Double Bass Shipping DB under tension?

[Groove sifter]

Apologies if this is not the right forum for this (I'm new to DB), but question:

Is it ever not risky to ship a DB with strings still under tension?

More context: I've come into possession of a DB (1937 Kay M-1, was in my wife's family) and have been trying to figure out how to get it from the Midwest to the West coast. Finally found a good music store that has luthiers specializing in strings and relationships with freight companies--they are willing to ship it (not cheap, but best option I could find at this point!). They are proposing to ship it in a custom box, in it's soft case, with appropriate padding, moisture control, climate controlled (at least no-freeze), all shrink-wrapped upright to a pallet. That all sounds like what I've heard is best practice. I asked if the strings/tailpiece should be removed, sound-post down, etc., and the luthier there said they thought it wouldn't be necessary if using this method (as opposed to flying it in a flight case). They said they could take everything down as an extra precaution, but that would require me to get it set up by another luthier when it arrives. I'm really blowing my budget to get this thing shipped so I do like the idea of saving myself another set-up fee once I get it. But I've also heard shipping a DB under tension is never really advisable. So I guess I'm trying to get a second opinion. If anyone had any experience with/insights about this, I'd apprciate it! Thanks much.

 

[Steven Ayres]

I've shipped basses interstate for band competition with strings on, detuned but not loose, simply strapped to the wall of a box truck, with no issues. If you're worried about the post falling, consider adding a tension strap around the middle.

 

[tb-player]

I had a Kay shipped from the Midwest to the east coast just as you described… under tension, in a gig bag, packed well in a proper upright shipping box and shrink wrapped to a pallet. It arrived pretty much in-tune and ready to play. The shipping company was Old Dominion and they did great. Cost was just over $500. It was the cheapest option available & it worked out well.

It sounds like your luthiers know what they’re doing. Basses ship this way every day. YMMV.

 

[Ggaa]

Freight hubs may have climate control but doubt a freight trailer does. We shipped 2 from TX to Fairbanks AK some years back, took the soundposts down, wrapped the strings in a towel to protect the finish(coiled up at scroll). Wrapped bridge/tailpiece too. Got there fine and some of that trip was on a boat. But I'd definitely not ship it strung up. Having said that, a plywood top is a lot less likely to be damaged than a carved top.

 

[eh_train]

As Ggaa says, it's much less risky with a plywood bass. But if that crate falls more than a foot, all bets are off.

I'd be inclined to take down the post, wrap the strings, etc... The setup costs, * if * it's just putting everything back in the original place, shouldn't be much money.

Note, that * if * is a big one. You haven't said anything about how playable the bass is. Your local luthier can assess what the bass needs to be useable. If you really, really need a new bridge and strings to make the bass functional, you might as well know that early on.

Good luck with this, and congrats on your early Kay!

 

[Don Hergert]

As a corollary to the above, keep in mind that with between ~200 and ~300 lbs of total string tension cantilevered over the bridge between the tuners and the tailpiece, a double bass neck is just asking for an excuse to bow, and the neck joint itself is just asking for an excuse to let loose. The neck is the Achilles heel of the double bass, even with my Alcoa. I would never ship mine under full string tension and I'd be even more hesitant to do so with a wooden double bass, plywood or not. The neck and neck block on a plywood double bass is not plywood, btw.

 

[CryingBass]

Low tension not no tension imho. Eb’s as well.

 

[evanrunyon]

The advice given me by the luthiers I trust most has basically amounted to; anything—a blow, a fall, radical shifts in temperature or humidity—that might damage an instrument shipped at full tension, will also damage an instrument tuned down. If it’s not practical to completely disassemble the thing, just ship it as is and hope for the best.

My bass has crossed the Atlantic more than a dozen times, it’s gone cross-country on a Greyhound more than a few, and it’s sat in a frigid warehouse at Heathrow for two weeks in January. Only time I’ve had a soundpost collapse was once when changing strings on a year when it got dry far earlier than usual, and you won’t have to worry about shrinkage cracks on a plywood bass. Stuff happens and you might get unlucky, but tuning down a little won’t have prevented that.

In my opinion.

 

[Ggaa]

Freight hubs may have climate control but doubt a freight trailer does. We shipped 2 from TX to Fairbanks AK some years back, took the soundposts down, wrapped the strings in a towel to protect the finish(coiled up at scroll). Wrapped bridge/tailpiece too. Got there fine and some of that trip was on a boat. But I'd definitely not ship it strung up. Having said that, a plywood top is a lot less likely to be damaged than a carved top.

I think we might have pulled the end pins too, and has them sit on pads.

 

[Jeff Kissell]

Fwiw, 20 years ago my bass was shipped via ground freight from upstate NY to central coast CA. It was detuned, in its bag, in a trunk strapped to a pallet. I picked it up at the freight depot, inspected for damage (none) and tuned it up. Then I shipped the trunk back to the luthier on the same pallet. He shipped basses all over the place like that.

 

[Groove sifter]

Thanks, all, for your time and thoughtfulness in answering my question--appreciated! I'm hearing no verified horror stories and a few confirmed instances were this was tried and worked out fine, which is reassuring. Respect to those of your voicing the precautionary principle, too. I think I'll defer to the luthier who is now handling it, give it a try and re-post about how it turned out--one more data point! Thanks much, all!

 

[Groove sifter]

Just following up on this thread I posted a while back to report how it turned out, in case someone has the same question in the future.

Short version: Success! The bass was shipped under tension and arrived just as it was (not quite in tune, but close!).

Longer version: Maybe it was just luck that it came through with no harm, but also seems like great care was taken/specific conditions were met at every step. The trick seemed to be finding a music store that was large enough to already have a warehouse staff/relationships with freight companies, and that already received new, relatively high-quality basses. (Not sure if I'm allowed to give a shout-out to the music store that helped me out in, but they are a regional operation headquartered in Bloomington, MN, their name starts with an S, and if you played in school bands in the Twin Cities area you probably rented your first instrument from them--they were phenomenal in figuring out how to make this happen!). Finding a store with these things meant that there were already extra, very sturdy and high-quality special-made boxes available with staff who knew how they would be packed and shipped--effectively they just reverse engineered the way they receive new instruments. My bass arrived in large a box fabricated out of thick cardboard specifically to hold double basses (with different cradling built in and even a kind of shock-absorbing cardboard riser on the bottom of the box, then all in-filled with different cushioning materials) shrink-wrapped to a pallet, delivered to my door--delivery person even stuck around to unbox and make sure everything looked good. Supposedly it was also shipped in a way that was "freeze protected" across the plains in winter, but I have no way to know if that actually happened. All of this did not come cheap ($800), but in my case this was the only possible way of getting the instrument short of renting a car to drive it across the country myself, which I don't have time to do. And that's still way cheaper than a new DB of comparable quality! I also looked into other modalities like renting a flight case and checking it, which was hypothetically possible as of autumn 2024, and that would have cost as much or more.

Anyway, that's the report! About to post another thread with pictures of the bass itself, if anyone cares about that part

Thanks to everyone who offered advice on this!