guitars at 30,000 feet?

[unearth1]

my axe is taking a trip to europe. i hear that the pressure at high altitudes on *a plane may be bad for a guitars health. what precautions should i take to prevent an altitude related mishap?
thanx..

[pri0531]

I have brought my guitar with me several times on an airplane and everything was fine. *Of course I would recommend carrying it on.
Out,
GP

[Rockstar]

I took an acoustic to South Carolina with me and before I checked it in, the guy working at the counter said that he use to work out in the baggage area and seen a lot of guitars come off the plane with the necks cracked from the pressure and the tension of the strings pulling on the neck. He told me to loosen the strings and then it would be ok, so I did. So you might wanna consider taking all the tension off of the strings for the flight. I guess it couldn't hurt.

[Soup Kitchen Studios]

I don'ot understand how that could be true. *Maybe someone could clear it up for me. *My thinking is that *I've never snapped a neck from tightening the strings too much. *Obviously, the strings always break long before a neck would snap in half. *

I think what you really have to be worried about is a careless airport employee tossing your guitar and that snapping the neck. *Carry-On if you can. *If not, I always disassemble my guitars and pack them in my suitcase with my clothes as a cushion. *

[ibanez otaku]

unearth1 on 9:30 am on Mar. 25, 2002
my axe is taking a trip to europe. i hear that the pressure at high altitudes on *a plane may be bad for a guitars health. what precautions should i take to prevent an altitude related mishap?
thanx..

I totally sympathize. *I recently moved here FROM Europe (UK) and brought 8 guitars with me, so I checked with the forum first. *Rich's advice ('pack it ready to play' and 'never detune a floating bridge guitar') got me through 100% damage free on all guitars. *The bozos at Logan International managed to put a crack in the case for my 7VWH, sure, but apart from that everything was okay. *The 7DBK's neck is so thin I thought the cold would crack it, but it wasn't even out of tune.

Rich pointed out that detuning the guitar makes it easier for a small imapct on the case to have the Edge jump off the posts.

Best of luck, but I think you'll be fine unless you're flying Afghan Air.


Gray