Shipping your hammered dulcimer sometimes is necessary. You may want to return it to me for repairs,alteration or installing a pickup. You may want to ship it to a destination where it can be waiting for you. Doing this will avoid the hassles of bringing the dulcimer on a plane.

I have developed the following method of packing which seems to work well. You'll need to find a box big enough to accomodate your dulcimer with some extra room on both ends, top and bottom and in between the bridge face of the dulcimer and the side of the box. I have found that bicycle boxes are plentiful and work very well. Contact your local retailer.

Your instrument should be in either a soft case or wrapped in bubble wrap to begin with. Please to do not use plastic peanuts. They are the horrible to deal with on both ends and really don't provide the necessary protection plus the definitely aren't green.

Then using either styrofoam blocks or stacked and taped together stacked cardboard of the appropriate sizes buffer the instrument from the sides of the box. The only side you don't have to buffer with a block is the back. You can get away with just the soft case or just a layer of bubble wrap. Use packing tape to secure the blocks to their locations so they don' t migrate during shipping. I place the bottom block in first, place the dulcimer in the box on top the block, than wedge the two end blocks in place,next place the blocks which protect the bridge face and finally add the topmost block. I than fill the rest of the space with wadded up newspaper. Seal up the box with plenty of tape and you are ready to take it to your favorite carrier. I currrently ship most of my instruments via UPS ground. You'll save some money if you take it directly to a UPS shipping center.