More Bubble Wrap

[Tim Chapple]

[color=#1D2129][font=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I've received and sent quite a few guitars over the years, however this one took me by surprise. Sent by courier in an unpadded gig bag, and wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap.[/font][/color]
[color=#1D2129][font=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Miraculously it arrived in one piece.[/font][/color]
[color=#1D2129][font=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](Does Rolf voice) - "Can you tell what it is yet?"[/font][/color]

Edited May 10, 2017 by Tim Chapple

[RhysP]

I once received a bass through the post that had been covered (and I use the term very loosely) with a couple of split open brown jiffy bags & then wrapped in brown tape. No case, no gig bag, nothing.
That too, incredibly, arrived undamaged.

[Grangur]

Is this that new kelvar bubble wrap then?

[Tim Chapple]

Why bother with guitar cases? - I'm gonna sell mine and just use bubble wrap

[binky_bass]

To be honest I frequently sell guitars via eBay, mostly without hard cases (usually guitars below a £300 or so value) and my standard packaging techniques is using a 1.5m x 100m roll of heavey bubble wrap which does around 10 guitars, they are firmly wrapped and then wrapped again in black plastic. Ironically the only guitar I sent that arrived damaged in recent history was sent in a hard case. If a guitar is fully wrapped correctly is layers of bubble wrap it is much more resistant to shock that in a hard case. The hard case protects it more again heavy compression like being stepped on etc. From my experiance bubble wrap when used right is absolutely fine.

[TheGreek]

Yeah, cardboard boxes are far too expensive....I mean, God forbid a box gets damaged because of a £several hundred bass..

[binky_bass]

In your opinion what addition protection does a thin layer of cardboard have?

10/15 layers of thick bubble wrap will protect a guitar from a fairly high drop as well as impacts because it absorbs the shock, if someone hit you with a baseball bat would you rather have a pillow over your head or 2-3mm of card board?

It's all about absorbing shock sir, and a good amount of proper packing bubble wrap will trump card board any day of the week!

Don't make me go all Mythbusters on you!

[TheGreek]

Ooooo...

Handbags at 10 paces???

You might have missed the emogees...I was being ironic.

[binky_bass]

Handbags it is... I'm going with my Radley, what's your weapon?

[skb558]

[quote name='binky_bass' timestamp='1494445925' post='3296104']
Handbags it is... I'm going with my Radley, what's your weapon?
[/quote]

Nice choice

[Grangur]

[quote name='binky_bass' timestamp='1494442882' post='3296069']
In your opinion what addition protection does a thin layer of cardboard have?
[/quote]

It stops someone bursting your bubble(s).

I too don't use a case often. IME nobody pays more for a bass if it has a case, so I sell without most of the time. So it's thick bubble wrap and cardboard. Never had one damaged yet... touch wood.

[fleabag]

Trouble with just using bubble wrap is that the very second you get a damage problem, the courier
company will wash their hands of it, claiming poor protection and not packed up to their standards

[kodiakblair]

Tim.

Glad it arrived safely and I think I can guess what it is

edit

I never sold Tim the bass so packing's nothing to do with me.

Edited May 10, 2017 by kodiakblair

[PawelG]

Which courier company was this sent through?
Some would not accept this due to insufficient packaging. Also, as stated above - packaging like that won't work for you if the item gets damaged. Even though it might be better than cardboard in some cases.
Personally, I like to wrap the bass In bubble wrap/stretch, put it in the case, wrap the case and put it in cardboard box. Another stretch and then some fragile tape on it. I seem to sleep well after I send a bass like that. I don't think I would if it was only wrapped like yours. Glad it arrived safely :-)

[verb]

The last bass I bought off eBay had a couple of layers of bubble wrap around the bass, inside a gig bag and a bin bag on the outside.
I was dreading opening the parcel, but thankfully all was ok.
I bought a Trace Elliot SMX250 head via Basschat, that arrived loosely packaged with some tissue paper and some of those children's ball pit balls, again it survived the journey.

[kodiakblair]

Yesterday I had a Peavey Fury II delivered,bought from Cash Generator. Bubblewrap was 2" thick then cling film,sturdy cardboard was next. Cardboard wrapped the bass rather than a box so nothing could slide about. Whole thing covered in black clingfilm.

Bass was in perfect condition. Cash Generators charged a whopping £5 for delivery,ordered the bass late Friday afternoon and had the "collected" email by 4.30.
UK Mail was the courier,they've been great always send you a text with the delivery time. In this case text came at 08.30 saying between 10.15am and 11.15am.

[Dood]

Yup, I've received a bass delivered to my house wrapped in nothing more than one sheet of bubble wrap. It wasn't even secured. "Wow, what a surprise!" you can imagine I said when I saw it resting against my front door for the whole world to see clearly what it was!

[phil.c60]

[quote name='binky_bass' timestamp='1494445925' post='3296104']
Handbags it is... I'm going with my Radley, what's your weapon?
[/quote]
[quote name='skb558' timestamp='1494446200' post='3296110']
Nice choice
[/quote]

I think you'll find that the handbag du jour is a Longchamp.....don't ask me why I know this, I just do!

[bertbass]

I bought a bass cabinet which turned up with no protection at all, just a label stuck to the outside. It actually arrived undamaged!

[binky_bass]

Perhaps we should have a competition, everyone send their basses to each other and the one that arrives undamaged with the least packaging wins. Might just blu-tack a single tissue to the strings and send it on its way...

[Bigwan]

One of the only times I've given negative feedback on here was to a young chap who thought posting a bass in a bin bag was acceptable. He'd already used the same level of protection on a previous transaction round these parts and I warned him that if he was to post a bass to me in the same way he'd better be ready for the paypal backlash if there was damage (wouldn't normally deal with somebody with that sort of history, but the bass was CHEAP!). I was assured the bass would be appropriately protected. Mercifully it arrived entirely unscathed...

[arthurhenry]

[quote name='Tim Chapple' timestamp='1494436468' post='3296000']

[color=#1D2129][font=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](Does Rolf voice) - "Can you tell what it is yet?"[/font][/color]
[/quote]

You can't do that anymore.

[Twincam]

As someone who over packages everything, the one layer bubble wrap disturbs me greatly!

Even in a case a bass should be bubble wraped inside with extra heavy duty stuff, extra at sides and any corners. Then the case wrapped in bubble wrap, extra bubble wrap at both ends. Brown paper then fully brown taped top to bottom so waterproof.

If no case bubble wrap, gig bag, then in a box thats packet tight with large cell heavy duty bubble wrap. Then box fully brown taped.

Sending a valve amp, especially with heavy transformers gets more treatment.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Twincam

[TheGreek]

More is better in this case...