If you’ve ever moved areas or countries, you may have had to ship your drum set. Drums are large instruments, so packing them in the back of your compact truck when moving isn’t always an option.
Thankfully, shipping your drums isn’t as expensive as you may think, especially if you do it in the most space-saving way.
Shipping Companies
Some of the most popular shipping companies in the USA are UPS, FedEx, and Maersk. All of these companies will be able to ship your gear at relatively affordable prices. UPS and FedEx will have shipping costs that are based on how heavy your package is.
Drums are heavy, no matter how big they are. So expect the price to be more than if you were just shipping some books. The companies that I mentioned are the most reliable ones, but there are a few others that you can look into.
Standard Kit
Shipping a standard drum kit will cost just under $100 with most shipping companies. That would be if you’re shipping it to a location within the USA. If you’re shipping it internationally, it will cost more depending on how far you’re sending it.
This is highly affordable, considering how large and heavy a standard drum kit is. You’ll need to make the package as light as possible to save on costs, but we’ll get to that a bit later.
Cocktail Kit
Since cocktail drum sets are often half the size of regular drum sets, you can expect the price to be half as well. Most cocktail kits can be shipped around the US for just under $50. That price will dramatically increase when shipping to a different country.
Business Addresses
A great tip that I have for you is to ship from business address to business address. The shipping costs will be less that way. Shipping directly to your front door will always cost more. So shipping to your place of work may save a few bucks.
Another way of saving some money is to pack the drums yourself instead of getting the shipping company to package them.
Packing Your Drums
Learning to optimally pack your drums is a skill in itself, but it will save you some shipping costs in the long run. To pack the drums, you’re going to need to get them in the state that they were when you first bought the drum kit.
This means you need to strip the kit down to its bare bones. Remove the hardware and the heads so that you can fit all the shells in the same box together from biggest to smallest. Once that is done, you can assign a box for all the loose hardware that is left.
Make sure you adequately reinforce everything with a protective wrap so it doesn’t get damaged. The goal of packing the kit yourself is to use as few boxes as you can, allowing you to save on costs.
