What is the best shipping service when shipping a guitar? Overnight, Two Day or Ground?

The cost of shipping a guitar can be expensive. People try to do as much as they can to save money. Sometimes though they are too frugal at the expense of paying a higher price if something goes wrong. So, the question arises what is the best shipping service to select when shipping a guitar?

This depends on several factors including the experience of the sender in packing and shipping guitars, the value of the guitar, where it is being shipped to and from and the importance of the guitar arriving safely versus spending a more money to maximize the chances of safe delivery. If you have never shipped a guitar before we recommend you get professional help. Especially if you are shipping internationally. Doing that yourself for the first time will almost always end in delays and issues with the shipment. Items can be held, returns back to sender at additional expense or confiscated. The team at www.shipguitars.com has over 25 years of experience shipping US and Internationally and have seen it all.

For Guitars worth more than $1000 we recommend two day or overnight. This has to do with the number of times the guitar is “touched” in the logistics system. The more times it is loaded and unloaded in varying forms for transit in varying climate and temperatures the higher the chance of it being damaged or lost.  The 2 Day and Overnight services can reduce touches by as much as 70% depending on where you are shipping to and from. A typical ground shipment has as many as 30 touches from the time it is picked up to the time it is delivered to its destination. This number does not account for the scenario where signature is required, and multiple attempts are made to deliver the guitar. Ground shipments are manual and human involvement occurs throughout the process.

Low value items going ground usually is fine. We recommend you insure the shipment for the value of replacing the guitar.  www.shipgitars.com shipping has UPS Capital insurance that is specific to fragile items. No company is solely dedicated to shipping high value guitars the way www.shipguitars.com helps guitar owners, dealers, traders and manufactures ship guitars. We can insure a single US shipment up to $70,000 and $50,000 internationally. This high level of insurance requires Two day or overnight. On International shipments Worldwide Expedited is almost always chosen unless there is an important time constraint to get it to its destination.

Two Day and Overnight are more money but given the risk and hassle of either losing your guitar or having to deal with an insurance claim it usually makes a lot of sense to spend more to do everything you can to ensure safe delivery. 99% of shipping insurance claims are with ground shipments.  Of course, there are professional luthiers and manufacturers that always ship ground. That is fine as they build it into the cost of doing business if the guitar is damaged. As a buyer or seller that costs of doing business is much higher if you lose one of your valuable guitars in a delivery to a buyer.

In conclusion, the shipping service depends on what the most important criteria are for you when shipping your guitars. Is it price? Go ground. If it safely shipping your guitar, Two Day or Overnight.

If you have questions or need any assistance, feel free to contact the team at www.shipguitars.com. We are here to help you safely pack and ship your guitar. We have live US based phone support 7 days a week 52 weeks a year. Call 410.261.4558 or email [email protected]