In case readers missed it, Phillip Serna posted a great video of Jay Leonhart singing a song about getting a bass on a plane. Check out Phillip’s post here.

Bass blog contributor Benjy reminded me about this post he contributed concerning European train travel woes. He also shared with me some of his experiences with bass flight cases:

I also have a Stevenson case which I purchased 25 years ago when I was with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra. I made them buy one and bought one for myself. Theirs went through 2 months of touring in the states, while mine was used it only on 2 occasions, the first to go to Colorado, the second to Israel. Ever since then, I have kept it in my various cellars for years and years. Now that I no longer have a real need to travel by myself, I have finally decided to sell it so that it can be of use to someone. Stevenson has made a contact for me and I’ll be getting rid of it soon.

I improved the mobility of both of these old cases by adding a 360° pivoting wheel (riveted in) on the top of the case, G string side or the same side where the original wheels are on the bottom. By taking an ordinary belt or strap attached to the large handle, anyone can freely glide the case on its side on any airport floor, instead of picking it up at a 45° angle so that the 4 wheels come into contact. Stevenson himself commended me on this idea, which was tested and proved, but never added this feature to his case later on. During my touring, I also removed the belt and straps inside the case that are used to hold the bass, and would simply put the instrument in its own bass cover (I have a 25 year old one made by Joe’s house of Sandals in NY) and pop the whole thing in the Stevenson case. No muss, no fuss and the instrument is protected in padding and temperature. An 11 hour trip from San Francisco to Tokyo also proved that.

Click here to read all of Benjy’s bass blog contributions.

If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment and fill out our Double Bass Airline Travel Experiences survey. Your experiences will help to consolidate some solid data on which airlines are bass-friendly and which are not.