So I am coming to India from US and interested in getting a Jackson Dinky or an Ibanez S series to India. So my question is that is it really worth/cheaper to get guitar in US(+ travel case) than India? Does an international airline allow guitar as cabin luggage? Thanks.
getting pretty much any guitar from the states is worth it IMO, even if you need to buy a flight case and dump it into check-in baggage. you might as well make it a GOOD guitar though.
No.. guitar is not allowed as cabin baggage especially if its in a hard case. A soft case might be possible but very rare chances of that.. As far as the price is concerned .. Definitely worth it !!!
^^^^^ not really true, Ive traveled with my electrics in hard cases and, with a little bit of pleading been able to get them on board. It kind of depends on how full your flight is, if the traffics not too bad, they'll let you put it in the coat check. If not, then you can request them if you could check it in right before you board the flight, which kind of takes from the risk of having it on the belts. Acoustics in hard cases though are completely different story, as i recently found out. They made me check it in (was not prepared, had no protection on the inside, except a t shirt to kind of pack the space up),though they did put a "priority" sticker on it. Came out without a scratch though.
I got two guitars with me when i came back from the US, it took some audacious flirting....they let me hold one guitar and they put one where they usually keep the food and stuff. I can't believe i pulled that off not in the least because i was 276 pounds back then :| I should mention that it was Indian Airlines and the air hostesses probably never got any attention otherwise anyway, so that might be the reason.
^^^^ with the electrics my most recent trip was about 6 months ago, on Air India. with the acoustic was 2 days ago on Lufthansa (though i did see multiple people carrying their electrics on the airport)
So is an Indian airline preferred like Air India or Jet? Yea mostly I will get it in a soft case and plead to the Airline people. Now the TSA guys are being idiots these days well that's a different story. So which guitar do you prefer? Are Duncan pickups better than EMG Hz? Also will I have to look for a specific neck for Indian hot/humid climate?
I dont know about KLM, but i dont know how airline specific this is. Its more like if the person behind the check in counter is cool or not, or how full your flight is. ^^^^ Im not a metal person, so cant comment on the pickups or the guitars. Also again, I dont think it matters if its Indian airlines or not, but I do think it would be better if you were on a direct flight instead of having stop overs. If you do get a soft case, bubblewrap the shit out of the guitar, just in case they make you check it in. Make sure you leave no space inside the case for it to move around. TSA has nothing to do with your guitar, only the airline does. They dont consider the guitar a security threat.
so, are you people saying that one can bring a guitar from US without any hassle (i.e. customs hassle)? That's gonna save a lot of my money!! :grin:
Only if you're carrying it or someone else for that matter. In case of shipping custom charges will apply as some 30%+ Shipping cost+ Risk to the Guitar. Definitely not worth it.
@Shailm: How bout a package with specs as follows: Weight: 29 lbs Dimensions: 50 x 23 x 6 in Can it be hand carried ?
