Flying with instruments

[playingdead]

This is what I used flying with my Tiger guitar, and why ...



http://www.reunionblues.com/RBG1BK.asp

[Dozin]

Strummin you are correct it was during jamcruise. And it's iffy what exactly happen. It could of been off the cargo net or JetBlue.

[FretfulDave]

I am totally confused. Who's guitar is that? At first I was really sad for Dozin, especially after seeing the build and all for that beautiful guitar. Now just wondering who's guitar, what really happened and not so much... the why of it.


*** Flame on ***

The why we know. It is the complete lack of quality work that abounds in this country now. There is no reason why the airline baggage handlers, or any baggage handlers for that matter, can't do their job in a less destructive manner. This is unfortunately a result of the "drive for profit" and cost cutting measures taken by virtually every company over the past 10 years or so. It is unfathomable to me that someone could not care about their job so much that these type of things happen. There is no excuse. It is hard to nail down the perpetrators and the lack of quality in jobs spreads as corporations try to eek more out of less. Everything has to be faster, with less thought and care taken. I see it all over the place in my ultra huge corporation.

*** Flame off ***

Re the Continental guitar case (named for the airline?). I am impressed by the demo and it looks real nice and for the price, it should be a no brainer to go with that solution. My curiosity at the moment is that I notice the test is done with a solid body guitar presumably with a bolt on neck. A strat or more likely, a strat knock off. But what would really happen if the test were performed with a hollow body (or semi hollow) and a glued on neck? It might not fare so well, e.g. glued neck is not as strong as a bolt on, hollow body parts are thin and more breakable under stress, etc. Of course, I am relating to the particular guitar in question that was the showcase for the topic of the thread.

For me, I will stick with my travel guitar... but that only works for me as I am not playing for real anywhere. The travel guitar (for vacations) was designed to fit in the overheads and that arguing point has won on a number of occasions with the flight attendants. One time they asked me to check it at the jetliner door and I told them about the special size, etc. and they still wanted to check it. So I said to give me a written receipt and be prepared to pay for the guitar if anything happened to it. The flight attendant then just motioned me on the plane.

My $.02 for now. Glad to hear the guitar is fixed and back on its feet but it is no longer an "original" I guess. So sad. So unnecessary.

Peace,

Dave

[Dwarf Rat]

I have flown with my $10,000.00 Brazilian Rosewood OM28 from LAX to Chicago, JFK, Portland , Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Duluth and back to NYC this summer. I have it packed into a Calton Case with air pillows protecting the headstock.

I leave the case unlocked, but the many latches keep it secure. No problems so far.

[playingdead]

They did a similar test with a Les Paul, throwing it two or three stories to the ground below. It lived to play again. There was one memorable shot from one of the tests where the guitar landed right on the headstock area of the case and bounced. The guitar is secured by the neck with a velcro strap and held in place. The rest of it is basically encased in a soft pillowed enclosure with a hard skeleton covered with a tough fabric. Nothing is going to happen to it unless you back the car over it, and even then I'm not sure it wouldn't survive.

As far as flying, it's a thousand times easier to deal with the guitar in that case, because it's all rounded, soft edges, and you can stuff it into the overhead bin without fear. It doesn't provoke flight attendants the way a big hardshell Fender guitar case would (and the Tiger's hardshell case is much larger). It's also great for gigging, because you can slide it into the car on top of whatever else without fear, and it doesn't get scuffed or dirty the way a nice tweed case will.

Best money I've spent on a case. Still looks brand new after two years of flying and gigging.

The Calton cases are renown for protecting instruments, but there was some big brouhaha over the company owner taking money for cases and never delivering, and pretty much trashing the reputation. That may or may not have been cleared up, so proceed with caution down that road. But a Calton is way more expensive. I'm not sure if Reunion makes a Continental for an acoustic guitar or not.

[eric]

Question? Whats all the dark dirt looking stuff in the chamber?



I traveled all over Spain, Italy, and Greece last year with a kid's strat w/o a case because I didn't wanna risk any good ones.
I stuffed it in some luggage, almost had to saw 2" off the top of the headstock to fit, but just left it completely protruding out instead, THINKING it wouldn't make it past the first cargo shoot, HOPING it would not make it back home with me.
But I'll be damned, over a dozen airports, and not a scratch...

My fire-engine-red kids 3/4 Strat is a world traveler... it must be worth at least $90 bucks now with that kind of heritage....

[KCJones]

Question? Whats all the dark dirt looking stuff in the chamber?

Interesting. Hard to tell, but my guess is it's a type of sprayed on sound insulation to help tame feedback. Second guess, is it's electronics shielding.

[strumminsix]

Question? Whats all the dark dirt looking stuff in the chamber?

Interesting. Hard to tell, but my guess is it's a type of sprayed on sound insulation to help tame feedback. Second guess, is it's electronics shielding.

Funny, I guessed black paint

[FretfulDave]

Playing Dead, thanks for the good info about the Continental case and the other tests. Sounds like a good solution as does the mention of the Carlton case, though with outstanding questions about longevity.

I went on the site and poked around and found they offer a number of Continental cases for electric solid body, hollow body electric, dreadnought acoustic, classical, and horns and violins. Fairly comprehensive.

Playing, you said you were putting the case in overhead bins? Did anything else fit in? Or do you ever baggage check the guitar? The acoustic case is like 9" thick so wondering about that in overheads...

I am also curious if anyone has gone on the new planes, i.e., 767s, the new Airbus (I forget the model) and other new aircraft? It seems to me, but it could be imagination, that the overhead bins are a bit smaller than in older planes. Mainly they seem a little shorter and that could affect fitting in regular size guitars. My travel guitar is not a great guitar at all but is a lot shorter than others so I haven't hit any issue yet but it would be nice sometime to take my own acoustic along. If I can find the good case that fits an old full bowl Ovation...

Anyway, thanks for the info on the cases.

Dave

[Dozin]

Question? Whats all the dark dirt looking stuff in the chamber?

It's just black spray paint. It's unfinshed in there so the wood texture shows

[playingdead]

Dave, the case fit in the overhead bin of a JetBlue Embraer E 190 (one of their smaller jets that they fly from Austin to Boston). There was room for other things in the bin, and room for people to put things on top of the case as well.

[playingdead]

Or, you can just check it with your luggage, as this poor SOB did with American Airlines and a Martin HD-28. Hey, it's in a hardshell case, what's the worst that could happen?

[eric]

Wow... That's looks like it was ran over by a 747...Jesus