Need some advice on selling/shipping a guitar

[Confuzzled]

Hey all,

A while back I posted pics of my old tiesco del rey & a 1949 supro lap steel. I put the lap steel up on craig's list & received an email from a session guy in L.A. who interested in buying it.

Here's the thing, I've never shipped a guitar/lap steel before. Can you guys/gals give me some pointers?

• do I loosen the strings on the lap steel?
• Shipping: I'm guessing UPS? Insurance?
• I was going to go to a local guitar store and see about getting a box from them to ship (probably have to cut it down and reinforce the inside to avoid shifting.

anything else? I'm a seasoned ebayer (my handle is inkblot2), but I've never shipped a guitar and I don't want to screw it up.

Thanks in advance

[friendship]

Loosening the strings is a good precaution. Make sure you put extra padding at the two long ends of the instrument. One time I didn't pad a headstock sufficiently and it arrived snapped clean off. It was a nightmare but thank god for shipping insurance; don't even think about skimping on that.

[friendship]

Also pics of that lappy come on man

[Confuzzled]

Here's the CL post. I couldn't extract the images (they're on my home laptop and I'm at work):

http://newyork.craigslist.org/stn/msg/5126777059.html

[DRodriguez]

Damn, she's a beaut. If I wasn't way over budget already, I'd be on my way to Staten Island right now.

[Confuzzled]

aw, that sucks. If I wasn't so far in a financial hole I wouldn't be selling her. I feel your pain, but I'm comforted in knowing that the person who wants to buy it is a session musician and she'll get lots of use.

[friendship]

Gorgeous! Yeah good thing you've already sold it or I'd be real tempted to hop on the ferry too. I would pad the inside of the case, put that in cardboard and pad that up so it doesn't shift. That should do it.

[Confuzzled]

I haven't sold it yet, still trying to see if I can pull this off, so if you want it, it would be a lot easier to meet you by the ferry then to have to ship it across the country and deal with all this.

[friendship]

Would that I could but I'm jobless right now.

[K2000]

Just bubble wrap the lap steel thoroughly, with extra attention on the ends in case it takes a hard drop. Don't use packing peanuts (they shift out of the way, so they are useless). Same for the guitar, but you can also remove the neck and ship it that way, for lower postage rates/more safety, if you want. Discuss with buyer.

You can buy shipping boxes for guitars, either online or at your local mega-store.

[Dandolin]

I'll throw in that I've seen conflicting statements about loosening the strings, but I'm no expert. Might be worth doing some research on that point. I think lap steels being smaller and lighter and constructed the way they are create much less risk of real damage than guitars.

If it's a bolt neck guitar it could be both cheaper and safer to unbolt the neck for shipping and wrapp it and the guitar separately in bubble wrap.

I agree on packing peanuts--useless for anything that weighs much more than them--you're better off with crumples newspaper, seriously.

Nice lappy btw--I've got a similar one with a white pearloid finish...good luck with the sale.