Locking tuners and the TSA

This will be of interest to those of you who travel by air with electric guitars with locking tuners. It's happened to me twice now, so...

My band tours out of state periodically. When we have to fly I check my guitar in an i Series SKB case (great flight case, BTW). Most of the time I take my Legacy. It has locking tuners, so here's the rub... I'm not exactly sure why the TSA does this, but my guess is that whoever is inspecting the contents of the case gets the urge to give the guitar a few strums. Maybe it's a little out of tune, or the person thinks, "what does the extra tuner thingy do..." .... Whatever it is, I get the guitar back with a string detached from the tuner. The first time this happened I had the string trimmed very close to the post so I had to replace it because there wasn't enough length to "stretch" it back in. This past weekend we flew out to Omaha to play a festival and the same thing happened. This time though I was able to get the string back into the tuner because I purposefully left enough length to compensate for the "TSA test."

So, my G&LDP friends, if you are going to check you guitar before a flight and it has locking tuners be sure to leave a little extra length of string outside the post, just in case.

--GDub

That's really weird, Gdub. I've flown a few times with my guitar with locking tuners and can say I've experienced the same thing. Maybe when the case is being screened the locking tuners show up visually similar to the part of a weapon?

You should put a note in with the following statement:

"CAUTION: Strings under tension. Please wear safety glasses and gloves before loosening locking tuners. Sudden release of strings may cause bodily harm!"

But then again, not withstanding that it IS as fair, proper, and correct warning, given the proven complete lack of humor among TSA employees maybe you shouldn't. Might save you being pick out before boarding at the gate

- Jos

Yow,

Interesting idea, but any "warnings" placed on an item could draw the wrong attention. So, block the trem and send w/out strings... Or use the locking Gotoh "Tele-style" tuners (they look just like non-locking ones). OOOOR, Grover Mini Locking Rotomatics and they are my favorite so far. The 18:1 is nice too........


Cheers,

Will

Yow,
Interesting idea, but any "warnings" placed on an item could draw the wrong attention. So, block the trem and send w/out strings... Or use the locking Gotoh "Tele-style" tuners (they look just like non-locking ones). OOOOR, Grover Mini Locking Rotomatics and they are my favorite so far. The 18:1 is nice too........

Just leave a little extra string ( about 1/2") after the post and all will be good.

--GDub