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Joined:
July 2005
Posts: 1609
Location: Colorado | I'm guessing this has been covered - but a search returned no results. So how do you recommend airline travel and bringing your guitar with you on the flight? The reality is I've done this at least 200 - 300 times...and all I ever did was loosen up the strings a bit - put one or two wraps around the case with gaffers tape - and sent her in the belly of the beast...Never lost the guitar - and it was never damaged. One time I knew it had to be there (the gig was important...a wedding for a relative of my wife...not for $$$) - so I Fedexed it to arrive at the aiport an hour after me...any horror stories out there? I guess #43 and I/me am/are lucky. :eek: |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | no horror stories here.....but it just takes one! |
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Joined:
October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | so far i have had no problems taking my guitars on board and asking permission of the flight attendants to store the guitar(s) in the closet up in first class. i thought i wouldn't be so lucky this last trip in june and changing planes three times, but the airlines were very accomodating. |
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Joined:
March 2007
Posts: 840
Location: CA | I have a 1111-4 that I bought new in 1971. In the mid-80s, it was in its third or fourth cheapo case. Although padded to the gills and duct-tape shut, the guitar arrived from a cross-country flight with the head snapped off. (It broke just above the nut, so the break did not extend to the fret board.) My own stupid fault, or at least I've always thought. Moped for a couple of years about it, then got out the old epoxy and fixed it. Doesn't look that great, but doesn't look that bad, either. The fix has held for at least 20 years now and I still play the guitar regularly. BTW, this deep bowl model has been all over the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Caribbean and has yet to develop a "finish crack common to these guitars" as I so often see in eBay ads. |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 5563
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | So far, so good: I also loosen strings, use a good hard case, tape or use a cover bag (I had one made for a Dread case; works for everything except my jumbo cases...had it on the tour this year for the 1758 and later the Snake...worked great...Oddball thats some strong epoxy! Randy, I traveled to Belarus in 94 and 95 with the flt. crew putting my guitar with their stuff...but then the regs. changed and I went to putting it in the overhead bin; then went to a Baby Taylor and it fits great! Miss taking the O's though...the looks on the faces of the customs in Russia was priceless when they saw the Elites for the first time! Good Stuff! |
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Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | This is why I pkay a ukulele.
I've had to travel with a guitar 5-6 times but never had the nerve to trust it to the airlines. Always sent it ahead FedEx. Although the rates have really gone up. What used to cost me $40 for a 2-day delivery in the CUSA now costs $70. Fortunately, most people/places I visit have multiple guitars on hand so more often than not I can just borrow. Dispite strong opinions, I can usually play just about any non-Taylor guitar and be just fine.
Dave |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | I'll arrive very early and try for first class closet space. If not Northwest offers a "hand carry load / unload" option that I plan to use. It avoids the mechanical belts and hopefully the monkeys tending them. |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4026
Location: Utah | As a pilot, I can bring my stuff up front, although a full sized O won't fit. Later today I'll get some photos up of my travel rig, which should be good for a few laughs all around.
Definitely ask the flight attendants politely about storing your instrument in a closet. Usually the FAs want to help, but they will not respond well to rudeness. We do carry some things up in the cockpit when it is fragile and won't fit anywhere else, so it is not impossible to do. It just has to fit into an approved cargo location, like the crew luggage area. (That's the official regulation stuff. What the crew might/might not be willing to do is another thing.)
Many flights are on regional carriers, like the one I work for. The overhead bins are a bit smaller than on the larger jets, so your O won't fit. However, stuff checked planeside goes into a different bin from regular checked bags in the 70+ seat regional jets. In the 50 seaters it goes into the same bin as checked luggage, but it goes in on top. Much fragile stuff is loaded as planeside checked baggage, which is returned planeside at the destination. The rampers seem to treat this stuff more gently (less harshly?).
Planeside checking would be a safer bet than regular checked baggage, if you can't stow it in the cabin. |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Flysig... So would you reccommend that if I want to try for upper cabin cargo space I bring the case though security an hope for the best or make the request at the luggage check in counter???
Damn... this membership is awesome.
A strong source for first hand information.
It's just part of the package. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Take a gig bag and put it overhead. Get there early so you can be first on. Check the overall size limitations of the overhead bins. That's why Adrian Legg has that funny solid body he plays all the time on the road, it fits in the overhead and was made to meet those specs. |
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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Brad, every time I've carried a guitar on a plane I've just kept it with me all the way to the door. If anyone questioned it I would politely tell them I checked when booking the flight and understood it was up to the discretion of the flight crew (it is) and if they required me to gate check it I would. At the door I (again, very politely) asked where I could stow it. Every time they've been happy to tuck it in the first class closet. Last time they even rearranged everything in there to make room.
For some reason politeness goes a looooong way with flight crews. I guess they don't see it very often. |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4026
Location: Utah | Brad, yes bring it through security and out to the gate with you. Waskel is correct, the flight attendants don't see a lot of politeness these days, so a smile and pleasant request will go a long ways to getting your guitar on the airplane. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | I recently flew from Orange County to Kansas City, then Kearney Nebraska back to Orange County. On the first leg, I got the guitar to the gate and the people at the gate were so kind that they let me pre-board in order to get the guitar on.
Kindness goes a helluva long way at the airports. My worst case has been having to have my guitar hand carried from the gate to the luggage hold, then back to the gate at my destination. I can't remember the last time I've had to check my guitar at the front counter. |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4026
Location: Utah | For your entertainment, here's my travel rig. The guitar is a Hohner G3T headless electric solidbody. The scale is full length so it feels completely normal, not like a travel guitar.
I plug it into a Toneworks PX4 effects box, which is stereo and has a headphone output. The sound quality is very good, and I use it for gigging too. It's the blue unit on the guitar strap, held in place with a plastic clip that it came with. The cable threads through two velcro bands to keep it secured to the strap. The bands are my daughter's soccer jersey sleeve keepers, which are just the right size to go around the guitar strap.
My cell phone is an MP3 player, so it is clipped above the PX4 and jacks into the aux input with the grey cord. Headphones are a lightweight Sony folding unit that came with a DiskMan many years ago.
Size Matters! All packed up and ready to go.
The Rig
All put together. All that's missing are reading glasses so I can read the displays on the MP3 player and the PX4.
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I've been pretty lucky even when I've gate checked 'em. I've never had to put them in with the regular baggage. If you've searched the archive you'll find alot of info on this topic.
Like that rig flysig. |
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Joined:
October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | i dunno flysig, kinda looks like a suicide guitarist to me! TSA probably scratches their heads over this setup! :D |
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Joined:
July 2005
Posts: 1609
Location: Colorado | Does it bother anyone else that Flysig is concerned about reading his MP3 player and FX box...but not the cockpit instrumentation! |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4026
Location: Utah | Originally posted by elginacres:
Does it bother anyone else that Flysig is concerned about reading his MP3 player and FX box...but not the cockpit instrumentation! I could tell you about how I knew it was time to get reading glasses, even though I could still pass the FAA vision test 20/20 without correction. But that would just worry you more! |
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Joined:
January 2007
Posts: 146
Location: Japan | I've had no problems and have carried on electric basses & guitars as well as my Adamas many times between Alaska, the lower 48 and Japan.
Quite often on the smaller flights they'll do a gate check where the guitar ends up being one of the last items loaded, and they always seem to do so with more care than on the larger planes too. |
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Joined:
July 2007
Posts: 423
Location: UK | Just got bacl from Florida and spent well over an hour wraping the guitar in bubble wrap and duct tape . Arrived in Manchester depressed enough , then at baggage collection got dizzy watching the carousel go round and round and everybody disapearing until there is one bag left on there , clearly missplaced and no 1537 . Logged missing guitar and they confidently told me " it was somewhere " well yes . Went of home and it was couriered to me the next day undamaged and on the plus side i didnt have to pay 20% duty .
Lanaki is right Flysig you look like Kevin Spacey playing a suicide guitarist :D |
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Airplane Travel
