Which is best - putting it in a hard case and checking it, or getting a good gig bag and haul it on the flight with you and hope there’ll be room in the overhead compartments for it? I’ve done both and had issues with both. When I flew out to CA for the Guitar Superstar contest, I carried it with me, boarding each flight was an ordeal with me having to fight to even get the guitar on the planes, even though there was ample overhead room (I made sure to be at the front of the line each time). When I flew out to NAMM, I checked the guitar - some of you might remember from my tweets then that it didn’t exactly arrive when I did. Sure, it made it eventually, but there was a good bit of worry there. What if I’d have needed the guitar immediately upon arrival?

It kinda seems like a no brainer - check it so it’s guaranteed to make the trip (if there’s no room in the overheads, you’ll either risk putting a guitar in a soft case with the rest of the cargo (shudder) or it doesn’t make the trip), but with the stories recently in the press about guitars being damaged (Joe Bonamassa has lost TWO of his favorite guitars this way, both were used on his Royal Albert Hall concert DVD) or lost, it kinda makes me wonder: which is better?