1950s DuoSonic in a custom red (Canada) case by only wrapping it in cardboard, took it down to USPS and shipped it successfully to the buyer at his insistence.. and it got from Pittsburgh to Australia without a scratch.

When bands do it it is much different, and handled differently. It used to be that guitars were loaded into coffin crates made to hold them upright in their cases. Now they are shipped in crates made to hold them in their cases in drawers, with room to hang the guitars when they get to their destinations, so that the same crate that ships them is used as a stage box to roll them on and off the stage area. Don't forget that most
band gear is shipped in the band equipment truck. There are various ways to ship them overseas but still they are in that big crate which requires special handling. (A shipping carnet is involved too, and you won't have one of those so your case will be examined at least once.) And we all saw that video wherein the airline trashed the Taylor guitar flying within the US.