Shipping vintage synths

[was silents]

If you have UPS pack and insure it they will make good on a claim without hassle. It doesn't necessarily protect the synth but it protects you. I have shipped all over the world using this method and, although expensive, I have never had a problem.

[m.o]

The few more or less obvious points (bought 4 synths across europe the last couple of years):

- Put foam or wrinkled up newspaper under the keys, at the front of the keyboard to prevent the keys from moving/breaking.

- Seal it from water/moist with a big plastic bag/sheets close around the keyboard and tape it shut.

- Then put bubblewrap around it (the one with bigger bubbles seems good).

- One seller used empty plastic water bottles withthe screw cork on as air cusions around the synth, seemed to work pretty well.

- If using foam packing "peanuts" make sure the box is sealed well so they stay in the box.

- Pay attention to the "ends" of the package as people will rest/stand the package on end.

- If you don't feel confident dropping the package from like a foot or two - pack more

When receiving a keyboard I always do the "rattle test" (lift it and tilt it and turn it upside down) before even thinking of plugging anything in, if something is loose inside you need to check what it is - I've had screws and even a metal paper clip loose which could easily have come into the power supply.

Check any voltage selector (110 - 220V) is set right.

[3001]

Your'e in luck, the 106 is just about the SAFEST synth to ship. I had a guy ship it with NO packing material. it's bender broke, the only thing that broke, from cali to NY, I think it was from cali, it was like 4 days in shipping.

It needed the connections to be reseated, but after that it worked fine. :-) this seller also said he serviced it, there was a a dead bug in that, so I called him out on that. He was supposed to send me an octave cat too. Never got that :<

dont do the plastic bottle thing if you really want it done well, UPS or fedex will laugh at you...

you're required to have i think it's 1" or 1.5" of bubble wrap around electronics. do 2" of bubble wrap. and then 2" of peanuts surrounding the bubble wrap, that should handle just about any fall. and yes it WILL fall.

Then again you're talking about a very sturdy keyboard, a Juno106 isn't equivalent to some of the others...

it's really simple inside it, nothing really mechanical to break. The only thing that'd happen is the corners breaking through and getting cracked, the ends are the most important pieces to protect. As this is what takes the damage.

the middle, not really, whats someone going to do put a bat through the middle? they're only dropping them off the truck, throwing them around, so the corners will get damaged while the rest stays ok:-)

But follow that 2" bubble wrap 2" of peanuts, and a sturdy cardboard box. With that in place, you can get your insurance...

On that note...

ONLY ship UPS or FedEX, good luck with USPS getting any insurance money in case something goes wrong...

Not to scare you but what I've had broke is this:

(the saddest one ...:<:<:<), a kenton midied tr808 with analogue solutions tonal mod kit. damn this thing was sweet! wasn't packed right, it got shippped to where I was going to school, due to this, I couldn't get an insurance claim going.

Ensoniq Fizmo, packed poorly, but also built poorly, crack in the corner :( I think this was via UPS

UPS: *LOST* my emulator 3 for 4 or 5 days. I think they were just too lazy to pick it up, the manager of the UPS store drove it to my house. There was a crack 1-2" in the STEEL that it was made with. I had to vacumn it all up(peanuts were everywhere, HORRIBLE packing job)...reseated the connector, and voila, E3 magic! ^_^

Apart from that, I've recieved TONs of stuff, and nothing else got damaged, lets just say al lot of gear...

Luckily most people pack stuff up good:-)

Enjoy the 106!! :>

[3001]

oh yea, just #1 thing, make sure the packing is up to UPS standards, or you will not get your insurance $ if anything happens.

[xanax]

thanks fellows...some good tips here.. i'm in europe btw, so no USPS but i was hesitating to use the local equivalent (regular mail) since they do provide insurance up to 800€ but i think UPS might be the safer bet although double/triple the shipping cost... btw how do they know how you packed the item???