Help! How to properly ship a Music Man Bass

[Low End Lover]

Hello,

I just sold my Sterling Classic and am going to be shipping it out tomorrow. I know that it is recommended that some basses and guitars be detuned to take stress off them due to temperature changes encountered in shipping, but others are supposed to be left in tune.
I wanted to find out from folks who know the proper way I should ship my Sterling.

Thanks in advance,

LEL (Jason)

 

[Spudmurphy]

Best to leave the guitar in pitch. The guitar is in a stable state when the tension of the strings are equal to the tension of the truss rod. If you de tune you may induce back bow.

 

[mmbassplayer]

LEL... Spud is right. I have shipped many basses and never had an issue due to being in tune. I would think (non-expert opinion) the time spent with no tension on the neck would be more harmful. JOSH

 

[syciprider]

My EBMMs come from SLO, to CT then back to SoCAL and I always received them in tune to standard pitch.

 

[Aussie Mark]

If there is any movement in the case at all, make sure you put in some extra padding, especially at the headstock end. Bubble wrap or scrunched up newspaper work fine.

Also, I always put a piece of thin cardboard (cereal box thickness) between the strings and the fingerboard, to avoid any external hit on the case leaving string indents on the fingerboard.

 

[ScreaminFloyd]

Call your local Guitar store. Some stores keep the original boxes folded down and if you find one just slip the case in and tape it up, Just like from the factory. I keep my boxes just in case i have to ship back to the factory. I've never had to ship a Music Man back though.

 

[JayDawg]

Ship it in tune. All of my EBMM basses that I have bought were shipped from their factory in California to Bass Central in Florida to my house in Colorado. All of them came shipped in tune with no issues. I would however, recommend wrapping your bass in bubble wrap, then the case in bubble wrap and then ship it in a box that fits the case comfortably. I have kept all of the boxes that all of my basses have come in in the event that I ever need to ship them anywhere. I recently shipped with UPS a guitar that I sold, packed it properly and they damaged the finish due to them simply throwing heavy boxes on top of it despite the fragile stickers all over it and this weird bag they put over the box for high end items. Getting UPS to reimburse me even though I insured everything was like pulling teeth. It wasn't until I threatened legal action and sent them before photos of the guitar a few days before it was shipped that they finally agreed to pay for the guitar. As a result, I will never use them again there customer service was the antithesis of Ernie Ball/Music Man customer service. But as a result I did learn some valuable things as far as shipping goes. Take detailed before photos of your bass before shipping and if possible, record yourself playing the bass before shipping to have proof it works. In addition to them trashing the finish on my guitar, they also had knocked off 2 wires in the electronics. So make sure you have a lot of detailed pictures and/or video of the bass before shipping it to protect yourself in the event whomever you ship with tries to do what UPS did to me a while back.

 

[Low End Lover]

Thanks to all for the good advice. I do have the factory box and will do the bubble wrap/cardboard inside. I only use FedEx as I feel the same about UPS.
I also have detailed photos of the bass from all angles.
I think with the advice here, I will be good. I hope this helps out other folks in the future as these basses are too good looking to be abused.

Thanks again,

LEL

 

[five7]

Usps is the only way I will ship! Fedex broke a guitar and gave the guitar and insurance money to the seller. I got screwed!

 

[Holdsg]

sounds like equal opportunity screwage to me, just hope it is never your "turn".