Case in a box
The keyboard's hard case is not the shipping container. Put it inside a double-wall corrugated carton with at least 2 in of foam on every face. A carton one size larger than the case is the target.
Piano triage
How to ship a piano, without breaking your back or the piano
Piano is a category, not a shipment. A stage keyboard or a compact digital piano is a parcel: pack it in its original hard case, boxed with foam, and price the label. An upright or a grand acoustic weighs 300 to 1,200 lb, needs a piano dolly and skid, and is a job for a specialty piano mover, not a parcel courier and not a general household mover. The way to save money is to identify the category first.
Three categories, three completely different jobs
| Category | Weight | Right service |
|---|---|---|
| Stage keyboard, controller, compact digital | 10 to 40 lb | Parcel: UPS Ground, FedEx Ground, USPS Ground Advantage. Priced from our calculator. |
| Full digital piano, console digital | 60 to 130 lb | Parcel with an oversize surcharge, or freight if boxed above 108 in girth. Priced from our calculator, escalated to freight review when it exceeds parcel limits. |
| Upright acoustic (spinet, console, studio) | 300 to 500 lb | Specialty piano mover. Not our parcel network. Costs published on a piano moving quote, not our calculator. |
| Grand or baby grand acoustic | 500 to 1,200 lb | Specialty piano mover with grand rig and crate. Same, our calculator does not price it. |
A common mistake is asking a general moving company or a courier to move an acoustic upright between homes. The piano tips, a leg snaps, the internal harp shifts, and the repair bill is often higher than the piano's value. Specialty movers use a piano dolly, a proper skid board and straps rated for the weight, and they do it many times a week.
Packing a digital keyboard for parcel
Corners take the fall
Foam corner protectors on all eight corners of the case do more than anything else to keep the housing intact if the box is dropped or stacked.
Immobilise the keys
Keyboards without a case get a foam sheet across the keybed and a rigid panel on top to keep the keys from bouncing. Then double-box.
Detach what detaches
Music rest, stand, sustain pedal and power supply go in a separate cardboard box or a labelled inner compartment. Shipping a stand attached to a keyboard bends the mounts.
If it is a full digital piano
Console-style digital pianos with built-in furniture stand at around 55 in wide by 30 in tall by 15 in deep boxed, and weigh close to 100 lb. That is at or above the girth threshold parcel networks charge oversize surcharges on. The route splits.
If the manufacturer's original carton and internal blocking are available, shipping parcel with additional signature and declared value is workable. If the carton is long gone, box-and-crate is often cheaper on a pallet through freight review than a parcel with the oversize surcharge attached. Send the make, model and boxed dimensions through freight review and a person prices both paths.
Acoustic uprights and grands
Get quotes from two or three specialty piano movers in your metro. They arrive with a piano dolly, a padded skid board and straps rated for 500 lb and up. Consoles and studios ride upright on the dolly with the pedal box removed. Grands come off their legs, get laid on the flat side of a padded skid board, and travel on the skid with the lyre and legs boxed separately. Cross-country moves put the piano in a hard crate on a truck.
A local move usually runs several hundred dollars. A long-distance move runs into four figures. Neither is what a parcel carrier does, and neither is a job for two friends and a pickup truck. Our piano moving cost page walks the published rates.
Prep before the piano goes on any truck
Digital: back up settings
Save presets to a USB drive if the model supports it. A drop-shocked keyboard survives more often than the memory does.
Acoustic: lock the lid, remove the pedal box
Tape the fallboard shut with painter tape and unscrew the pedal assembly. Both take five minutes and prevent the two most common damage claims.
Both: schedule a tuning
An acoustic piano needs tuning after a move regardless of care taken. Book the local technician for a week after arrival.
Common questions
How do you ship a piano?
It depends on the piano. Digital keyboards go parcel through a calculator. Full digital consoles usually go freight. Upright and grand acoustics go on a specialty piano mover, not a courier and not a general moving company.
Can I ship an upright acoustic piano via UPS or FedEx?
No. Parcel networks are not equipped to handle a 400 lb single item, and their weight and girth limits exclude it. Specialty piano movers do this daily with proper rigging.
What does a digital piano cost to ship?
A stage keyboard in a case runs the price of a large parcel. A full console digital piano usually crosses into oversize territory or onto a pallet, so use freight review for a quote.
Do I need to detune the strings on an acoustic?
No. Leave the strings at pitch. What matters is locking the fallboard, removing the pedal box, and letting the movers rig it properly. A tuning after arrival is standard.
How much does it cost to move an upright piano across town?
A specialty piano mover typically quotes a few hundred dollars for a local move, with stairs and long carries priced on top.