Amp shipping questions

[joshoowah]

I'm selling a Kendrick Tweed 2×10 40 watter (model 2210), and may have to ship it. Where should I go to have it boxed up (I'd like to double box, if possible), and who should I use for shipping and insurance? Is the UPS Store an acceptable spot? Should I go to GC to try to get the boxes?

[JGale]

Here's how I used to do it.

Make sure the speaker is secured to the baffle. That magnet is a helluva load on a cantilever off the baffle.

I take a large cardboard box and cut it to fit tight against the entire cab and tape that bitch! U-Haul is your friend for boxes and tape.

You can do it with bubble wrap, but Styrofoam is best and hardest to fit. You want to cover the four corners with about two inches of resilient material wrapping onto the three adjacent sides like a corner protector only larger and thicker and made of foam.

Then fit it into a even larger box. You may have to cut it to size. Use packing tape with longitudinal fibers in it.

The idea is to place shock absorbing material in the corners and leave an air gap everywhere else. If the amp is wide you may have to add a layer around the middle on the long side.

It's a lot of work.

 

Here's a thot. U-Haul bubble wrap is about 18" wide. Start with a bit hanging off the side and wrap that bitch around and around till you get the thickness you want and tuck the bit hanging off the end around onto the side when you put it in the big box. Tape that fucker.

And another thot. Wrap that bitch in the middle too. Bubble wrap is weaker than styro so use a ton of it.

Edited June 9, 2022 by JGale

[tomteriffic]

PS: pull the tubes and wrap them separately in a bubble wrap football and stuff it in the back of the amp if it'll fit comfortably. Jim Gale ^^^ is a master amp packer.  What he says.

PS: If you pull the tubes and sub-pack them, a tube chart/diagram is a neighborly thing to include.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by tomteriffic

[JGale]

Here's the ideal from Frenzel. This has had a trip to the factory and back.

[duncans]

Alternately make a box out of the pink, insulating Styrofoam, 2" thick. Use lots of tape to keep it together. Then fit it into a cardboard box as JGale states. I did that on one amp shipped and worked well.

[JGale]

Walmart et al. has those 3/8" dense foam sleeping pads for camping that slice up nicely...

[DaveL]

On 6/9/2022 at 2:27 PM, JGale said:

Here's how I used to do it.

Make sure the speaker is secured to the baffle. That magnet is a helluva load on a cantilever off the baffle.

I take a large cardboard box and cut it to fit tight against the entire cab and tape that bitch! U-Haul is your friend for boxes and tape.

You can do it with bubble wrap, but Styrofoam is best and hardest to fit. You want to cover the four corners with about two inches of resilient material wrapping onto the three adjacent sides like a corner protector only larger and thicker and made of foam.

Then fit it into a even larger box. You may have to cut it to size. Use packing tape with longitudinal fibers in it.

The idea is to place shock absorbing material in the corners and leave an air gap everywhere else. If the amp is wide you may have to add a layer around the middle on the long side.

It's a lot of work.

 

Here's a thot. U-Haul bubble wrap is about 18" wide. Start with a bit hanging off the side and wrap that bitch around and around till you get the thickness you want and tuck the bit hanging off the end around onto the side when you put it in the big box. Tape that fucker.

And another thot. Wrap that bitch in the middle too. Bubble wrap is weaker than styro so use a ton of it.

 

everything here...

  Highly agree with taking a large box, cutting it up and making that the inner box...  BTW;  staples sells that

paper tape with the fibers in it.   ($9 I think)  love that stuff.  great if you have to seal up something big and the

roll lasts for quite a while    

[HSB0531]

On 6/9/2022 at 1:55 PM, joshoowah said:

I'm selling a Kendrick Tweed 2×10 40 watter (model 2210), and may have to ship it. Where should I go to have it boxed up (I'd like to double box, if possible), and who should I use for shipping and insurance? Is the UPS Store an acceptable spot? Should I go to GC to try to get the boxes?

I would suggest ULINE.

They have just about everything for packing and shipping.

https://www.uline.com/BL_868/Plank-Foam

https://www.uline.com/BL_3167/Starch-Foam-Sheets

https://www.uline.com/Cls_04/Boxes-Corrugated

[joshoowah]

Thanks, guys! I went to UHaul and got the materials, and am doing my best to make it like the Frenzel pic above. My old Ridgerest sleeping pad is the foam I'm cutting up, and peanuts will fill any voids. Love this place because I know you will come through with sound advice on subjects like this! Huzzah!

Edited June 12, 2022 by joshoowah

[JGale]

If you are going to use peanuts, you have to encase the amp or it sucks to be on the other end. The corners are your weakest link, smallest area to absorb impact. Concentrate on them! The peanuts will have to be densely packed to be of any use. I would honestly forgo them. If the open areas bother you, stuff the 'nuts in large Ziplock bags and disperse them around the frame between the well-bolstered corners. They just provide a direct conduit to the baffle for any movement of the outer packaging. The open areas are crush zones.

Edited June 12, 2022 by JGale

[JGale]

2 hours ago, HSB0531 said:

I would suggest ULINE.

They have just about everything for packing and shipping.

https://www.uline.com/BL_868/Plank-Foam

That plank foam is the shizznit! I have been using Stewmac's inflatable system for shipping guitars. I had one fail because I filled to the maximum suggested air pressure and UPS put it on a plane. POP! The correct pressure hovers around 4 to 5 psi. The shapes work well for rectangular cases. I'm not totally enamored of the toe-in caterpillar wrap for round tail cases, but the isolated pouch cap for the headend is sweet!

[Tortious]

5 hours ago, JGale said:

If you are going to use peanuts, you have to encase the amp or it sucks to be on the other end.

Peanuts are evil.

[joshoowah]

I ended up skipping the peanuts. Everything is tight and well-padded. Amp is wrapped in bubble wrap under the slipcover, that's inside the "inner box, which is padded with the cut up foam sleeping pad, emphasis on corners, and finally, the outer box. No real room or need for peanuts. Thanks for all the help!

[LucSulla]

Since you have it done, this is more for peace of mind. They're more resilient than you'd think. As long as it ships right side up, and you packed it where the amp is tight in the box but there is some "spring" to the package when you shake it or drop it from a 1/4" or so, it will be fine unless the shipper does something stupid with it. 

Last couple of amps I bought from the factory shipped in just one box, tubes in, but suspended in with foam corners and additional cardboard to make sure the amp didn't shift in the package, and two of those came from Germany. I also shipped a BE50 to Cali and back twice, and it was packed that way. 

After destroying an amp due to stupid packing myself, I subsequently used to pack them like they were going to be dropped from an airplane.  After buying a few amps from Friedman, I started packing them like they advised.  The vast majority of the winning the war is making sure it can't shift in the box, that it can absorb a normal amount of shock from getting jostled around, and doing what you can to make sure if the shipper ignores the label and stack shit on it that it will distribute that load as evenly as possible without stressing any tender bits of the amp. 

[Dave Scepter]

24 minutes ago, LucSulla said:

 They're more resilient than you'd think. As long as it ships right side up,

🤣