Brought my harp to the UK via checked luggage and it was OK

For anyone in a similar situation and who may have been following these 2 threads dealing with it:  http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=33188.0
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?board=13.20

I decided to take my harp to the UK as checked luggage.  It was just too expensive to ship it.  So I went to the harp shop (lucky for me there is one close by in Haddonfield, NJ--they are not easy to find!) and got a box from a recent harp delivery.

I loosened the tension a bit (about a half a step) on the strings and put it in  its padded case surrrounded with bubble wrap. I then lined the box itself with bubblewrap and put the harp in its case inside the box.  Every loose space was filled in with more bubblewrap.

Inside the box I put a copy of my itinerary and my UK address and phone number.  I securely taped up the box with clear shipping tape and wrote my UK address and phone number on every side of the box and wrote Manchester airport really big on each side as well.

I flew with US Airways and was charged $80 for having an extra (third) piece of luggage.  An absolute bargain compared with what it would have cost to ship the thing.

The harp arrived safely with no damage.  Even the box itself looked in good shape upon arrival.

An official had apparantly opened up and checked the contents of the box (they left one of those slips inside) and re-sealed it very well when they were finished.

It was a risk (US Airways doesn't insure musical instruments) and I got lucky--thank goodness.

That must be a huge relief! So glad it worked out!

That's awesome!!! I am very happy it arrived safely!

Thanks Elynor and Dar! 

I'm just now reading this. Glad it worked out for you.

I'm thinking about how to get my guitar amp over there. I know I'll have to buy a pretty hefty power transformer. It's a custom built hand wired one of a kind amp. I can't really see leaving it in the states and not using it.

Good luck with the amp, dougniss--you propably know more about the electrical end of things than me as far as converters, etc are concerned!