Article Submitted By: Phin Upham of Music Annex.
A musician’s instruments are his life blood. When travelling across the country, musicians take great care in packaging their instruments to be sure they don’t get damaged in transit. These three unfortunate stories prove that no matter the precautions you take, there is always the unforeseen waiting to cause trouble.
Gibson Guitar Destroyed
Delta airlines damaged Dave Schneider’s guitar, and refused to pay up for their part. The incident was largely ignored by Delta until Schneider took his case to social media. The company offered his band free flight vouchers and Gibson reissued him an anniversary edition of the guitar he had lost.
Flutes Destroyed
The classical musician community is up in arms over an incident that occurred at US customs. Flautist Boujemaa Razgui lost 13 instruments he had custom built for himself. US Customs agents are asserting the flutes did not exist and that they disposed of fresh bamboo pieces that were illegal as defined by the law. For now, Razgui has a borrowed flute until he can figure out an alternative to his situation.
United Breaks Guitars
After nine months of negotiations with United Airlines, Dave Carroll wrote a song. He called it “United Breaks Guitars” and it became a viral sensation. Guitars are notoriously difficult to carry onto a plane, but employees at O’Hare seemed indifferent to Carroll’s request for proper accommodations. United’s stock fell by 10% in the first four days after the video had been released.
