Cost to Ship a Drum Set and How to Save Money

How to Pack and Ship a Drum Set 

The best way to ship a drum set is to separate hardware, drums, and shells. Then, it is crucial to protect each piece so it won’t get damaged in transit. However, we are going to try to make these boxes as light as possible, this way you can save a lot of money. 

Before we move on to packing, let’s see what you will need:

• • Boxes of different sizes – including the biggest ones for shells, which are supposed to be  4 inches larger than your bass drum. This means that if your drum is 22”, the box should be 26”. Include the smallest one as well for things like drumheads.

• Ziploc bags – the smallest pieces of equipment can be put in Ziploc bags to make sure not to get mixed up in the boxes.
• Bubble wrap – for extra security, we will need a bubble wrap to wrap up each piece of equipment.
• Kraft paper – this one is the best choice for filling in the empty space in the box, so your drum equipment won’t move. 
• Packing tape – to secure your boxes, take packing tape and stick it from all sides of your boxes.

Now let’s see the thorough steps on how to pack a drum set for shipping one box at a time.

How to pack shells

Shell are the biggest part of the drum set but luckily they can all fit into one big box. In order to do so, you need to remove the drum heads from each drum and place the shells in the box one on top another going from the biggest to the smallest one. 

Make sure that the drum rims are still on so we can protect the bearing edges from getting damaged in the transport. Once they are stacked, fill the gaps with some Kraft paper, close the box, and secure it well with the packing tape. 

As for the drumheads, you can wrap them up in bubble wrap and place them, again, one on top of the other in another box that is more practical – this means smaller dimensions including a shallow box.  

How to pack cymbals

We pack cymbals separately from the shells. All you need to do is put your cymbals in their cymbals bag and wrap them in bubble wrap for extra protection. 

If you do not have a hard plastic bag for cymbals, but instead a fabric bag, we suggest buying one. Plastic bags protect cymbals much better and are much more durable, even if something heavy falls on them, it cannot damage them. 

Once wrapped, place them in a suitable-dimension box and fill it with Kraft paper. Even though this will make them more heavy, we need to protect our equipment at the highest level. 

How to pack hardware

Last but not least is the hardware which is the heaviest piece of drum equipment. Even though distributing the weight over a few boxes might sound easier, it is not. More boxes mean more money for shipping. 

Also, more boxes mean a bigger mess and a higher chance of mixing things up. Aside from that, placing all the hardware in one box will be heavy but much more practical and cheaper. 

Ensure to remove all the drum claws and the tension rods from the shells and place them into the Ziploc bag. You can additionally wrap them in bubble wrap and once secured place them in the box. 

Do this with your tom legs and cymbal stands. Wrap them in bubble wrap and securely place them in the box. For extra protection, put the Kraft paper to fill the voids. Do this for each piece of hardware and put the extra padding so they can’t move.