Taking care of a valuable instrument on the road or around town can be a harrowing experience at best.  I just took a plane out to Albuquerque, NM a couple of weeks ago to play a few gigs, and I opened my bag and found my brand new Proctor Silex iron that I bought at Target for a hefty $8.99 smashed to bits.  I’ve never tried to smash an  iron.  I’ve dropped them before and they seem to stay pretty well intact.  Imagine what the same amount of force exerted on a hollow piece of very thin wood would do.  Well, let me tell you, Garth has nothing on the Continental Baggage department.  These guys are trained professionals steeped in the art of guitar smashing.

Next time you have a window seat try to check out the side show next door loading the baggage.  They toss, they pummel.  I think suitcase throwing should be an Olympic sport… Next up we have the six foot, three hundred twenty five pound Croatian Demetrius Miroslav.  It looks like he’s got a blue Samsonite.  He’s tossed this one pretty far.  Oh yeah look at those wheels fly!

All the kidding aside folks.  Don’t check your guitar!  I used to have the most beautiful custom Randy Wood cutaway guitar.  Well, needless to say, it’s now firewood.  Still in every tragedy there is learning and eventual enlightenment.  I now feel fully qualified to write this article.

For those adventurous wanderlusts like me, let’s talk travel.  First I would suggest to all road musicians to have a road guitar and a home guitar.  This takes money, but it’s worth it if you can swing it.  I have a Martin 1946 D-18.  It never leaves Nashville.  I would rather die than let Hugo the Greek baggage thrower get his grubby hands on it.  I take my Santa Cruz D on the road.  It’s a great guitar, but definitely not irreplaceable.  I leave it on the bus with the road manager who unloads the instruments when we dock in New Mexico.  I keep a dampit in the case.  This is an anti-aridity device that releases moisture into the guitar under certain conditions.

It’s a good idea to always keep the dampit in the sound hole whenever you’re traveling.  The West is truly wild on wood.  I took my 1994 Martin out of the case one day in Arizona and had the Junior Grand Canyon twisting across the spruce top.

If you travel alone doing the songwriter thing, the only solution is to keep your guitar with you at all times -  don’t check it.  If you ever sign a ticket that’s “responsible for loss but not damage,” you might as well go hire yourself out to CMYT to video tape you throwing the guitar off the Bell South building in the next Junior Brown video.  If they hassle you about taking it on the plane, just state your case succinctly: “No I won’t check this bag and you can’t make me.”  Guitars fit nicely in the overhead compartment.

Board the plane early, don’t wait for your seat to be called.  It’s pretty easy to beat airline regulations if you don’t act like a lab rat.  If you must check it, loosen the strings, put in the dampit, cover the guitar with some sort of towel or cloth, and plug up places where the guitar might bounce around.  Don’t forget to tip the baggage man and pray.

For all the homebodies who are smart enough to stay home and work like normal human beings, guitar care is a snap.  All you have to do is follow the same principles as above.  Keep the guitar with you at all times and use a dampit when necessary.  The dampit tells you the humidity so it’s easy to know when you use it.

It all depends on where you live.  For Nashvillians, it’s always humid, so you don’t have to worry.  Watch out for the winter though, too much humidity is also bad.  Air conditioning is a good thing.  If your house feels like an oven, you guitar will cook like one.  Don’t leave your guitar in your truck when it’s especially cold or hot.  I’ve done this, major cracks in the thin siding of a guitar can’t really be repaired.  They just keep on cracking.  Once that wood decides to let go and turn back into a tree, it’s virtually impossible to keep it from doing so.

If you have to go to a quick meeting with the record label president just bring your guitar along.  Feel good about carrying your guitar around Music Row.  Be proud that you are a creative genius.

It’s really simple to keep your wooden songwriter partner happy and productive for a long glorious number one writing career.  Just remember these four guidelines: 1) Don’t check the guitar in baggage; 2) Always keep the guitar in a moderately cool, humid environment; 3) Don’t leave the guitar in your vehicle; 4) Keep the guitar in a hard shell padded case with a dampit when necessary.