Work On Your Bass
Gig Bag + Poor Packing Job = Broken Peghead
Using a gig bag is an easy way to carry your bass around town. However, it’s not the safest way to ship an instrument across the country, unless it’s extremely well packed. A good hardshell case is better, but even then the case needs to be packed in a high quality shipping box.
Bass Player Art Director Patrick Wong learned this lesson the hard way when he shipped me his Gretsch Electromatic bass for minor repairs, only to learn that the peghead had broken in shipment. A gig bag, a poor packing job, and a weak shipping box were the cause of the problem. After repairing the break, replacing the nut, and fixing a broken knob (July ’06), plus dressing the frets (August ’06), I shipped Patrick’s bass home. Here’s how I packed it:
Fig. 1 First of all, I did not ship the bass in the gig bag. Instead, I used a case I keep around for back-and-forth shipping; it’s made of molded styrofoam with a zippered, canvas cover. Before shipping an instrument, I always loosen the strings until they are slack to relieve string tension from the neck. Some instrument necks—especially the mahogany necks with angled headstocks often used by Gibson—are prone to breakage during shipping. A Fender neck is practically indestructible, but in an effort to be consistent, I loosen the strings of all instruments I ship. In any event, it doesn’t harm the bass to slack the strings before shipping as the neck will return to normal once the strings are brought back up to pitch.
After loosening the strings, I slid folded newspaper under the strings to protect the frets and the nut from the loose strings. I also used crushed newspaper balls to support and immobilize the bass within the case. My rule: If you shake the case, you should not feel the instrument moving.
Fig. 2 Next, I dropped crushed newspaper into the bottom of a crisp, new shipping box and lowered the case in. I added folded and crushed newspaper to immobilize the case within the box. Again, if you shake the box, you shouldn’t feel the case moving inside it.
Fig. 3 I taped q" plywood onto each side of the shipping box, in line with where the neck was located in the case.
Fig. 4 Next, I repeated the operation: I put the first box inside a larger guitar-shipping box, surrounded it with crushed newspaper, and taped all the seams with fiber-reinforced tape. I always take the time to draw a broken wine glass on the box, label it fragile, and use the word “please” in the hope that the shippers will appreciate it. (Patrick wrote fragile on his box, but he didn’t say “please.”)
Fig. 5 Hey Patrick, how’s your new bass?
