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His Gibson ES-335 was produced in 1965 and, in good condition, would value at something close to $20,000. In 2013, Dave Snyder suffered an airline encounter with his $10,000 guitar after they required him to check the bag, which, while in transit, was reduced to wood chips.
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And short of a hard shell flight case, most guitar cases are not prepared for the rough skies before them.ĭave Carroll, as we’ll soon find out, may be one of the most famous victims of this, but his story is not the most costly. Roughly 2 million pieces of passengers’ luggage arrive late, are damaged, or are pilfered every year. They’re nobody’s favorite place, but of all those aboard any given flight, luggage itself should be the most afraid for their journey ahead. You’ve just experienced part one of the story of Dave Carroll and his epic battle with United, who has just thrown the first punch in a war for justice that still rages on to this day.Īirplanes. When that familiar shell of your former guitar case finally limps into your arms, you pray the loose rattle is just in your imagination just a figment of the nightmare you’re having on a plane in a universe where all went well.īut no, you’re awake this is real. You rush from the gate to check in to baggage claim and watch as the landslide of luggage tumbles into the conveyor belt. Like a portrait lifted from the darkest parts of your nightmares, you and the remaining members of the Sons of Maxwell watch in frozen horror as the silhouettes of your instruments are hurled like rubble from a blast site.
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“Oh my God, they’re throwing guitars outside.”Ī voice shatters the small peace afforded by the taxiing plane. When finally, the plane lands, you vacillate your gaze between outside and your bandmate’s faces for some relief. Once airborne, every minute trickles by like rests on music sheets: quietly, ominously, slowly. Images of heavy suitcases sandwiching your Taylor Guitar against the steel belly of an unforgiving airship play through your occipital lobe like an inflight horror movie.ĭon’t worry, all along the way, the pleasantly robotic staff of United Airlines have all recited the same insincere tropes they use to placate every passenger who has entrusted precious luggage to the daft and indifferent hands of their team. As your psyche plays havoc with your mind, you wait nervously through turbulence. Now, $3,500 and all of your career is riding in the bottom of a Boeing 747. Despite your protests and your vocal concerns, United Airlines staff insists on company policy and compels you to check your guitar bag before boarding. Now airborne, you and your band are moving across two countries, 11 states and 3 time zones to play a show in Omaha, Nebraska.