How to Carry Performing Merchandise

Series Summary

As a musician traveling is simply part of the job. We must be able to travel in order to support ourselves and play to new people and crowds all the time so that we build up a fan base. The problem arises when we begin to think about all the expensive equipment we have to lug around every time we travel. Whether it’s by boat, train, plane or car we need to be able to get our instruments to the next venue safely so that we can use it at the next show. This has always been a serious issue for the likes of touring musicians everywhere. The protection of their assets, their livelihoods, their gear. If you are a professional traveling musician or just like taking your guitar with you when you travel this is a fantastic series that will give you great tips that could easily save the life of your instrument. It covers tips on traveling by train, plane and car and offers advice for several different instruments including drums, guitar and keyboards. Take our advice and live by these tips when you’re traveling. It could mean the difference between playing and not!

Video Transcript

"Now one of the most important aspects to being a traveling artist is having merchandise and being able to sell it. In order to sell it, it's got to come with you wherever you go. So you need to have a way to carry it effectively and repeatedly. What you got to start out with is a big, nice suitcase like I got right here. This one I actually picked up for free in merry old England. I had a, I had an old suitcase before that was a real piece of crap, and it actually ripped my toe nail off one time in Miami, made me walk for about a mile with blood and toilet paper flopping from my toes, real awesome total rock star thing to do. But this one as you notice, doesn't have any cracks over here, nothing like that, it's relatively new in good shape it's got a wonderful handle that I can fold, oh my Lord! That thing comes out right there, don't know if you can get enough of that in the video, but for pulling, and then it's got wheels here on the back, very important, because if you notice, this thing can get heavy, it's like a lot of times, I can get to somewhere, sixty-five, seventy pounds with this thing and carrying it for long stretches in the airport is a real dog if you don't have wheels to roll it on. My last one had lost it's wheels and well, as you can see, I'm not the buffest guy in the world, so it's good to have wheels."