Sup everyone,

How would you recommend transporting some of my gear overseas? I need something cheap and safe, but the time it takes does not matter. I looked into almost all available courier services but they are extremely expensive due to the size and weight of the items. Any ideas? How would you do it? Lets make a lil' discussion.

Ill appreciate that, thanks.
Olby

backpack
SP 404 + xiosynth 25.. leave everything else behind

I would say using postal system is ok if you can afford it, to protect things you want multiple layers...

If you can do it, have bubble wrap/foam, then a box, then more bubble wrap/foam, then another box.
otherwise just foam/bubble wrap + box is OK.. Also it would be a good idea to wrap the gear in some plastic first, in case water gets inthe box.

Another thought - sell all your gear, then buy it again 2nd hand when you arrive

ps
O.T.
@cartesia:
i took the xiosynth 25 at last...

cool! I'm hopefully buying one on wednesday, once I've been paid...
although I'm also considering mopho, ea-1, MS2000... can't decide

I think you're screwed as far as courier delivery goes. It's expensive, that's how it is.

You could try to take it with you on a flight as luggage, that might be less expensive. But knowing the size and weight of say the MV8800, it will cost you either way.

you could pack it well in a suit case and just carry it on with you.. if you have to pay to add another piece of luggage its not too much to do.. at leat on the american airlines.. when i was in art school across the country they would let me take my portfolio bag (large oversize and some what fragile) on with me and they stored it in the front of the plane for me.. you could call and ask what the story is on something like that..

If I travelled from EU to US, I would seriously think about selling all the gear here in Europe and buying it in US. Of course this option depends on how much time you have before the take-off, but in general I think it'd be good idea, that would save you some $ on a postal service and probably the fact that gear is cheaper in US, would make you save another $ in gear too.

i appreciate all the comments. thanks. ill look into that, since i am already in Canada and my gear back home, I cant sell it since it has all my projects there and no one knows how to transfer them, so i will have to get at least the MV over here using the postal service. I hope them MF's wont screw up my stuff.

peace,
olby

Not to speak of the power issue. Not all gear has multi-region power supplies, and if, only the ones with inbuilt power supplies do. Still you need to get power cables for those, and a suitcase full of wallwart psus for the rest.

Where are you going from/to?

if you go somewhere with the same voltage... you could do something sneaky like:

take a powerboard with you thats big enough to fit everything on
plug the power board into a plug adapter (probly best to make sure its a good one tho to handle the high current)

Definitely something to think about, but the MV has a regular PC power supply though, so all you might have to do is find a US style power supply plug. No adapters needed or any current issue present if I'm not mistaken.