Shipping guitars to the USA...Couriers?

[mybass]

I may be sending two guitars back to the owner in the USA, inside a Mono dual bag.Insurance is a must as they are worth a few grand.

I've looked at a couple of places online, the DHL site didnt promise an easy way and another site only insured £2000 maximum.

Whether the owner gets hit with tax or not isn't a problem (for me) as he will have to give proof of ownership along the way.

Any ideas, sites etc would be appreciated, especially if one of you has successfully shipped to the USA.

[jrixn1]

Can you ask the instruments' owner to arrange the courier and insurance, so they can take on the work and responsibility of arranging everything and making insurance claims etc if something goes wrong.

[Dad3353]

A return flight UK-USA can be £300-500. Could that be made to work..? 

[Beedster]

The fact that he owns them doesn't protect you from the hell of US Customs. If I had to send a bass to the US again I would convert the case into a boat and row the Atlantic to avoid dealing with both US Customs and the frankly unbelievable mess that US couriers make of dealing with US Customs. As an indication, I received 64 emails from UPS requesting information about the bass last time I did it

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

As some couriers may not cover guitars, or the cost of insurance can be ridiculously high, once you have found a courier, you could have a look at insuring through secursus https://www.secursus.com/en-gb/  They cover international shipments as well as domestic.

 

I have used them several times when sending within the UK with parcelforce, however I have not had to make any claims so I can't comment on that process.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

As @Beedster said, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to sell across the Atlantic again after my most recent experience with UPS.

I was contacted just last week by a potential buyer for my Spector and after a lot of homework I concluded that it was far too much hassle.

Funny enough, I spent about an hour wading through all the terms on the DHL site and even spoke to them directly.

If you are going ahead, the advise I had was to obtain a manufacturers material data safety spec to negate much of the nonsense that US Customs will present you with.

[mybass]

3 hours ago, jrixn1 said:

Can you ask the instruments' owner to arrange the courier and insurance, so they can take on the work and responsibility of arranging everything and making insurance claims etc if something goes wrong.

I have done that thanks….I’m looking for any Basschat experience as a helping hand. If a link is given I can send it to the USA.

[mybass]

2 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

As some couriers may not cover guitars, or the cost of insurance can be ridiculously high, once you have found a courier, you could have a look at insuring through secursus https://www.secursus.com/en-gb/  They cover international shipments as well as domestic.

 

I have used them several times when sending within the UK with parcelforce, however I have not had to make any claims so I can't comment on that process.

I’ll look into them, thanks.

[Beedster]

4 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

If you are going ahead, the advise I had was to obtain a manufacturers material data safety spec to negate much of the nonsense that US Customs will present you with.

 

This is not just good advice but is essential advice.

 

However, the fact that a manufacturer can provide the documentation doesn't mean that US Customs will accept it as fact. Also, as I found, not even the best instrument builders can always provide evidence as to - for example - the mother of pearl used in neck inlays was sourced from. I would suggest that you either get the owner to sort all of the processes from the US so that they get to deal with the fun, or you work with a UK builder/dealer who regularly ships to the US and who is a) therefore trusted by US Customs and b) familiar with the madness of US Customs 

[mybass]

1 hour ago, Beedster said:

 

This is not just good advice but is essential advice.

 

However, the fact that a manufacturer can provide the documentation doesn't mean that US Customs will accept it as fact. Also, as I found, not even the best instrument builders can always provide evidence as to - for example - the mother of pearl used in neck inlays was sourced from. I would suggest that you either get the owner to sort all of the processes from the US so that they get to deal with the fun, or you work with a UK builder/dealer who regularly ships to the US and who is a) therefore trusted by US Customs and b) familiar with the madness of US Customs 

I will be trying to direct the owner to take on the majority of work towards getting his US made guitars home. I can facilitate by being home to pass the package on or to someone flying over there.

[spencer.b]

I'd say insurance is definitely a must , if you're sending them in a gig bag!! Sorry to be nosey but what's the situation , how did they end up on the other side of the Atlantic from the owner

[walshy]

I do this fairly regularly and I use UPS and to be fair haven’t had any issues, they’ve always been super helpful and normally only one phone call or email for instrument country of origin. It’s not cheap for the importer but I’ve not had anything go majorly wrong. Recently sent basses to USA, Canada, Japan etc without issue. Maybe I’m just lucky

[cetera]

20 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

As @Beedster said, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to sell across the Atlantic again after my most recent experience with UPS.

I was contacted just last week by a potential buyer for my Spector and after a lot of homework I concluded that it was far too much hassle.

Funny enough, I spent about an hour wading through all the terms on the DHL site and even spoke to them directly.

If you are going ahead, the advise I had was to obtain a manufacturers material data safety spec to negate much of the nonsense that US Customs will present you with.

Maybe get Bass Direct to handle it for you mate....and allow them to take a small cut for their assistance?

[mybass]

10 hours ago, spencer.b said:

I'd say insurance is definitely a must , if you're sending them in a gig bag!! Sorry to be nosey but what's the situation , how did they end up on the other side of the Atlantic from the owner

Left here for past touring in the U.K. and Europe, time to ‘go home’ now……the Mono case is a double thick padded most expensive one that will be boxed.

[mybass]

21 minutes ago, cetera said:

Maybe get Bass Direct to handle it for you mate....and allow them to take a small cut for their assistance?

A possible choice, thanks.

[Beedster]

On 15/05/2025 at 18:06, Beedster said:

 

......or you work with a UK builder/dealer who regularly ships to the US and who is a) therefore trusted by US Customs and b) familiar with the madness of US Customs 

 

On 16/05/2025 at 08:09, walshy said:

I do this fairly regularly and I use UPS and to be fair haven’t had any issues, they’ve always been super helpful and normally only one phone call or email for instrument country of origin. It’s not cheap for the importer but I’ve not had anything go majorly wrong. Recently sent basses to USA, Canada, Japan etc without issue. Maybe I’m just lucky

 

Suggestion meet solution

 

Just checked my emails, these were the specific problems I had

 

1. UPS refused to collect due to the value of the bass which meant I had to take it to a 'Service Centre' where the staff had apparently no idea what to do with the paperwork and at least some of the documents didn't make it to the US

2. It was almost impossible to identify the correct import code, which IIRC we eventually had to leave off the form which further slowed down the process

3. Despite the buyer repeatedly speaking to them on the phone, UPS kept emailing me new forms to complete requiring the information the buyer had already provided (these were almost certainly system generated but I got the sense that phone conversations and digital comms were completely independent of each other).

UPS tracking was also a disaster, we received 'Out for delivery' emails followed by 'Your item has been held by Customs' emails frequently

 

Eventually Rob at Status provided the necessary information, which IIRC was related to the material of the neck inlays, and after a few weeks the bass was released. 

 

I have a friend who like @walshy regularly sends guitars to the US, his view is that it's generally ok but that when it goes wrong it goes spectacularly wrong, guess we were unlucky   

 

In the grand scheme of things, all unimportant stuff. But it was an expensive and rare instrument and myself and the buyer had three weeks of worry about losing it, something neither of us could really afford to do, especially as it was a little ambiguous as to whether the insurance would cover an impounded instrument, I suspect not.

 

But even though I might have been unlucky, I will not use UPS again, ever 😡

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

@Beedster I’m with you there.

My previous experience with UPS meant I went elsewhere with my latest USA shipping query.

Despite DHL’s web site stating they ship The Rolling Stones’ gear all over the world and Joan Jett endorsing them, it seems when you actually speak to them in person, they can’t get their heads around the import code thing and the ramifications of getting that wrong even if it does make it across the pond.

Luckily both @Beedster and I were dealing with original manufacturers that you can have a dialogue with (Alembic and Status) otherwise both of the basses in question would probably still be in a customs warehouse.

[Eldon Tyrell]

Shipping to the US can get stressful. The value of the shipment also seems to matter. At least that's what I was told when I shipped my Timmy C to the US back in 2023.  I posted this back then (Oct 2023) in another thread:

 

I recently (June) sold a Stingray Timmy C to a buyer in the US. Well, the local depot here in the UK wanted to know if I had a CITES license. I could convince them that there was no need for one. I also had to send them the commercial invoices again as they somehow had managed to lose them. I only found out about the "missing" commercial invoices after checking the tracking info online where it said that they were waiting for the forms and that they had contacted the seller (i.e., me). Well, they obviously did not contact me and I had to chase them up. 

Then the US counterparts asked me to fill in a toxic substance control act declaration (TSCA, I guess because of the fretboard glue!), a manufacturer's affidavit (actually this should have been filled in by EBMM but I put in the info myself and I also attached the original invoice from EBMM. Interestingly, after some googling I found out that a manufacturers affidavit is normally used for shipments over $10,000.00. Well, the Timmy C is a great bass but not not THAT expensive ; -), and a foreign shipper declaration. The buyer was also asked to fill in an import declaration and a TSCA form (importer single entry). Looks like these checks came into place as the bass returned to the US where is was made and because the value was above $2500. All in all a lot of hassle, costing me time and energy. So, in short, my advice to you - if someone from the US wants to buy one of your basses that was made in the US and that is worth more than $2500, then kindly decline it (unless you don't mind filling in several forms and spending lots of time emailing custom officials and people working in depots ; -).  

[Beedster]

55 minutes ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

I also had to send them the commercial invoices again as they somehow had managed to lose them.

 

Seems to be a common thing 🤔