Posted by Steve Inman on July 25, 2001 at 20:14:46:
In Reply to: What's the best way to ship a tuba? posted by Maria on July 25, 2001 at 10:42:27:
Greyhound worked well for me when I had a Yamaha Eb shipped from Seattle to Peru, Indiana. They can drop off an instrument at a few key bus stops other than the main terminals, if you find someone who knows the details. This saved me from driving an hour to downtown Indianapolis.
The shipper put a few scraps of bubble wrap inside the case, and a scant amount of packing material outside the case, with the whole thing in a cardboard box. I'd call his method of packing very poor, and very risky. No damage to the tuba, however.
I would recommend packing the tuba with the volleyball in the bell (ala Rick's post below), and tons of bubble wrap so that it CANNOT move inside its hard case. Go to your local Boxes, Etc. store and buy a couple of large, sturdy cardboard shipping boxes, and cut/trim/hot-glue/tape together a custom-sized shipping box that's about 2-3 inches larger in every dimension than the largest outside measurements of the hard case. Pour in a 2-3 inch layer of styrafoam peanuts, set the case inside the box on top of the initial layer, and fill up the remaining space with the shipping peanuts. Pack 'em in firmly, shut and tape the top closed.
Now your hard case is suspended/surrounded by 2-3 inches of styrafoam peanuts on all sides, and cannot move in any direction. Likewise the tuba is suspended by a volleyball and bubble wrap in all directions within the hard case and cannot move in any direction.
Insure the tuba for as much as possible, ship, and keep your fingers crossed.
Please note: when I picked up my Besson 983 from Brasswind a few years back, we stopped by the warehouse to find the case (old facility). Charlie had to open a couple of cardboard boxes, and actually uncovered/opened one tuba before finding the box with the case, IIRC. Besson shipped their tubas and cases in separate boxes, each wrapped in a big plastic bag (to keep the styrafoam peanuts out), and encased in styrafoam peanuts. This absolutely prevented the tuba from being bounced against the inside of the hard case, as it wasn't shipped inside the hard case at all.
Regards,
Steve Inman
Kokomo, IN