Low temperatures and opening that NBD.....

[Coolhandjjl]

Instruments have been transported for decades tuned to pitch and brought from freezing cold greyhound luggage storage hoppers to the stage in under an hour. Did anyone worry back then or notice problems? Now we have shippers demanding instruments be de-tuned and manufacturers and retailers asking for a 24 hour waiting periods before opening. It's BS.

 

[SirMjac28]

I only really worried about acoustic or vintage instruments but anything else I'm ripping the package open as soon as the delivery driver sets it down.

 

[DavC]

to recreate those old finish cracks ... i've read, that you can put your poly bass out in the sun , get it hot , then straight into the freezer to crack to poly .. ?? haven't tried it yet ...

has nothing to do with quality , blah , blah , blah ... it's just shrinking and expanding ... you know , that science kinda crap .. !?

i'd still let it warm up slowly for a little while ...

 

[Vinnie Boombatz]

I have to say it, shouldn’t matter one bit on any decent bass, period.

If your bass shatters like a frozen glass put under running hot water, the bass is the problem, not the temps. Send it back.

So if your gear is in the trailer for a few hours in freezing temps, and you get to an indoor gig, you make the client wait 24 hours?

Thought not.

Spoken like a true unformed person. Guess you have never heard of nitrocellulose. OP isn't saying that his bass is going to break into a million pieces. He's referring to the finish. Read up on finish checking/crazing.

And most touring musicians, if time permits will try and acclimate their gear if its been in a cold trailer. You bring the instrument inside the venue in its case and let it sit for a bit, then just crack open the case to introduce some air and let it slowly adjust to the warmer ambient temp.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I have a delivery of a bass scheduled for next week - from LA California to Hell-has-frozen-over-Michigan.
With the recent cold temperatures, has anyone in the East Coast had any problems with the condition of the basses you received recently? Do you wait the 24 hours before opening up the box as recommended on some of the stickers they put on the boxes?

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine had the horror of opening up a delivery box in a heated room after waiting about 5 hours -(it was way below freezing outside at the time) and noticed a finish crack down the front of his new Sterling SUB bass. He wasn't 100% sure if the crack was of his doing and due to the drastic change in temperature and opening the box too soon, a defect in the new bass itself, or something that perhaps happened during delivery in the warehouse.

What do you think?
Any other horror stories out there?

I had an EB3 back in the 70’s that etched and cracked in Flint due to the cold. What we used to do back then was if you see an instrument finish start to fog close the case immediately. Then open the case briefly then close repeating the process in 15 minute intervals, gradually increasing the time the case is open

 

[Fender_Bender]

Y’all can ship your new basses to me for -25 Celsius cryogenic treatment and I’ll babysit them for 24 and ship them back. Of course there’s no guarantee that they won’t get lost in transit on the way back .

 

[Vinnie Boombatz]

To all the people giving the OP flack for asking about acclimating his new bass because it's been shipped from somewhere ridiculously cold and calling him overly protective and too worried about nothing, it is possible depending on the finish, to get finish checking. This happens when going from very cold to much warmer temps too quickly.

I have not read through the entire thread, but many say stupid things like, "You know, touring musicians leave their gear in trailers or in the holds of Greyhound busses and didn't baby their instruments. Stop being a baby." Well, this is why you see many vintage instruments with finish checking. Structurally, it's not going to ruin or damage the bass. It's purely cosmetic. But given the way people around these parts post disappointing NBD threads where it looks like a fly scratched their brand new bass and they're whining about it and start threads with polls of whether they should send it back or not, I dont feel like the OP's question and concern is out of line.

This is finish checking:

 

[Vinnie Boombatz]

Instruments have been transported for decades tuned to pitch and brought from freezing cold greyhound luggage storage hoppers to the stage in under an hour. Did anyone worry back then or notice problems? Now we have shippers demanding instruments be de-tuned and manufacturers and retailers asking for a 24 hour waiting periods before opening. It's BS.

Shippers are "demanding" that you wait 24 hours to open the box because the buyer is usually too uneducated on the topic to realize that if it's been sitting in a freezing warehouse, on your porch, etc. and you bring it in and open it right away and it checks/crazes, it's because you didn't let it acclimate to the warmer temperature long enough. And when that happens you'll cry and whine and say there's something wrong with the instruments finish, demand a refund, most likely start a thread on an online forum saying negative things about the vendor, and cause a bunch of headaches for them that they most likely don't deserve simply because you were too impatient to wait.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Shippers are "demanding" that you wait 24 hours to open the box because the buyer is usually too uneducated on the topic to realize that if it's been sitting in a freezing warehouse, on your porch, etc. and you bring it in and open it right away and it checks/crazes, it's because you didn't let it acclimate to the warmer temperature long enough. And when that happens you'll cry and whine and say there's something wrong with the instruments finish, demand a refund, most likely start a thread on an online forum saying negative things about the vendor, and cause a bunch of headaches for them that they most likely don't deserve simply because you were too impatient to wait.

I believe your pics are of nitro finishes where the checking looks "cool", but on poly finishes you usually get one or two ugly lines instead of a cool pattern. I usually don't wait 24 hours to open a cold bass that's been shipped to me, but I do wait a reasonable amount of time.

 

[JW56789]

Have it sent 'on approval', and wait 'till June to open it.

 

[Dub56]

Instruments have been transported for decades tuned to pitch and brought from freezing cold greyhound luggage storage hoppers to the stage in under an hour. Did anyone worry back then or notice problems? Now we have shippers demanding instruments be de-tuned and manufacturers and retailers asking for a 24 hour waiting periods before opening. It's BS.

I would not be so quick to call this BS.

Several users within this thread, myself included, have given REAL examples of these types of issues happening, my own example less than a month ago (albeit with an acoustic guitar, but still). So yes, many people have noticed problems.

Just because you've personally never had a problem with this, does not mean that these problems have not occurred for others. On a similar note, just because things have generally been done a specific way for decades does not mean it is the 'right' way, 'best' way, or safest way. We can always learn as we go and adjust our approach/methods based on what we've learned and experienced. Neither of us has any data on which to base a claim about how often this did or did not occur with instruments over the last few decades, only our personal experiences. In my personal experience, it has actually happened to me, so it is not BS. I may have very well been in the same camp as your comment, until this actually happened to me.

Regarding your comment about shippers/manufacturers/retailers requesting these wait periods now, can you blame them? It is probably a result of REAL LIFE CASES like mine, and others in this thread! Maybe they've learned over the last few decades that this CAN be a real risk, a risk that can potentially be mitigated somewhat by wait/acclimation periods, so it is advisable for a business owner to suggest these wait periods to customers. Otherwise, they are responsible for the damaged product, so this makes perfect sense to me.

For example--I guarantee the shop owner I got my acoustic from recently will now recommend this acclimation period in any future case where he feels the climate might be a concern! This is a great micro-example of how shippers/shop owners/manufacturers may have moved from not recommending this decades ago, to recommending this now. This shop owner did not recommend an acclimation period when I initially ordered the first guitar, but now that we've gone through this issue, he's adamantly recommending it with the replacement guitar. If a business owner had this issue happen with even ONE customer over the years, it would likely have made an impression, and would potentially spark the business owner to look for ways to avoid this moving forward. Hence the suggested wait periods when major climate change is a factor during shipment.

Of course, this is probably a low risk in general, and it certainly doesn't happen on a high percentage basis from my experience (and from what I've read). That said, for the percentage it does happen to, it REALLY sucks, so better safe than sorry. Of course, everyone is free to forego these suggestions and open the instrument right up if they'd like. Just know that for some people, this really has happened, and it is not fun whatsoever.

Just my $0.02.

 

[kartiste]

If temperatures have been below freezing you need to be careful.
My advice is to give it at least a week to adjust.

Joints between wood and screws will contract at different rates and put stresses in the grain.
Over the course of 24 hours you need to bring the strings up to tension gradually.
Keep a humidifier running in the room during this time
If you hear a creek in the wood while tuning, your neck is damaged. Send it back immediately.
Never ever place warm hands on the finish during this week. It will crack poly.
Go back and read the first letter in each sentence on this post.

If I hear a creek in the wood while tuning, I'm probably dreaming. Mossy bank, sunlight dappled shade, hook in the water, ...

 

[Vinnie Boombatz]

I believe your pics are of nitro finishes where the checking looks "cool", but on poly finishes you usually get one or two ugly lines instead of a cool pattern. I usually don't wait 24 hours to open a cold bass that's been shipped to me, but I do wait a reasonable amount of time.

I had an older Martin acoustic that just had one line going through it, and it was nitro. It doesn't always happen like the pictures I posted, and whether or not it's considered a "cool pattern" is just an opinion. I was just trying to show rather extreme cases to the people who have no idea what it is and how it can happen.

 

[Nev375]

This is finish checking:

View attachment 2866379

View attachment 2866380

View attachment 2866381

Looks awesome IMO. Maybe I ought to send my bass on a greyhound bus ride through the northern states.

 

[James Collins]

This makes me think of: don't let beer get to room temperature after it has been refrigerated or it will skunk...

Of course it could break something, but the only way to know if it is broken in shipping is to inspect it immediately. Who knows how many temperature shifts that guitar sees in transit...every delivery vehicle, every warehouse, etc.

Another thought is to open and play it outdoors immediately.

 

[Vinnie Boombatz]

Looks awesome IMO. Maybe I ought to send my bass on a greyhound bus ride through the northern states.

I have no issue with finish checking one way or another, but with that said I don't baby my instrument, and also don't abuse them. If that happens as a result of actually using the instrument for what it was intended for, then it just comes with the territory. But some people here have different expectations, don't take their basses out or gig with them, post threads where there disappointed when an ant walks across their bass and puts a micro scratch in the finish and posts an urgent thread asking whether they should get it repaired or not! I can only imagine the seizure-inducing horror that would ensue when a member like that pulled their brand new bass out of the box that had been sitting in freezing temps and opened the case and watched the finish check right before their eyes!

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

Sweetwater even puts a sticker on the outer box saying DO NOT OPEN FOR 24 HOURS SO INSTRUMENT CAN ACCLIMATE TO NEW ENVIRONMENT. DOING OTHERWISE MAY RESULT IN INSTRUMENT DAMAGE.

Of course we have no case queens here. They go from hot car to air condition or air conditioned 2 hour drive to outdoors-in-August-100 degree plus gigs. If they can't function properly in all situations, they usually get sold.

They have to tell you that because the lawyers tell them they have to tell you that.
Not that one shouldn't follow instructions that may otherwise be used to void a warranty.
Also, acclimation can be more about humidity than it is temperature, and low temps are usually accompanied by low humidity. But also consider a practical situation:

You load up the trailer for a gig that is a three hour drive away.
The temperature is minus 10 f.
Do you wait 24 hours after loading in, before playing the gig?

As mentioned previously, it is about temperature and humidity, not time.
No one shipping the instrument days earlier can predict the conditions at delivery point.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I had an older Martin acoustic that just had one line going through it, and it was nitro. It doesn't always happen like the pictures I posted, and whether or not it's considered a "cool pattern" is just an opinion. I was just trying to show rather extreme cases to the people who have no idea what it is and how it can happen.

I meant "cool" as in a desired relic look for older instruments. Poly instruments don't do that. A single crack line is just ugly to everyone.

 

[Vinnie Boombatz]

I meant "cool" as in a desired relic look for older instruments. Poly instruments don't do that. A single crack line is just ugly to everyone.

Again, I disagree. A single crack in a poly finished instrument may look cool to someone, and there are people out there who just dont care that much. I've had older instruments that were poly that sounded and played incredibly well that had chunks of poly that fell off them. Could care less.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Again, I disagree. A single crack in a poly finished instrument may look cool to someone, and there are people out there who just dont care that much. I've had older instruments that were poly that sounded and played incredibly well that had chunks of poly that fell off them. Could care less.

Cool. I'm just talking in generalities and there are always exceptions.