Flying with a guitar

california

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We'll be gone a week for the holiday, and short of buying a guitar in Chicago it would sure be nice to take one of my own along.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I thought that maybe if I brought one in a gig bag instead of a case they'd let me carry it on and put it in a closet. I see people checking the all the time in hardshell cases but I find that scary.
 

Jeff

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Ya gotta get an F 20. They fit in the overhead storage, case & all. At least they do on Alaska Airlines' 737's.
 

Kap'n

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I've never taken a "real" guitar on a plane. I've seen folks do it all the time, but I don't ever want to be confronted with a "gate check" with a decent instrument.

At one point I had a cheapo Steinberger, and a Washburn Rover, but I never used them that much, and they sounded crappy, or needed special strings, so I dumped them.

If I could ever find a Guild/Citron Breakaway, I'd snap it up.
 

Guildmark

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Scary is the right word.

I've only taken a guitar along on a flight once. It was not one of my Guilds, it was a Mitchell I bought from GC for camping and caroling. It arrived okay in it's hardshell case - two days later than I did.
On the return flight I was waiting at the gate, just watching out the window at the parked planes. It was at a small regional airport and there was this baggage guy unloading a small commuter jet. He carelessly set a hardshell guitar case on the conveyor and it immediateley snagged on something and got tossed off the belt, six feet to the concrete. It was like witnessing a murder. The baggage jerk slowly climbed out of the plane and just tossed the case onto the cart. I started to head for baggage claim to try and find the owner to warn him, but I didn't think I'd have time to find him, clear security again, and catch my flight.
I still feel bad about that.
If you do take one along, c.........7, please don't tell us until after you're home. I don't want the worry to upset Thanksgiving dinner. :cry:

PS - Hope you make it to Costa Mesa this Saturday!
 

GardMan

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While in college, I routinely flew my D35 LA to Portland, OR as checked baggage, well padded in its hard-shell (I used to use CLEAN t-shirts, socks, and briefs as the padding). Never had any incidents that damaged the guitar, but I went through 2 cases. In his music book, one of my Canadian folk idols, Stan Rogers, describes seeing his guitar get impaled by a fork lift (those of you who know of SR know that he also became a victim of an airline accident... if you don't know of his music, I HIGHLY recommend it).

Someone posted a link some time back re: packing guitars for shipping, that included a "how to" on packing for the airlines... they suggested padding well in the case (especially the neck/headstock, which they claimed to be the most shock sensitive area), and then padding the case into a cardboard shipping container, just as you would for freight, but cut a cutout to act as a convenient handle.
 

Guildmark

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Another Stan fan!

Proud to say I have about 3 or 4 Stan Rogers tunes in my book, Gardo.
Barrett's Privateers
Mary Ellen Carter
Make and Break Harbor
Field Behind the Plow
And there are a few others in the learning queue.

I found these videos recently - Stan's brother, Garnet. He performed here in Orange County last year at an event sponsored by an Anaheim folk music club.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHyTxGwAdnk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0c3gA76uPQ&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vK6-ALxG98&mode=related&search=

Thanks for bringing him up.
 

GardMan

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Guildmark,
I first learned of Stan Rogers music about '82, from a friend in San Francisco... back then, it was a bit hard to find his music on LPs (remember those?) in the bay area. I had to have my sister find them in Seattle and send them to me. When I heard that a book of his music had been published, and couldn't find it (pre-internet), I actually wrote to his wife Ariel to order it. She sent back a very nice note... Learning Stan's music (I play about 10-12 of his tunes, mixed in with G. Lightfoot, Ian Tyson, Peter Seeger, other misc stuff, and old American folk) is what got me into drop D and DADGAD tunings. I just learned "Lock Keeper" in DADGAD... my D25 just sings playing those open chords! Stan's voice and poetry were incredible... as Kate Wolf (she was another incredible voice lost to soon) said in a tribute to him "He took the stories of his people, and sang them out in rhyme..." It's hard for me to sing a couple of his songs w/o choking up on some of the lines (Lies, and Jeannie C). His death was a real loss...It's good to hear others keeping his music alive...

We had a couple of Garnet Rogers cassettes... and you could really here the family ties in a few of his tunes.
Dave
 

california

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I called American Airlines, they said that I could bring the guitar on board if it is in a case. I get priority boarding as a benefit of way too much business travel so I should be able to talk a flight attendant into putting it in a closet.

I remember the old days (really old!) when we'd take what was called the "Midnight Flyer" on PSA from L.A. to San Francisco. Flights were $25, first come first served, and no luggage check-in since the main reason for the flight was to haul mail. The minute we were in the air everyone broke out their guitars for the short flight to SF, some times the jam sessions had ten or more players.
 

Kap'n

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Jeff said:
Kap'n said:
I've never taken a "real" guitar on a plane.

.

Are you inferring F 20's ain't real guitars. I'm crushed.

Abosolutely not. Er, I mean yes, they are real guitars, and no I'm not implying that. The stuff I was carrying wasm't. I just couldn't bring myself to bring anything worth more than a couple hundred dollars that stands even the slightest chance of needing to be checked.
 

john_kidder

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I travel back and forth from Vancouver to Montreal/Toronto lots, and to Europe a couple of times a year. I've been checking a guitar into baggage for years - always well packed, padded, headstock especially firm, and with an old leather belt tightly buckled and tied around the waist of the case. Never, so far, had an issue.

Lately I have seen more and more people carrying guitars on board - I've not tried it yet with the people's airline here - Air Canada are getting increasingly famous for bad, bad, really bad customer service. Next time I go east I'll take the M-20 or the Mark-IV (smaller cases), get to checkin early so that if it can't go on the plane, I'll have time to check it. I travel in the extremely cheap seats at the back of the bus, so, unlike California's preferred treatement, I'll be able to test how one of the world's least favourite airlines treats its least favoured customers - should be the limiting case.

But I know the Stan Rogers story as well (everyone in Canadian music know the Stan Rogers story). John Alan Cameron, another Canadian player, had some sort of airline incident with his guitar as well. I remember Stan well from his early days when he was a regular at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival - belting it out in the pouring rain, always just a hell of an entertainer, always good for a tipple and a story backstage. He was, to my mind, the best songwriter Canada ever produced. And that's fierce competion - Mitchell, Young, Lightfoot, Tyson, Cohen among many others - had Stan not died so young (33?), he would have been the greatest of them all. He was just embarking on what he thought was his life's work, a chronicle in song of working people all across the country, when that airplane caught fire. Imagine, losing someone like Stan Rogers because a airplane toilet disposal pump overheats - he would have written a song about it.

I was on the road in the US when he died, and didn't hear about it immediately. A week or two later I was in Toronto, and saw the marquee at the United Church near Bloor and Clinton with "Stan Rogers Memorial Service" - I managed to squeeze in at the back of the church - I think every musician in Canada was there, and a hell of a lot of fans. You should have heard us all doing "Mary Ellen Carter" - makes the hair stand up on my neck just remembering it. What a loss. I sing "Lies" and "Night Guard" when I'm in ranching country ' "Lies" makes the women (and me) cry, "Night Guard" makes the ranchers (and me) angry. Such tunes.
 

Guildmark

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The wierd thing to me is that I was in Canada (playing) from summer of 74 to summer of 79..... and never heard of him that whole time, just as we was hitting his stride. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that a folkie friend loaned me his "Back Home in Halifax" album, and I was hooked.

I, too, cannot listen to "Lies" without my eyes leaking. It's why I haven't tried to learn it.
I've considered learning "Night Guard", but if it's gonna be performed in the states I might have to change that .303 to a 30-30, or no one will know what I'm talking about. :)
 

West R Lee

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I'll have to check him out. I would think you could find his music somewhere on the web.

West
 

Graham

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john_kidder said:
I've not tried it yet with the people's airline here - Air Canada are getting increasingly famous for bad, bad, really bad customer service. Next time I go east I'll take the M-20 or the Mark-IV (smaller cases), get to checkin early so that if it can't go on the plane, I'll have time to check it.

Why don't you try West Jet?

The'll probably pay you to play the guitar during the flight.

Graham
 
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