“They dragged it out like a dead body”: Musician fumes at American Airlines after guitar destroyed beyond recognition
We’re all aware of Schrödinger’s Cat – the notion that, within the confines of a closed box, a cat is simultaneously both alive and dead in the limbo before you actually check. However, if you were to apply the same thought experiment to, say, an airline handling your guitar, Schrödinger’s theory doesn’t apply. Because artists often know whether their guitar has been bashed around by airport handlers even before cracking open their case.
In fact, sometimes even the case is a casualty. That was unfortunately the case for digital creator Titus Tucker, one of the most recent guitarists to face a devastating loss at high altitude. After flying with American Airlines, Tucker shared a video accusing the airline of damaging his guitar – and we use the term ‘damaging’ very lightly.
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For those easily disturbed, look away now… but the condition of Tucker’s guitar is ghastly. As Tucker explains that it’s a new guitar in a brand new case, the pile of wood and strings on the floor is almost unrecognisable as an instrument. Honestly, it’s cartoonishly destroyed – as if handlers dropped the case down a flight of stairs, reversed over it with a lorry, and finally placed grenade placed inside before loading it onto the plane.
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This isn’t just exclusive to American Airlines, either. Just yesterday, Nashville artist Ella Hennessee shared her experience with United Airlines, accusing the airline of mishandling her childhood guitar. “I didn’t don’t y’all dropped luggage 25,000 ft apparently,” she jokes in a clip as she inspects cracks down the side of her guitar.
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Of course, United Airlines have faced quite a bit of bad press in the past surrounding the way it treats instruments. In 2009, Canadian musician Dave Carroll dropped the ultimate United Airlines diss track, United Breaks Guitars, after the airline refused to front the cost of his $3,000 guitar broken in transit. In the end, the airline ended up paying far more than $3,000 – because the protest track had such an impact that the airline’s stocks dropped by $180 million in a single day.
Elsewhere, Southwest Airlines also received bad press last year for mishandling Emily Wolfe’s guitar. The blues rocker accused the airling of breaking her signature Epiphone White Wolfe, resulting in a snapped headstock.
Wolfe’s experience saw her filing a report, only for the airline to wipe its hands clean due to instruments being classed as “fragile items” – essentially meaning that the company considers it the owner’s responsibility if a guitar breaks in transit.
“If airlines can damage professional-grade instruments, charge us extra to check them, and then refuse to take responsibility, it puts every traveling musician at risk,” Wolfe wrote on her Instagram post. “This is not just about one guitar. It is about protecting the tools of our craft.”
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The entire debacle raises a very worrying concern – if your guitar gets damaged mid-tour, it’s just an extra cost on top of the ever-hiking cost of touring. Artist Devin Townsend has even admitted he cuts costs by travelling with just an acoustic guitar as it’s cheaper than lugging around more gear… if his sole acoustic broke, what then?
With airlines attempting to pass the blame on to the individual and refusing to pay out, travelling puts artists in an incredible vulnerable position. It sadly seems we’ve made little progress since 2009’s United Breaks Guitars, but hopefully more artists sharing their experiences online will pressure airlines to take more accountability for any damage that happens on flights.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
