Flightcase

[eviltwin]

This might seem like a stupid question, but here goes....

I work away from home all week and have been bringing my guitar with me for the last couple of months. I transport the guitar in a flight case which i check in with my other bagage at the airport. Last week when i got to my digs i found (asumed) that the case had been dropped (i've seen the way they handle fragile luggage at airports), for all the springs had came out of the trem. I then spent 2-3days setting it up again.

My question is (finally ), does anyone have any suggestions for padding/ packaging the guitar so that it won't get damaged during the flight?

my case is reasonable quality and a good fit for my guitar. Any suggestions/ideas would be much appreciated, as i don't want to have to set it up every week and i don't want to leave it at home.


thanx.

[Guni]

No chance of taking the guitar with you into the plane?

That's what I always do. Then I place her (erm, yes my guitar is female ) on top of all the other stuff in the overhead locker.

Guni

NP: Coco Montoya - 'Gotta Mind to Travel'

[eviltwin]

I have thought about taking it onto the plane with me but the case and guitar weigh more than they allow for hand luggage (5KG), but i suppose i could always argue the point that the guitar was damaged before.......

[Guni]

With a good softbag weight shouldn't be a problem and making your standpoint clear that this guitar costs $10.000 will work in most cases I'm sure.

Guni

[EricV]

Hey there...

I think we discussed this before at one of the forums.
Some guitars are too long to fit into the overhead bin in some of the planes ( that´s one of the reasons why Morse likes his signature model so much... it´s shorter because of the small headstock ).

What ALWAYS worked for me was: I put the guitar into a gigbag, brought it onto the plane and nicely asked the steward/ess to put it into the wardrobe locker... it definitely fits into those, and it´s safe in there... also, there usually is enough room in there, so it´s not a problem. ( It usually is located right next to the entrance doors of a plane, between cockpit and first class or first and second class )
Worked like that whenever I travelled with a major airline.

The whole hardcase-stuff still is risky. Some guitars were damaged even in such a hardcase when they were in the luggage-storeroom of a plane.
Also, there´s no air-condition / heating in there, and the temperatures in those luggage rooms can get extremely low, which ain´t too good for the guitar, especially if your destination airport is in some warmer country or state... ( i.e. the South )

Vivian Campbell´s original 1959 Les Paul was completely destroyed when he had it transported in the luggage room of a plane. Sure, the insurance paid for it, but how can ya replace a guitar like that.
And a friend of mine recently wanted to send a guitar with some carrier like UPS or FedEx ( don´t remember which one ) and he asked the people on the phone whether the guitar would be safe. They said "Well, it has to be packed in a way where it can stand falling 5 feet". And my friend was like "Why´s that ?!?"
And they said "In some transfer places, there are places where it MIGHT fall 5 feet... those places are constructed in a way where that is unevitable" ( I am not kidding, they actually said something like that )

So anyway, I´d go for the "guitar in gigbag in wardrobe locker" solution
Eric

NP: Birth Of The Cool- Miles Davis