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OK Gang...

Need some advice, I'm flying my son down next week to spend some time with his grandfather to do some chores and basically help my brother out. My brother sings and plays country music at the Crystal Palace in bakersfield (the one Buck Owens owned), he's pretty notorius around that area. I'm building him a new guitar but in the meantime I want to send down a thin body for him to tinker with.

My son will be flying on United and Sky West (from boise to Burbank, CA), so the question is how do I send the guitar with him?, I have a Cedar Creek case for the guitar and would like to get it down there in one piece. Any advice on how to do this safely??

Thanks

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

Ship it in advance.
The gorillas in luggage handling can make a mess of a guitar very quickly.

Airlines will typically let you pay extra to carry on an instrument. There is a closet in the cabin they can stow it in. Even though it's in a case, loosen the strings and put a humidifier inside the case.
What ever you do don't check it as belly baggage. I almost lost a Mossman once when the case got stuck in one of the doors and the idiots were trying to slam them shut.
Good luck!

I have several customers who are Musician Union members, and thier union
has negotiated authorization to take thier guitar as a carry on with many
airlines. They have to carry some letter or document to show, and none of
the attendants know anything about it, but it works.

Whatever you do, under no circumstances should you check it as luggage. I
have a customers old Gibson in the shop right now that I am reassembling
the back splinter by splinter courtesey of NWA.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Frank Ford has some tips on his site. Here's the page:Packing you Guitar for Travel

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

I now ship my guitar ahead via FedEx.

I flew twice with it and found one time that there was "no room at the inn" anywhere on the plane. There is room, if no one else has bulky add-on items. But, I no longer take the chance.

One snotty NWA attendant suggested I purchase a seat for my guitar if it is that precious. My reply was less than lady-like.

I'm flying out Monday to Atlanta...my guitar and luggage left Wednesday.

I flew to Connecticut and back last month with one of my 10-strings as checked baggage. I thought about shipping it, but have heard too many FedEx and UPS horror stories, besides only the USPS will insure for full value, and I had had a small problem with a guitar that I shipped through them just a couple weeks before, so I just decided to check the guitar. This isn't the first time I've done this. I flew US Air.

Here's what I did:

I went to a bicycle shop and got a box for free that bikes are shipped in. It's stout and larger than one needs. So I cut it down to an appropriate size -- large enough for plenty of packing material on the ends, but not so large that the airlines would consider it oversize. The case I used was a TKL 8800, one of their mid-priced models. I reduced string tension, and used lots of styro peanuts surrounding the case. Applied several "fragile" stickers all over the box. The skycap applied another one just for safe measure. Once checked, all I could do was mumble a prayer or two and keep my fingers crossed.

The guitar made the round trip without incident. I was actually able to watch from the terminal as the baggage handlers loaded the two planes I was on, and while they were tossing luggage, when it came to my guitar, they were quite gentle. I was pleasantly surprised.

The problem I faced with flying to Connecticut and back is the largest plane I was on was smaller than a 737. One of them was a turboprop that wouldn't even handle a lot of the carry-ons people were bringing, so they had attendants waiting by the plane to stow the carry-ons in the baggage compartment.

Another problem I've noted nowadays with airlines is that almost all the flights I've been on over the past few years have been completely full, and this trip was no exception.

Paul,

Does your brother happen to know Rob Posey? He is a guitarist and a singer -- and good at both -- and was in the Crystal Palace's house band when the place first got going. I've lost Rob's email address due to a drive failure on my desktop machine, and would really like to get back in touch with him. Rob and I go way back -- we used to play in a duo back in the late 70s and early 80s. Send me a PM if your bro' may happen to know how I can get in touch with him, okay?

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

I was in Missouri last summer, had an old Gibson to bring back. In my web searches to decide whether to ship or carry on the plane, I came across the letter that David mentioned, plus sometips on the NY musicians local web site.

I chickend out and ended up shipping, FedEx, IIRC, in a gig bag, boxed, with many extra layers of corrugated cardboard wedged in. Arrived OK.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

No, Fed Ex will not insure for the full value, that is why I have a rider for full replacement value on my home-owners policy.

When my guitar was shipped new from CO via FedEx it was fully insured; why FedEx can't on my shippings is a mystery    

I took the original TKL box to a local shipper and had them make me dozen heavy corregated shipping boxes. The boxes store flat in the attic of the garage. When I need one I fold them into a box shape and seal with reinforced shipping tape, pack accordingly (yes- loosen strings!) and it's ready to go!

Just an idea about insurance and shipping