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Musicians Still Getting No Respect from Airlines


fortyearspickn

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How do you ship the guitar, Nick?

BluesKing777.

 

 

Generally by FedEx, alternatively by UPS, and usually by ground. I won't ship them overseas due to the rosewood risk and other potential CITES issues. Don't want to take the chance, since one has a combination of ivory, ebony, and Brazilian rosewood!

 

The difference is that the guitars are in their normal cases, and the case is then packed inside the foam-fitted original cardboard Gibson (or other) factory shipping box. I have about a half dozen of those original shipping boxes, most with fitted rigid foam packing. A dreadnought case is pretty much the same size whether it's a J-45 or a D-28, so you don't need a different shipping box for each guitar.

 

I last shipped one of my guitars this way for work purposes a few years ago, when I had a four-month job in San Francisco. Shipped my L-OO Legend, but was a nervous wreck while it was in transit. Now I mostly just carry the carbon guitar. There's rarely time to play that much on these jobs, so the guitar is just a way of keeping my head straight.

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So you aren't shipping them to play them at the destination?

 

rct

 

 

To play for myself, maybe with friends, but not to play out. Playing, even 15 minutes a day, helps me remember what's important. Life is short, and getting shorter every day.

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Generally by FedEx, alternatively by UPS, and usually by ground. I won't ship them overseas due to the rosewood risk and other potential CITES issues. Don't want to take the chance, since one has a combination of ivory, ebony, and Brazilian rosewood!

 

The difference is that the guitars are in their normal cases, and the case is then packed inside the foam-fitted original cardboard Gibson (or other) factory shipping box. I have about a half dozen of those original shipping boxes, most with fitted rigid foam packing. A dreadnought case is pretty much the same size whether it's a J-45 or a D-28, so you don't need a different shipping box for each guitar.

 

I last shipped one of my guitars this way for work purposes a few years ago, when I had a four-month job in San Francisco. Shipped my L-OO Legend, but was a nervous wreck while it was in transit. Now I mostly just carry the carbon guitar. There's rarely time to play that much on these jobs, so the guitar is just a way of keeping my head straight.

 

 

 

 

 

Luck's a fortune!

 

I got one of my Hiscox delivered and I kept the box - so I can put a guitar (OM/000size) in a Hiscox and then in the shipping box packed with the original peanuts - only way I would do it now. But I would buy, rent, borrow when I got there if I could!

 

No Hiscox case, no go! Bad enough with one of those cases doing their best for you..

 

 

Now, some photos of the day I died on my doorstep 3 times....and then I had to wait for the item to acclimatise before opening the box! [cursing] Don't think I did.

 

Fudex delivered my 59 Gibson LG3 in this:

 

 

g36my41h.jpg

 

 

MGDIGych.jpg

 

 

BXp0OpGh.jpg

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Interesting - those marks, on 3 different sides, at 3 different angles and locations - look like they were all made by the same device.

Wonder if someone at Fuddex intentionally kept mistreating this box, or if they were just having a bad day. Week. Month... Year?

Companies interested in actual 'Total Quality Management' would have a field day with this pix.

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A lot more information has surfaced about this incident, including this statement by the owner that she was unable to purchase a seat for her viola de gamba:

 

“Alitalia claims that ‘Our representatives at check-in in Rio airport advised to buy an extra seat to guarantee the safe carriage of the instrument but this solution was not accepted by you.’ This is NOT TRUE. What happened was the opposite: when I asked to take the instrument inside the cabin, they told me that the plane was full and even if I wanted, I could NOT buy an extra seat. And they told me not to worry, the instrument would be carried BY HAND into the plane."

 

Check out the images here. To cause that sort of damage, the airline dropped the instrument from a significant height.

 

Like Nick, when I can, I travel with a carbon guitar. But, I also give talks and play gigs where I need a real guitar, most often my went-to-WWII Banner SJ. Early this summer, I'll be giving talks and playing gigs with the guitar in Berlin, London, norther UK, Dublin, and Prague. On international flights, I put the gutiar in a Calton case with padded cover (with backpack straps!). Domestically, I usually use the lighter Hiscox case.

 

Yeah, there's some risk. I almost always get the guitar on board. And, of course, I travel with both a CITES instrument passport (in the process of renewing it now) and a copy of the US regulations that mandate that airlines let me take the guitar on board (if there's room). Most important is a polite, friendly attitude.

 

26678233_10210534787419255_4961902432087571134_o.jpg?oh=ecf8e9df10051f02208a4e6065cc46db&oe=5AFF2236

 

26840985_10210534766338728_288873629286830758_o.jpg?oh=6720268a85aa10416007d5d2fa958872&oe=5AF5C3CF

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A lot more information has surfaced about this incident, including this statement by the owner that she was unable to purchase a seat for her viola de gamba:

 

“Alitalia claims that ‘Our representatives at check-in in Rio airport advised to buy an extra seat to guarantee the safe carriage of the instrument but this solution was not accepted by you.’ This is NOT TRUE. What happened was the opposite: when I asked to take the instrument inside the cabin, they told me that the plane was full and even if I wanted, I could NOT buy an extra seat. And they told me not to worry, the instrument would be carried BY HAND into the plane."

 

Check out the images here. To cause that sort of damage, the airline dropped the instrument from a significant height.

 

Like Nick, when I can, I travel with a carbon guitar. But, I also give talks and play gigs where I need a real guitar, most often my went-to-WWII Banner SJ. Early this summer, I'll be giving talks and playing gigs with the guitar in Berlin, London, norther UK, Dublin, and Prague. On international flights, I put the gutiar in a Calton case with padded cover (with backpack straps!). Domestically, I usually use the lighter Hiscox case.

 

Yeah, there's some risk. I almost always get the guitar on board. And, of course, I travel with both a CITES instrument passport (in the process of renewing it now) and a copy of the US regulations that mandate that airlines let me take the guitar on board (if there's room). Most important is a polite, friendly attitude.

 

26678233_10210534787419255_4961902432087571134_o.jpg?oh=ecf8e9df10051f02208a4e6065cc46db&oe=5AFF2236

 

26840985_10210534766338728_288873629286830758_o.jpg?oh=6720268a85aa10416007d5d2fa958872&oe=5AF5C3CF

 

 

Where’s the gig in Dublin john ?

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Cool

 

I’ll keep it in mind.

 

 

Thanks! I'll keep you posted.

 

Go easy on the Guinness

 

What's the fun in that? A few years back, I spent a summer in Dublin, teaching at Trinity College. It's a wonderful city.

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The cure is two more in the mornin’ [mellow]

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Guinness used to host a bar in the middle of the floor at the London boat show, when it used to be held at Earls Court. It got pretty ripe there by late in the afternoon, after all the yacht brokers had been drinking for much of the day.

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Guinness used to host a bar in the middle of the floor at the London boat show, when it used to be held at Earls Court. It got pretty ripe there by late in the afternoon, after all the yacht brokers had been drinking for much of the day.

 

 

I honestly can't look at the stuff any more - do you want the long story or short?

 

Short - a real big deal in October here is the football Grand Final and no matter who is playing, the corporate types have grabbed the 100,000 available seats! And the unwashed get to watch a big screen at a pub or home. The FIL got tickets many years ago and asked me to go, so off we head bright and early and he told me it was a Grand Final tradition to have a Guinness for breakfast at a hotel near the central train station called ...gulp...Young And Jacksons...gulp. One drink? Ha Ha.

 

Nope, don't want that again. [smile]

 

 

BluesKing777.

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