Recommendations: how to ship a cello to Ireland from U.S.

Poststructural Pub
1

I’ve a good friend who is needing to ship a cello from the U.S. to Ireland (specifically, the University of Limerick).

Any recommendations on what service to use, how to prepare / pack the instrument, and so forth would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone!


–James

2

I don’t know if it’s the same, but I had a harp shipped from the USA to Europe.

You have to make sure all the strings and bridges are removed from the instrument, in case they come off and scratch it. Generally the smaller parts will have to be packed separately.

If the cello has a case, you will need to line it with polystyrene foam, or the kind of foam you get in gun cases or Pelican boxes. The reason why, is to stop the temperature dropping and the humidity shifts at 10,000ft, suddenly causing cracks or splits in the body of the instrument.

Then seal it inside the case - not light-heartedly with a strip of sellotape. But hermetically. You don’t want to add any silica gel or dessicants in either, since these will only contribute to drying out the instrument. Double bag the case, and insulate in between the instrument case and the wooden crate/box on the outside again.

I presume you have a courier all sorted. I was fearful about transporting a large instrument this way, but apparently the hold luggage in most aeroplanes is temperature controlled (just not humidity controlled) so it’s not as fearsome doing this.

I don’t like labelling instruments directly as a ‘cello’ etc on customs. ‘Musical Instrument’ will do. If it is for academic purposes, you can specific it on the customs form.

Hope it gets there okay. Limerick is a great place to be :slight_smile:

3

Practice!

4

Too bad we don’t know filthy rich people with private jets that could just transport the thing in first class.

5

Thanks everyone!

James_Alto, thank you for the good information. I’ve passed this on.

If anyone else has further thoughts on this, please post 'em, and thanks again!


–James

6

Maybe it’s apples and oranges … But at the music store we received shipments of string instruments (including cellos) from overseas all the time, and damage was pretty rare.

The basic principles seem to be:

  1. Padded immobility of the instrument (especially neck), against shock damage.
  2. A hard shell around the instrument, against intrusion/torsion damage.
  3. A crush zone around the instrument, against compression damage.

If it’s an expensive cello, it might be worth wooden crating the instrument in its case and using a carrier who will handle that.

7

Of the couriers I have used, cost wise, DHL seems to very competitive. I suggestion check around.