Hi, wondering if anybody has shipped a full synth. I’m moving across the world and wondering if folks brought their synth as checked luggage or shipped separately. Mine is about 60x40x30cm
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I just happened to see this, and I do not claim to know anything about it, however, I feel compelled to suggest you have it shipped as if you have agreed to sell it. On the other hand, it’s not that big…maybe just keep it as carry on…
…nah, I guess that’s pretty bulky. Ship it dude. Pay for the extra protection.
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I have done it multiple times with both keyboards and guitars. Very small keyboards can be taken as cabin luggage (I typically carry a large backpack). Sometimes airlines will allow a guitar in the cabin as well (call them to make sure). Otherwise, I pack keyboards and/or guitars in their original boxes (with some extra padding inside if possible), check them in, and hand them in the special baggage counter. Make sure to put at least a couple of “FRAGILE” stickers on them. Special baggage with fragile stickers will be typically handled carefully and won’t go on a conveyor belt. Shipping things using long-haul companies is a hit-and-miss. If you can make sure that you are present in both the loading and unloading of your things in the van/truck there should not be a problem. However, if the journey requires the stuff to be unloaded and loaded back into different vans, warehouses, ships, and whatnot, it’s almost certain that something will be damaged. I always had things damaged that way.
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Your mileage may vary, of course.
I’ll add that I’ve shipped and had shipped instruments — generally smaller and lighter than a modular synth though — and so far have not had any damaged. And in my career in physics we frequently had occasion to ship large and very expensive pieces of apparatus, again without in my experience having them damaged. In those cases, of course, part of it was our machine shop carefully making and packing the shipping crate with support structure, padding, and monitoring equipment. You can’t prevent disaster but you can maximize your chances of success by packing carefully.
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I have shipped synths internationaly without issue. Just needs a good strong that is not too oversize. And good packing material that’s not too squidgey but does have some give in it.
I brought a Moog MG-1 from USA to Sweden a couple of years ago and was for a moment trapped as the airline personnel though it had batteries inside and I had to take it out of my suitcase and then suddenly it was too big to be carried on (and too electronic), so it went back into the suitcase that was checked in and arrived in one piece home.
I think the batteries are an issue though as no batteries should be in anything checked in.
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Shipped Roland D20 from Japan to Central Europe, it was (un)surprisingly costly, in the end it cost almost the same as buying the same exact model here in Poland. So, be ready for unforeseen costs even if price was low for the synth alone.
Though my luggage was larger than what you mention.
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Synth appears to have arrived safe and sound in France from Australia. I assembled the largest modules on the rails after packing other modules (put cardboard around the PCBs of the modules to protect the capacitors from being knocked off) and components in bubble wrap underneath, packed it up with more bubble wrap so it didn’t move and covered the box in Fragile stickers I made that say “musical instrument” in English and French. I included a note inside saying what it is and a screwdriver in case security wanted to open it up. Also used some luggage straps around it. I flew with it in checked in luggage, the folks at the airport didn’t have any issue with it but suggested I should mention that it was a musical instrument and that it should have gone through the “odd size” check in. It arrived in the regular baggage collection, although it was upside down, I can’t see any damage.
Maybe some ideas were overkill I dunno, just glad it arrived safe.
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