Official Luthiers Forum!

I recently had a nitro top get a finish crack after a two day air shipment even though it was allowed a day to warm up before opening. A few years ago I had a bridge develop a hairline crack between the pinholes after a similar two day air ship. Both apparently related to fairly rapid movement of the top I would assume. Both were well packed and de-tuned. I've never had a problem with ground shipment to date including quite a few shipped from California to Minnesota in the winter. That got me thinking that maybe there are much more rapid temp and humidity shifts with air shipment and that other than the damage risk, a well packaged guitar might actually be safer shipped by ground. Opinions-experience?
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Terry buddy before I started driving mine to the finisher I used both ground and air and noted that the boxes were always much more beat up from an air shipment.

Surprisingly to me USPS Priority 1 was the cheapest, most reliable (one "air" shipment on another carried was temporally lost....) and the boxes were not beat all to heck.

I think that you are on to something.

I freely assume that the cargo space in FedEx, UPS etc. planes is not climate-controlled or pressurized like passenger planes. Pretty drastic changes in temperature and RH… Also package handling loading planes tends to be rough to say the least.
Re-USPS, I'd love to continue using USPS but I had to deal with an insurance claim for a package shipped in Canada a few years ago and it was a nightmare. They switched to an 800 number for insurance claims at the time and the employees answering the phone (including supervisors) are clueless and have no vested interest trying to help, they of course blamed Canada Post. I'm still waiting for the money (it wasn't a guitar…).
I had to fill an insurance claim with UPS around the same time, it was apparent the box had been rough handled and the guitar inside had a broken peghead. Granted the person who packed the guitar could have padded the headstock area, but didn't. The UPS inspector came, took a few pics of the box, guitar, packing and so on. No problem with the claim, and relatively fast.
I use UPS ground, each time.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

My long experience with Air Force cargo planes and some commercial contract carriers working for the government is that the cargo compartments were, indeed, pressurized but the temperature can change a lot and do it pretty quickly. Along with that goes some pretty large humidity changes. On the other hand, I would think some of the same factors could occur in a tractor trailer, especially in the winter, maybe just slower.

Edit: I don't know for sure if all cargo compartments are pressurized although there would be a lot of things you couldn't ship in an unpressurized cargo compartment, such as pets and livestock.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Check out Fedex white glove service - I'm sure it's very expensive though.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Thanks guys, I am probably going to go ground from now on. At least the temp and humidity changes would be a lot less rapid and that's probably a big issue, especially in the winter. I've only shipped two by next day air and both wound up with problems almost certainly related to rapid environmental changes. So far I've had no problems with ground.
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.