shipping a bass?

[mocorob]

I'm going to need to get a bass from NYC to LA in the near future. Anyone have any ideas/experiences? JetBlue is not accepting anything over 80 in. in total dimensions, however was told it might be possible to buy a seat for it. Has anybody had any luck with shipping companies? I know this topic comes up a lot, just wondering if anyone has any recent experiences with doing this. thanks

[WarriorJoe7]

Originally Posted by mocorob

I'm going to need to get a bass from NYC to LA in the near future. Anyone have any ideas/experiences? JetBlue is not accepting anything over 80 in. in total dimensions, however was told it might be possible to buy a seat for it. Has anybody had any luck with shipping companies? I know this topic comes up a lot, just wondering if anyone has any recent experiences with doing this. thanks

I believe amtrak and greyhound ship larger items. I have never done it though and I dont know there treatment of it or the expense.

[Don Carrigan]

Originally Posted by mocorob

I'm going to need to get a bass from NYC to LA in the near future. Anyone have any ideas/experiences? JetBlue is not accepting anything over 80 in. in total dimensions, however was told it might be possible to buy a seat for it. Has anybody had any luck with shipping companies? I know this topic comes up a lot, just wondering if anyone has any recent experiences with doing this. thanks

Give these guys a try: http://www.towneair.com/terminals.jsp

So called "Air Freight Consolidators" seldom "fly" their freight between major cities -- but they try to whack you but good for "Air Freight" chares. Instead they truck it overland, particulary betwee nearby cities like Cleveland and Boston or New York. It's a racket, but you might just go along with someone like Towne "Air Freight" (a trucking company!!!) who serves both LA and NYC. You'll need to give them enough time for the truck to amass enough freight (2 days?) to make it worth while with high gasoline prices, but no doubt the cost will be in your favor as opposed to the excluding air carriers. Of course, you should have a bass trunk, which in laid face down (strings downward) onto a pallet so it is less likely to "shift" (slide back and forth) if the truck brakes are slammed on. For the cheapest bass trunk on earth ($675 on sale) check out these guys in several cities:

http://www.jimlaabs.com/scripts/prod...idproduct=3861

[JAKBOUND]

here is the link for a company reccomended by Barrie Kolstein on his Contrabass Conversations interview.
www.musicfreight.com
You can goback and find it by listening to the second haf of the interview (I think epsiode 70).
Never used them, but worth a try.

[uptonbass]

FedEx FREIGHT, not cheap but they will have it to the final destination in 3 or 4 days. Less time on the road minimizes the possibility for damage, in contrast to other shippers that take a week plus and don't really carry the freight. FedEx does not fill trucks, so if you bass is the only item in the (FedEx owned) trailer they keep the trucks moving. I would estimate $300-$400 with an account. Our basses are shipped standing and strapped to the side of the trailer, I am sure you could get the same service. Let me know if I can help.

[mocorob]

Thank you all very much for the ideas, was hoping for some input from a maker, thank you Upton. The bass is coming from a family member, it's been having work done for a long time, since before all the oil price hikes, so when I started with it all I thought I could just fly back and pick it up, but it seems flying with a bass is very difficult these days. Anyway, thanks again, any more ideas are appreciated. The bass is a 60s Hungarian with lots of bearclaw on the top, work done is a new neck, machines, fingerboard, regraduation of top/sides/back. It's italian-like violin shaped 3/4 size...it should be killer.

[JKincaid]

I just shipped a bass from Denver to Cincinnati using DHL. 2 day delivery and arrived in perfect condition. All for $138 each way.

Another member in the section used them earlier this summer and had a similar experience.

[uptonbass]

DHL sounds like they are worth looking into. Were the basses boxed or in flight cases? Also what insurance coverage did they offer?

[JKincaid]

They were both in gage cases. My insurance covers shipping so I didn't inquire about coverage.

I should mention that I took my bass to the distribution center myself. I think they said that saved about $100...not to mention that it's being handled less.

The guy I talked to said that because of the irregular shape it had to be loaded by hand (not forklift) and would therefore be treated with greater care. I've often heard the opposite is true.

[uptonbass]

Thanks, that helps I'll be on the phone with them on Tuesday am. I'll report here what I find in contrast to FedEx.

[Bass Barrister]

I've shipped two tubas via DHL ground with no problems. Both were shipped in MTS (ABS) cases with no additional carton. My charge for residential pickup was $25.00. One horn was shipped from Chicago to Kansas and the other from here to Virginia Beach, VA. Again, no problems, 2 day door-to-door, about $100.00 each. Tubas are surprisingly fragile since they're made of relatively thin brass, and a hard drop can trash the bell, even in a hard case, if not properly packed.

Of course, I have heard some horror stories about DHL just as I've heard regarding UPS/FedEx. But I will contact them first the next time I need to ship something.

[Tony F]

Just had to chime in on this one. In my professional experience (manager of a shipping store, with UPS/FEDEX/DHL accounts) I find the words DHL and "ten foot pole" go together well.

DHL counts for about 5% of our business, but over 50% of our claims... and getting an insurance payout from them is much harder than it needs to be.

DHL is not licensed to use any of it's own aircraft in the USA, so they typically sub-contract the air carriage to UPS. They also sub-contract much of the delivery to residential addresses in rural areas to the Post Office, so their package tracking fails as soon as the USPS takes custody of the package. Inside the shipping industry there is a suspicion that DHL's American network is on the verge of total collapse.

That said, they're much much better at international shipping, and in fact there's many areas where none of the other carriers will even attempt a service. Any war zone or unstable area, and DHL is the first one in when it's safe, and the last one out when it isn't.

Now obviously this is going to attract a load of people who've had great experience with DHL, and I do have some customers swear by them. That said, I'd take FedEx over DHL any day.

Cheers,

Tony

[JKincaid]

Tony,

In your experience, do you find most of the DHL claims come from damage caused by sub-contract carriers? If so, could that be one of the reasons it's more difficult getting them to pay out on claims?

When I was talking to Andy Stetson about how to ship my bass he recommended not using UPS because they had been having problems with insurance...which you mentioned is a sub-contractor to DHL.

[Tony F]

Originally Posted by JKincaid

Tony,

In your experience, do you find most of the DHL claims come from damage caused by sub-contract carriers? If so, could that be one of the reasons it's more difficult getting them to pay out on claims?

When I was talking to Andy Stetson about how to ship my bass he recommended not using UPS because they had been having problems with insurance...which you mentioned is a sub-contractor to DHL.

It's odd, everyone has a different experience. We ship tons of stuff with UPS, and their insurance is probably the easiest to deal with. As long as you the item is packed properly, and you have documentation proving the item is worth what you say it is, then they will pay for the item to be repaired, or replaced in then event of a total loss. The key here is proper packaging.

Fedex won't insure artwork, anything with glass, antiques over (I think) $500... basically they're reluctant to insure much of anything!

From what I've heard, DHL drivers are paid considerably lower than UPS drivers, and as such they seem to have a different work ethic. Bit of a sweeping generalisation there, I know... But think about this - In the run up to Christmas we are always desperately busy, and last year we had UPS collecting from us several times a day. Even the account managers were running packages out to the truck to try to make the deadlines. Our DHL driver loaded half of their packages onto the truck, and then locked the truck up (with the keys inside) and quit the job, leaving the truck and all the packages outside in the parking lot. He didn't tell DHL he'd quit, he just went home... So we had dozens of urgent packages arriving late 'cos this guy got tired of the hard work!

Cheers,

Tony

[sXeMike]

I had a bass shipped to me from Vegas to Richmond, Va a few months ago. I used freightnshipping.com. They get a bunch of quotes for you and give you the cheapest rate. It ended up going through yellow freight. Freightnshipping's price was a little over $100 less than what yellow quoted me directly. Insurance was no problem and it arrived in the same condition it left Vegas in. Total price was around $230.

A few weeks later I bought another bass and had it shipped, with insurance, for around $60. That one was either USPS or Fedex, I don't remember......It was in 2 boxes, one for the body and one for the neck.

[LowNote]

I shipped my LaScala hybrid from Los Angeles to Edinburgh, Scotland using a company out of Arkansas called Airways Freight. This company has a specialty in moving fine instruments and fine art, and I felt safe using them. I had Lemur pack the bass for shipping and they put it in a box that had come from Pohlmann in Germany with a new bass in it. This involved knocking down the sound post though. Airways Freight then picked up the bass and I arranged to meet it at a freight terminal near Edinburgh airport although I could have had it delivered to my home. The bass arrived in perfect condition. They're not cheap but they know what they're doing. I also used them this Spring to ship 5 boxes of original music for an octet which was all done by hand on 9" X 12" manuscript paper and was too difficult to copy. They strapped the boxes to a pallet and then shrink wrapped them so that nothing could get separated or lost. Again, expensive but all of my music arrived intact. Here is a link to their Performing Arts page. http://airwaysfreight.com/PerformingArts.aspx

[robobass]

Originally Posted by LowNote

I shipped my LaScala hybrid from Los Angeles to Edinburgh, Scotland using a company out of Arkansas called Airways Freight. http://airwaysfreight.com/PerformingArts.aspx

Just curious. What did you pay? I just shipped four cello sized student basses from NY to Germany with a company in Queens called Armen Cargo, which works with Lufthansa air cargo. I paid $800 and change for this shipment. I also used them when I moved overseas in 2002. Both times went off without a hitch or scratch. I just had to have my paperwork in order to make the pickup. For the kiddie basses I checked with all the big names - FedEx/UPS/DHL etc. They all wanted several thousands, and I bet they wouldn't have treated the packages so carefully.

Any other suggestions for overseas shipping?
Robobass

[LowNote]

I don't recall exactly what I paid but think it was between $800 and $900 from Los Angeles to Edinburgh. I dropped off the bass at the LA end and picked it up at the Edinburgh end.