Shipping misadventures

[bolero]

Removing tuners is a good idea: especially Grovers as they weigh a couple pounds, easy

Also loosen strings so there is no tension on the neck

That definitely sucks though. Good call abandoning the situation. The seller could have even been trying to get rid of it by a claim, that is a half assed repair if I ever saw one.

[GuitarsGuitarsGuitars]

12 hours ago, MartyGrass said:

I don't the shipper did this.  Could it be done by dropping the box 6 feet?  Yes.

Could it - yes.

Would it - No.

No chance in real life. 

 

And Repsectfully - a set of Grovers weigh less than a pound.  about 9 ounces.

[MartyGrass]

7 hours ago, GuitarsGuitarsGuitars said:

Could it - yes.

Would it - No.

No chance in real life. 

 

And Repsectfully - a set of Grovers weigh less than a pound.  about 9 ounces.

I'm not trying to be argumentative about this but I have a different take on this.

The TKL cases support the top of the neck but not the headstock.  The site of the truss rod cavity is weak and very near the anchor site by the case.  This serves in a sense as a fulcrum.  The weight of the tuners, particularly the D and G tuners, produce a rotary force that transects the linear wood fibers at the weak spot of the truss rod cavity.  The velocity and consequent momentum of the headstock weighted by the tuners with a 6 foot drop is capable of transecting the guitar.  The case does little to protect from this rotary force.  This is why the headstock should be packed into the case.

A common way to break the headstock is to knock a guitar off its stand.  This is less than 6 feet.

About 12 years ago I discussed how Heritage packs its guitar with Vince Margol, one of the Heritage owners at the time.  https://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo_gazette_extra/2007/11/guitar_hero_local_attorney_swo.html  I specifically asked him why Gibbons and Heritage don't pack the headstock better.  Vince was, presumably still is, a person familiar with the numbers.  He said that the breakage/damage rate with shipping to the dealers was 2-3%.  That's baked into the wholesale price.  Not all of the breakage was the headstock but that was the most common.  They have learned to accept that.

There has to be care in packing the headstock because of the nitrocellulose.  The  material that touches the finish has got to be non-reactive in a broad range of temperatures for possibly a very long period of time.

Loosening the strings makes sense if you know which way FedEx, USPS, or UPS is going to drop it.  If the box is dropped so that the front of the guitar hits the floor, loosened strings theoretically helps.  The opposite is true though if it is dropped the on the opposite side.

Note on the attached pic how the headstock is free floating in the case.  This is not a Heritage guitar, but it's close.  I received two of these today by UPS, both surviving the journey.

 

 

[Steiner]

Just over 10oz on average for Grover 102, respectfully.

[GuitarsGuitarsGuitars]

Yea - no.  I've gotten well over 200 guitars - from every conceivable shipper.  I've shipped well over 100 --

Breakage rate of Exactly Zero percent. I do loosen the strings.

2-3% is ridiculous.  Most breakage is like most theft - its Fraud performed by the Shipper or Consignee. 

Sure - you never got that guitar .... it was clearly stolen off your porch. Hehehehe. 

[bolero]

 I've never weighed Grovers, but they sure are heavy. Surprised they are less than a pound!

Thanks for the correction. I'm in a metric country, so my imperial guesstimation doesn't get much practical use

[MartyGrass]

https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/psa-be-super-careful-when-shipping-a-les-paul-broken-headstock.403949/

[JeffB]

On 8/27/2021 at 9:40 AM, GuitarsGuitarsGuitars said:

Yea - no.  I've gotten well over 200 guitars - from every conceivable shipper.  I've shipped well over 100 --

Breakage rate of Exactly Zero percent. I do loosen the strings.

2-3% is ridiculous.  Most breakage is like most theft - its Fraud performed by the Shipper or Consignee. 

Sure - you never got that guitar .... it was clearly stolen off your porch. Hehehehe. 

Yah, its funny, I personally packed and shipped at  least 5 a week over 11yrs. Not one breakage. I didnt do anything special, stuck a guitar in a case in a box with a bit of bubble wrap and taped it up, stuck on the con note and sent it off.

 I wasnt the only one packing and shipping during the course of the week either. No breakages.

They werent all LP's though. I never did a break down on the numbers of types we shipped.

[DetroitBlues]

On 8/25/2021 at 9:19 AM, ElNumero said:

You talk like a physicist instead of a retired accountant!

 

On 8/25/2021 at 10:52 AM, Steiner said:

Funny how that happens...

Don't most accountants pull money out of a business's arse to make them look good for investors? ?

 

[Gitfiddler]

Like some of you, I've also shipped and received (too) many guitars over the years.

The ONLY one that had a broken headstock was a brand new G i b s o n Les Paul Supreme back when they first were introduced.  Opening the case and looking down at an otherwise beautiful but beheaded Les Paul was a sickening sight that I'll never forget.

G i b s o n replaced it and paid all shipping.  But as stated above, they had ZERO support for the headstock!!  They don't seem to care.  I received a few other brand new guitars from them and the same negligent packing was done on every one.  2% or 3% breakage makes no sense to me.  Why not simply put proper support and packing material inside the case to protect an instrument that took many hours to build?!  Back in the 70's during the so called "Norlin years" G i b s o n guitars had the notorious volute.  Why?  Because it gave additional support and strength to the neck where it joins the headstock to prevent unnecessary breakage, of course. 

[MartyGrass]

There certainly was backlash against the volute.  It almost certainly helped but didn't fully protect against breakage. 

[MartyGrass]

Some of the reported breakage from dealers was obviously intentional.  I personally saw a crushed hollowbody that had a clear partial footprint.  Some had violent heel fractures.  It is speculated that back when it took half a year for Heritage to fill orders, some dealers changed their minds regarding the orders.

[bolero]

[bolero]

[bolero]

[rockabilly69]

Is the the FedEx employee of the week Pete Townsend?

[Doug]

[bolero]

20 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

Is the the FedEx employee of the week Pete Townsend?

?

I noticed in the 2nd last pic, Pete has 2 cables coming out of his strat jack. I wonder if he was experimenting feeding 2 amps? Looks like a custom cable?

Otherwise never seen signal + ground split like that, but I suppose it could be

[GuitarsGuitarsGuitars]

Hope I'm not breaking any rules  ... Apologies in advance if I am ..

John Hiatt - Perfectly Good Guitar

 

[MartyGrass]

2 hours ago, GuitarsGuitarsGuitars said:

Hope I'm not breaking any rules  ... Apologies in advance if I am ..

John Hiatt - Perfectly Good Guitar

 

Great!

[rockabilly69]

Yesterday I got a guitar in the mail that was shipped all the way from Russia. It’s a 60s Fender Jazzmaster reissue made in Japan. I don’t know why I assumed it came with a case, but it didn’t. The guy who sold it to me just wrapped the guitar up In bubble wrap, and stuffed it in a cardboard box. Funny enough, it got here in perfect condition there isn’t a ding or a scratch on it anywhere.

 

 

[bolero]

Haha! wow, you have really gone off, with the jazzmasters!!

Looking forward to the mod-thread

Nice matching headstock on that one

[Gitfiddler]

Wow, that's a beautiful Jazzmaster.

Glad it worked out.

As they say in Russia..."doveryay, no proveryay..."  (Trust but verify)

[rockabilly69]

23 hours ago, bolero said:

Haha! wow, you have really gone off, with the jazzmasters!!

Looking forward to the mod-thread

Nice matching headstock on that one

Thanks, but this is my first Jazzmaster, the other two were Jaguars. I wanted to see how the different pickups and scale length sounded compared to the Jags.

The good thing about Japanese Fenders is the quality of the wood, and the build quality in general. The bad thing is usually the electronics (cheap pots/wires/switches), and I've heard these Japanese Jazzmaster pickups are not like the real deal but more like a strat pickup in comparison. So far though it sounds pretty good. But you know me, nothing is safe from going under the knife:)

Check out how the wood on the back of the neck goes from flame to birdseye under different angles. That's the first time I've seen anything like that!

 

 

[rockabilly69]

23 hours ago, Gitfiddler said:

Wow, that's a beautiful Jazzmaster.

Glad it worked out.

As they say in Russia..."doveryay, no proveryay..."  (Trust but verify)

Hey Tim, I'm glad it worked out too, the tracking was a bit sketchy. And the delivery guy just left it right in front of my front door for anyone to see it. I left a note that said leave it behind my front porch rail if i wasn't home. I guess he didn't see the note:) It literally sat out there for hours even into the night time as I had two gigs that day and was 70 miles from home. At night my front porch lights automatically come on, and that thing was sitting under a spotlight. Man I was lucky someone didn't just walk away with it.