Hi guys. There’s a Fender Jazzmaster MIJ Traditional 60s that I tried in Kyoto and I really loved it. I have reserved it to pick it up later today, but whether I will pick it up or cancel the reservation will depend on whether or not I can bring it back home.
Has any of you ever brought a guitar back home before? I’m flying HND-BCN (Haneda – Barcelona) with 1 stop in Frankfurt: HND-FRA with All Nippon Airways and then from FRA-BCN with Lufthansa.
I’ve contacted with Booking which is where I bought the flight and they said I need special permission from the airline as well as paying the additional fee (amount that they have no knowledge of). If you’ve brought a guitar back from Japan did you have to pay a fee as well?
Ideally I’d want to carry it on board with myself to make sure it doesn’t get treated like shit. In the worst case scenario where I buy the guitar and I cannot bring it on board with me, what are the possible outcomes? Paying a fee right there to have it checked in? Paying a fee to board it with me?
If there is no guarantee I can safely bring it home without paying crazy fees I will just not buy it, sadly.
3 comments
Hi! I actually did this the last time I went to Japan and will probably do it again when I’m back there in a week. We had a large suitcase with us, so we ended up buying a screwdriver at Don Quijote and separating the neck from the body. We then wrapped both like crazy in bubble wrap and padded the rest of the suitcase with our clothes so it wouldn’t bang against the sides. It wasn’t the most elegant solution, but the guitar made it back to the US without any issues! We didn’t have to pay an extra fee since it was just in a normal suitcase, as opposed to a guitar case.
Trying to bring the guitar as a carry-on is a gamble. Some flights will have a coat check space for it, but not all. If that happens, the outcome is dependent on the airline, or even down to the individual flight attendants. If you’re lucky, they’ll gate check it for free, but then you have very little control of how it’s handled after that. The idea of a guitar case getting thrown around baggage claim without any extra protection would make me nervous. I think better to pre-empt and wrap it tightly in a suitcase.
Ive brought back a few instruments and ive always taken it apart and put the neck and the body in my carry on or checked bag. A lot easier to do it that way. You may want to look into your country’s restrictions about wood though, for a while rosewood was restricted.
If the guitar is valuable enough, then buy it it’s own seat next to yours. That is how some orchestra musicians travel with their cellos or other valuable/rare instruments.