Traveling With a Cello

Ever since I can remember my cello has gone with me practically anytime I went on a trip. It was in the back of the van or in the trunk of the car or when I got my own car on the back seat. On longer trips that required airplane transportation it goes in with the checked luggage, quite unfortunately, just like my suitcase. The cello, in it's hard case, is just large enough to keep it out of the overhead bins inside the cabin of the airplane. Only on one occasion did I buy a ticket for my cello to sit next to me in the cabin. That was just after I bought the Whedbee.

Traveling with a large instrument is fine until it comes to carpooling and flying. How many times have I either sat with my cello on my lap because it wouldn't fit in the trunk? How many times have I somehow stuffed it in a trunk that, on first, second and third tries, seemed too small to get it into? At the airport it is a different story all together. At least it used to be. When I first started flying with my cello about 10 years ago the question was inevitably, "Did you purchase a ticket or are you going to check in your guitar?" Or the comment, "That's a big guitar you have", and of course, "Is that a big violin?" And so I would proceed to check my "big violin/guitar" in for the flight just like a common piece of luggage with the exception of the lonely Fragile sticker that was usually ignored by the airline personnel.

Luckily, I have only experienced a damaged instrument once as a result from checking it in. Although my case has been damaged and even cracked at the hands of the airline personnel my cello came through unscathed and healthy. Actually, the only time anything of significance happened to my cello was this summer on the way back from Taiwan. I opened my case to find the fingerboard effortlessly floating around in the case. Fortunately I had packed my cello with padding on the inside just in the case of this sort of event. No scratches, just that black ebony board sliding around.

I guess I could count one other time as far as damage is concerned, although the luthier considered it more as antiquing than scratches. I had borrowed a case from a friend to ensure the protection of my new cello (it was just a year on from my purchase of the Whedbee). When I reached Germany I looked inside my case saw that my bow was carelessly knocking my cello on the front and the sides. Each scratch and indentation could be easily seen. Needlessly to say, it was upsetting to find "big" gouges in a new instrument. In fact, I had taken such good care of the cello that they were the first scratches on my instrument.

They were deep and obvious, at least to me, but I got over it. Now, they look like antique marks just as the luthier said when he saw them before rubbing stain into the scratches. Well, the playability and tone of the cello were not affected. I can deal with that.