Re: large instrument transportation

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Responding to the message of <v04220803b76ec5ac2529 (at) 
[140(dot)186(dot)102(dot)8]>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> At 8:51 PM -0500 7/8/01, Alex J. Lubet wrote:
> >To add on to this thread, my friend always buys a seat for her $70K cello.  
> My
> >guitars are worth plenty, but not that much.  As a member of ASCAP, 
> >I can insure
> >my instruments very cheaply and for enough to replace them, not just 
> >what I paid
> >for them.  I think AFM offers a similar deal if you're not a composer.
> 
> When our band traveled to Iowa, our bass player and I, carrying the 
> accordianist's instruments, took the train. (The accordianist carried 
> my fiddle on the plane because he did not have as much time as I had 
> for the trip.) The train crew helped us find suitable places to store 
> the instruments safely within sight.  A piece of rope was very useful 
> for securing the bass in an upright position where it would not fall 
> into the aisle.  The train may take longer, but it's a delightful way 
> to travel, and we stopped long enough in Chicago to have a delicious 
> Greek restaurant meal going, and because of a missed connection 
> (that's happened to me traveling by plane too), a Russian restaurant 
> meal coming back as well as a visit to the art institute.
> 
> It's fine to say that you can replace your instrument with the 
> insurance money, but what do you do when you get to your gig without 
> an instrument? And what do you do about a hundred year old, one of a 
> kind instrument that may not have cost that much but is virtually 
> irreplaceable even if you do get the money?
> 
> On one trip, we rented a bass and a guitar.  Bad move.  Ended up not 
> singing the songs that required the guitar.  Luckily, there are only 
> a couple of those.
> 
> 
Whoa!  I'm not saying it's fine to show up at a gig with no axe, but it's a 
whole lot worse to lose an axe and not have the insurance money with which to 
replace it.  I know this from personal experience.  And two of my three jobbing 
instruments are out of print and pretty much irreplaceable.  It would cost more 
than thirteen times what I paid for my bass to replace it with something 
comparable.  So buy some insurance meyn kind!

BTW, another occupational hazard is performance related injuries.  However 
difficult it may be to replace your most beloved axe, it's a lot harder to 
replace your body, no matter how much insurance you have.  I say this from 
personal experience as well.  Be careful!  Practice can make pain as well as 
perfect!





 

Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)

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