I just sold a mandolin I built in 2005 on ebay. I have never had any problems with it and I thought the set up was fine.
The purchaser emailed me today to say it has a buzz and he took it to a local shop and was told the mandolin has a warped neck and cannot be fixed by the luthier there.
I have told him to ship it back for a full refund of the purchase price so I am not asking what to do regarding the sale. Even without any problems I gave him an approval period and he contacted me within that time frame.
I am posting because I am a bit puzzled by all of this. If the mandolin has never had any issues in 7 years before what is the likelihood that it would develop them while in transit.
I essentially built a case for it out of carboard and blue foamboard to ship it in. The shipping case I built supported the instrument body and neck better than my Gator or Access hard shell cases do. I removed the bridge and built a little compartment in the shipping case for it so there was no string tension.
It was shipped FedEx home delivery from central Texas to Lakeville, MN. Temperature here the day I shipped it was in the low 80's. Temperature there on the day it was received was in the low 50's.
I guess I just want to know if this has happened to anyone else when they have shipped an instrument. I have already decided that I don't think I will ship another instrument. This happening and the fact that it took me about four hours to package it are too much.
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