Guitar Care for Travel

Physical Protection
The most obvious concern when traveling with a guitar is physical damage from impact, shock or puncture. The best of today’s guitar cases do an admirable job in both areas. If you’re like many musicians who rely on a guitar to make your living, and consequently spend thousands of dollars on your axe—even your road guitar—it makes sense to spend a couple of hundred on a case that will really protect it. The two main factors you want to look for in a travel case are a sturdy shell for preventing punctures and a thickly lined interior to handle impact shocks.

Gator is a well-known flight case maker in the electric guitar arena. If you want a case that gets attention and protects your guitar, too, check out some of Coffin Case’s travel models. For acoustic guitars, Calton Cases have been the stand-out favorite for years. Not only are their cases nearly bulletproof (well, maybe not literally bulletproof, but someone shooting your guitar is definitely outside the scope of this article!), they also come in a wide selection of colors for easy identification. Our friends at Calton were kind enough to point out that any case that’s “ATA-rated” has not actually been certified, approved or endorsed in any way by a government body; it simply has been built according to a set of guidelines from the Air Transport Association. One of my favorites, especially for its $180 price, is the mere 17-pound SKB-18RW dreadnought case from SKB. The company believes so strongly in the product’s ability to protect your prized axe that it will pay up to $1,500 if your guitar is damaged by an airline while in its case. The built-in wheels and recessed handle are added bonuses. Some other case companies to check out include Road Ready, Grundorf, Protec and RockBag. Many guitar manufacturers, such as Martin, Fender, Alvarez and Gibson, offer roadworthy cases as well.

Temperature Protection
When your precious guitar is placed in an airplane cargo hold, two things change dramatically at the high altitudes: temperature and humidity. Interestingly, your best protection against extreme low temperatures doesn’t require any product; simply loosen the strings and the expansion and contraction of both the strings and the guitar’s body during flight will be far less strenuous on the instrument. It only takes a couple of minutes and can mean the difference between a straight neck and a warped one when you get to the gig.

Humidity Protection
Humidity control is a bit trickier and fortunately there is an array of excellent products to help you maintain constant (and appropriate) humidity around your guitar, whether in the air or on the ground. These products are worth many, many times their cost, given the alternative. Maintaining the right humidity can mean the difference between healthy guitar wood that only gets better with age and a huge crrrack right down the middle!

Guitar humidifiers come in a variety of designs. All use some kind of material to hold liquid so that moisture can be released gradually into the guitar and/or the case. Most use synthetic sponges, while the Herco model, for example, is filled with clay. For acoustic guitars, some humidifiers actually go inside the guitar. The Dampit humidifier is a simple, flexible tube-shaped device with holes on its sides that rests inside the guitar between the strings. The Guard Father humidifier and Kyser’s Lifeguard 6- and 12-string humidifiers mount inside the soundhole. Planet Waves’ Acoustic Guitar Humidifier, available for both small and large instruments, suspends from the strings so that it never actually touches any part of the guitar, while SKB’s Guitar Humidifier clamps directly across the strings. Other models, such as the John Pearse K-Saire system, mount in the case rather than on the guitar or strings. This system, like several others, includes both a humidifier to control moisture and a hygrometer to measure it. The HumiCase product measures both humidity and temperature inside the case. Planet Waves makes a similar device that stores lowest and highest values for humidity and temperature, so you can know exactly what an environmental beating your guitar takes in the cargo hold while you ride comfortably in the passenger cabin.