From Sons of Maxwell:
In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didnt deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.
UPDATE (August 18, 2009): “United Breaks Guitars” song 2 and video are now on YouTube and below:
Historical Comments
I *LOVE* this! Hopefully Taylor will come through and give these guys some kind of endorsement...
Which reminds me of this blast from the past, apparently based on a real incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6PRqU0sU8I
Travelling musicians have been having this problem for as long as there have been airlines, I think. I have a Stan Rogers songbook with a news item relating his guitar-on-airplane problems. Of course, Stan himself eventually got killed by Air Canada….
Good grief. Once I peeked behind the screen at an Australian airport, and saw the suitcases thrown from the truck onto the platform below, to be pushed onto the conveyor belt.
Seems this bit has already made the rounds on the wider web, but I'll comment. Every time I had to check my bass guitar at the airport I wondered if I'd ever get it back intact. Thankfully, those days are long gone. The hard-shell case now has numerous gouges and chips, but the bass survived.
However, I'll never forget the time, one early morning in Seattle, when I was asked if I was trying to check a shotgun. I had to open the case to convince the nice lady at the counter that it was merely a musical instrument. This was 1997–I'd probably have been strip-searched today.
Further: http://consumerist.com/5311943/