Flying with gear

[Snowdog79]

'ello Lowdowners!

 

I'm going to be doing some travelling next week, and I wanted to see if anyone here has had any trouble transporting their gear on airlines of late.

 

For my trips I'll be taking an electric bass in a hardshell case, a pedalboard with Boss pedals and a Fishman preamp, a double bass bow in a nice, sturdy bow case, and an Eden WT-300 amp.

 

I was planning on checking the electric bass and putting the pedalboard in my checked suitcase, and carrying on the bow. I was also thinking of carrying on the Eden amp, since it's small and I usually tote it around in a laptop bag. Any thoughts on this plan? Is carrying on the amp a bad idea?

[Bass_god_offspring]

use the search feature, it's been discussed before on the Lowdown.

 

 

....other than that, i don't know what to tell you.

[jeremy c]

That sounds like a great plan.

 

Just make sure the basses can't move in the cases...add a little more padding if necessary.

 

Don't lock the cases because airport security may want to open them and they will break the locks if necessary.

 

I recently flew with two basses in heavy duty hardshell cases. They did open up one of the bass cases....they left a note inside saying they had. I had put clear packing tape over the latches before I checked the cases and security replaced the tape neatly after opening the case.

 

Half of the luggage and security guys seem to be amateur guitarists....they were always asking what kind of guitars I had and when I said one was a PRS they picked up the case very carefully.

 

I also had a lot of electronics in my carry-on bag....it caused no problem. I've taken amp tops on planes in the past as well.

 

The only thing I ever had trouble with was a wireless transmitter and receiver that I had in my carry-on on an international flight. They took it away, put in a box and sent it with the checked luggage and it got there fine. It turned out that I really needed it, too. The rented gear did not all fit on the stage and the bass amp ended up off stage. The wireless became a necessity.

 

Have a nice trip!

[tnb]

Jeremy said:

Half of the luggage and security guys seem to be amateur guitarists....

That must be it. It seems that since 9/11 flying with gear has actually gotten easier.

[Fuego]

Originally posted by jeremy c:

Just make sure the basses can't move in the cases...add a little more padding if necessary.

Yea, a good way 2 make sure that it dosent move is 2 use ur soxs. yea i do this but it does save room in my luggage

[Phil W]

If the case has worked fine before and is snug with plenty of padding then use it. I recently did two transatlantic flights using the SKB bass safe url

despite my fears the bass emerged from the hold entirely intact and still in tune!

 

Also second the above suggestions.

[Snowdog79]

Thanks for all the help! I leave on the first trip tomorrow, to Vegas, to play for a grand total of five hours and spend the rest of the three days trying not to lose my shirt. Then I'm off to LA next weekend to sign a publishing deal, play a few shows, and hopefully become a rock star. I'll let you guys know how the gear/flying thing works out!

[Snowdog79]

Update:

 

Everything went incredibly smoothly.

 

On both trips I checked my electric bass in a hardshell case, thoroughly padded with socks. Each time I asked the bag checkers to please tape the latches on the case after inspecting it, and all four times I retrieved my bass from the luggage claim it was taped closed very thoroughly.

 

I carried on my bow (in a hard case) and my Eden Traveller 300 head (in a laptop bag), and had no problems going through security.

 

Thanks for all the advice!