Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello and Merry Christmas from Alabama,
I am seeking advice and information in an effort to help prevent nitro lacquer from checking/cracking when shipping a guitar.
After the guitar arrives to the destination, should there be a period of time before the guitar is un-boxed to allow it to acclimate to the new surroundings?
I would appreciate any advice,
thank you,
jack

If there's no rush, let it sit 24 hours before unboxing. Otherwise - a couple hours at least. You could pull the case out of the box, and let it sit a couple hours. Time is good in this case.

Back in the 80's I had a client bring me a '50 Goldtop in the dead of winter. Instead of keeping it in car with him, he put it in the trunk. He brought it in, and immediately opened the case. The guitar immediately blushed over with condensation, and you could hear a crackling hiss for about 10 seconds. I wiped it with a cotton cloth, and it was spiderwebbed from peghead to strap button, front and back. The guy about had a cow. Only then did I ask if it rode in the trunk....

In the future, I always asked before opening. Summer or winter.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

It's caused by thermal shock so what Chris said would be a very good idea.

In our repair business it's winter now in Michigan and we are in a small city with a booming economy. As such many of our clients will bring the guitar to work with them and leave it in the car until the noon hour when they bring it to us. As such the things can be very cold after being outside for hours.

We won't open the cases right away and will instead let a bit of time pass. We often ask the client to go get lunch (for them) and we will open it when they get back.

Dave not only watched a guitar completely craze once at another store but heard it too. It's an inconvenience to wait but the alternative is not pretty....

I played a gig up north once, and it was well around -30.

My les Paul was riding in the back of the truck.

Naturally, being concerned about it, I checked to see how it fared as soon as I got home.

It's fun to watch it craze right there as you're looking.

I had a Hagstrom Espana classical in Minneapolis. I drove with it in the car, but the heater did not work very well. Temp. -30F. When I got to my lesson, I opened the case and watched it crackle before my eyes

After doing that you can rub a little dirt into the cracks and have an instant relic.

Some people pay extra for that relic'd look.

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

I have never understood that..... Sure I get-it that some star may want to have a relic copy of say Trigger or Clapton's ax Blackie but for the rest of us mere mortals what are we saving up to be.....

Sorry for the highjack, Jack, Merry Christmas to you and yours too!

Most Nitrocellulose lacquer will check due to cold-heat cycles. The number of cycles depends on the other ingredients in the mix. If you are shipping a newly made instrument finished with nitro then you should be ok to just state to the receiver that they should open the box and remove the case and let it sit until it is warm to the touch, then open. But even if it goes from cold to hot it probably will not craze if it is new. Old instruments are at risk as Hesh stated. French polish WILL craze, I have seen it and interestingly, it "uncrazed" later!

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Ken