Shipping fragile musical instruments

Hi all,

I'll be moving to London in early October, from New York:

I have 2 classical guitars I dont want to get beat up during my move.  

Any experience with transporting "fragile" items with different airlines or movers?  I wouldnt want these guitars thrown around, crushed by other bags, or subjected to extreme temperatures.

I recently saw someone at Laguardia pull out a guitar from a cello case that they had checked in.  Investing in those cases might be resolve this problem.  I'd appreciate a musician's opinion too!

Thanks!
Max

Hi all,

I'll be moving to London in early October, from New York:

I have 2 classical guitars I dont want to get beat up during my move.  

Any experience with transporting "fragile" items with different airlines or movers?  I wouldnt want these guitars thrown around, crushed by other bags, or subjected to extreme temperatures.

I recently saw someone at Laguardia pull out a guitar from a cello case that they had checked in.  Investing in those cases might be resolve this problem.  I'd appreciate a musician's opinion too!

Thanks!
Max

My advice would be to contact shipping companies that specialize in antiques or other delicate objects.  I left my clarinet, oboe, and flute back in America because I thought they'd get beaten up on the way over here.  All of them are over 80 years old and I think they're safer back in my closet in my parents' house than on an airplane.

If you ship the guitars here they'll probably get nicked anyway; burglary rates here are higher than they are back home.  MUCH higher.  

Hello!  My sons are both musical and couldn't part with the instruments back home, plus they wanted to continue with playing them once over.  My older son had a guitar....took it on the plane wrapped in bubble warp and the strings pretty loose...with washcloths under them so they didn't scratch the finish.  Someone told us to do this at a music store.  He carried on his saxaphone (bubble wrapped and put in hard shelled saxaphone case..not soft one) and taken out as soon as we landed to prevent any marks or anything on the finish.  Arrived in perfect condition and can hear it as I type....Son number two has a trumpet...not as big as the other two but just as costly....same measures...he made sure his valves were well oiled and nothing near the bell or any part of the trumpet (for vibration and scratching) and it also arrived in wonderful condition.  I suppose I looked at it like a business man and his laptop...about the same size considering what people bring on the plane these days.  Got tons of funny looks when the things went throught the x-ray machine..I always went ahead so I could watch them..ha ha ha had to take the trumpet out twice so they could check to make sure nothing was hidden in it...then the rest of his stuff was drug swiped...poor kid...

Hope this helps a bit.....nephew took two electric guitars with him on a tour of Europe for 8 months going to 29 different countries....guitars were great..saw them before he went home...just had the hard cases and didn't wrap them or anything...brave 20 year old.....  

Good luck with your move, we moved Nov 1st and the weather still isn't really cold or really hot..might not be a bad time to move them over...plus our flight was from LAX to London and then on to Scotland...whew...seems so long ago...

All the best,
Monica

We brought over a cello and a guitar and had hard cases for both of them.  We took them on the plane as checked-in luggage and they both arrived just fine.