So here it is my story of flying with a guitar, I complied a bunch of research on how to travel and fly with a guitar and I feel after all the advice and research I have came up with a pretty good way to go. I decided not to take an expensive full sized acoustic guitar, in stead I bought a lower end (but still good and plenty playable) parlor (or parlour) guitar. See the pictures below to see how I packed the guitar and equipment. The first flight I had was from Atlanta to Chicago. It was about a two hour flight. I got through security just fine with no issues what so ever, even despite my forgetting to remove the batteries from the guitars pickup and the tascam recorder I had in the case (which I had been warned to do). I never once had the case searched or got stopped by anyone from security about the guitar or equipment.We booked through American Airlines but when we got to the airport we hit the first snag in my plan. The plan was the carry the guitar on the plane with me in a soft gigbag which usually is is not a problem on long international flights in a large plane. The first and biggest problem we hit is that American Airlines had outsourced this domestic connecting flight to one of its smaller partners. The plane was much smaller than anticipated with stricter baggage restrictions and on top of that it was way overbooked (as they usually are). As we walked to the gate a lady approached me and told me that I couldn't take my guitar with me, if I wanted to bring it I would have to check it. Because of the baggage and passenger situation they had to route baggage on other plans so not only was I informed I would have to check my guitar and pay for an extra checked bag but my guitar would be checked all they way through to London! Here is where I had to take a few deep breaths and remain calm. I calmly asked to speak to someone else who could give me more information. I spoke to a manager and after some tactful persuading I was able to get them to let us check my wife's carry on all the way through to London for free and instead carry my guitar on. I was warned however that if it did not fit in an overhead or if there was no space that it would have to be checked. I have to admit I did my research on the size of the guitar and overhead compartments I was pretty sure it would fit, but not having a spare jet complete with overhead storage lying around I could not actually test this theory, needless to say I was a little nervous. Despite my fears though the guitar fit, luckily I found a man standing nervously by an overhead compartment where he had stowed his precious miniature sitar, because of the size and shape of both our instruments the fit together perfectly and we both assured each other we would take care when removing them so the neither instrument got damaged. So the guitar made it just fine to Chicago, I also have to give another shout out to road runner cases for the little brat. Because of the different options of straps I could either wear it like a back pack or hook up a separate shoulder strap I took of one of my other cases, which made it extremely comfortable and easy to carry around the airports. On the international flight I was warned again that if it did not fit the guitar would have to be checked through, of course this time it fit with plenty of room to spare and there where plenty of overhead compartments so I had no problems. Our flight was a little delayed but we had no issues with customs or anything else when leaving the airport. Also because I was using the shoulder strap I was able to easily throw on my backpack (which was overloaded but I still managed to pass it off as my personal item on both flights) and carry all my baggage along with the guitar on my shoulder. If you buy this case for your small guitar I highly recommend getting a shoulder strap or using one from one of your other guitar cases. When I opened up the case the guitar was in great shape, I had of course de-tuned the guitar. I loosened the strings just enough to take some of the tension off the neck but left them tight enough that when plucked they did sound an audible note. I believe this is the best policy when traveling because they still counteracted the tension from the truss rod but they weren't "pulling" on the neck so much, I personally feel this allows for pressure changes an humidity changes so that the neck does not get warped. There where no cracks, dents or any other cosmetic damage to the guitar so the case did its job. I checked the RH using the humidity gauge I mentioned in the other post and the planet waves humidipacs seemed to have done their job (see pictures below). The guitar played well right out of the case (after tuned up of course) but I did make a small adjustment to the truss rod after a few days of letting the guitar "adjust" to its new environment (its worth noting that I always wait a day or so after some careful observations before making any adjustments). Also I recommend making small adjustments while tuned to what ever tuning you plan to use the guitar in and waiting for everything on the guitar to "settle" before making additional adjustments (after all we are dealing with wood here and a "balance" of different tensions from different parts of the instrument). I am by no means an expert at setting up guitars but I feel comfortable making this sort of adjustment. If you are in doubt or uncomfortable with it at all, it's worth finding a good guitar tech or lutheir to do this sort of work. All in all I feel that the move went extremely well and I believe so far I have a great setup for traveling and even playing out or busking, which I plan to do soon and I will post more about my experiences in this area later on. Thanks for reading and as always please comment or contact me if you would like to talk more or give me any feedback.
Until next time,
-Peghead
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