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Taking your DJ equipment on a plane

Has anyone ever needed to take their DJ equipment or records (like a crate) on a plane?

If so, any bad experiences?

I'm trying to figure out how much I can take with me without it getting lost or damaged. Maybe shipping it might be better?

I'd like to take my turntables and mixer at the least. I also have some monitors that I can't be without.

any advice or suggestions would be appreciated...

I have never done this and unless you have some really cheap TTs or Mixer or whatever, I wouldn't do it. I mean your just asking for it to be damaged. It's one thing to take it in a car or truck, another thing to take it in an airplane. Now vinyl records, that shouldn't be as big of a concern as long as you have them protected in one of those metal cases. But why would you want/need to haul your stuff around like that? If you have a gig somewhere you need to travel to, the venue should have a set up, and if it's not the same set up you have, you will just have to adjust. Lots of DJs do...

it's because I will be away from home for a year or more. and it's overseas, so its not like I can come home anytime soon. so i'd like to keep making mixes while im there. and it's my cure for boredom.

quote:

Originally posted by marcusk it's because I will be away from home for a year or more. and it's overseas, so its not like I can come home anytime soon. so i'd like to keep making mixes while im there. and it's my cure for boredom.

I see, i'de ship them if I were you and have them insured, so if they are damaged, FedEX or whomever will handle the repair or replacement costs. I don't know if airlines insure stuff like that if it gets broken....

go weigh you turnbtables, mixer and monitors, then your records too.
Add it all up and then look at how much over the baggage limit of your airline you are, Then work out how much it will cost you in excess baggage. Lots!

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Originally posted by Spirit5 I see, i'de ship them if I were you and have them insured, so if they are damaged, FedEX or whomever will handle the repair or replacement costs. I don't know if airlines insure stuff like that if it gets broken....

International shipping with fedex and the likes is usually outrageous. Depending on the country you may be asked to pay some extra charges at the time of delivery ( custom handling fees, tax and suburban charges that's what they call them ... it's rubbish ).


Investing in a flight case for the turntables is a good idea but they are heavy. If you don't have a huge mixer you could always consider putting it in the same baggage as your clothes.

All in all it's all going to weigh a lot and cost a ton. Check in advance with your flight company for luggage allowance and see how much they will charge for overweight and/or extra luggage.

It is often cheaper to pay for an extra piece of luggage then having a piece of luggage that is overweight ( it makes no sense but that's what has happened to me ).
Last year when I moved abroad I had 2 pieces of luggage both overweight, would have paid 200 or so $ in charges for the weight surplus, but only about 140 for an extra piecce of luggage.
So I got an extra bag and moved some stuff to the third bag and paid the 140 or so.



You could also consider taking your records in a record bag as a carry on. You could take about 90 or so records max ( don't get one of these huge 200+ vinyl bags ).
In most cases your carry-on will NOT be weighed and when you know how much records weigh it's good to take into account.
I have been flying yearly since I was a kid and it's been the habit to put the heaviest stuff in the carry-on.

I see, sending it does not sound like an option. Well, looks like im going to have to start the Vinyl to Mp3 conversion process...and try to find a decent mp3 mixing device.

Thanks.

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Originally posted by dj_palm stuff can last forever as long u dont move it. period.

if you pack up well it should be fine so the type of comment you are making is really unwarranted

Re: Re: Taking your DJ equipment on a plane

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Originally posted by dj_palm in a second thought i think ive missundeerstood. i thought u were takin your equipment to a dj set etc. thats when it gets terminated. if ur moving your location of living most equipment can handle one move and makes it totaly diferent. ive moved a couple of times (tho not by plane) ive drove like 7 hours with a wagen full of furnitures, clothes, computer and all my stereo and only a corner on my desk got smashed so if u pack it up good it should be ok. turntables and vinyl can handle pretty much shit, tho cdjs are worse. havem in your lap if ur havin one (not the lap, the cdj). also your monitors should be ok if u got grills and original boxes. so sorry about that stupid sentience over if i missunderstood the setting. i dont think it will be a problem if u take it with u on plane, tho i will have to pay for it caus u will will overrun your lugage-limit at once. tho u prolly need to do this anyways for some of your clothes etc maybe? pack it in good in original boxes and u should be fine. and i think they pay for damage if its gettin broken, atleast if its a western airplane company.

no, that's quite alright, maybe i should've been more clear. I think my alternative plan is to just by some CDJ's, cause I went through 2 Mp3 DJ units and they both sucked, in case your wondering which one, the Hercules and the Behringer. so the worst case scenario, I guess I would just ship that 1 unit.

two years ago i went to the UK for 6 months and brought my equipment with me on the place. I packed my cdj1000 and denon s3000 cd players in my UDG record bag...padded it up like crazy and took it as a carry-on.

I packed a 19 inch Denon mixer into a suitcase and wrapped it to death with clothing and padding and everything came out great, both ways. I just explained to the security people what it all was and they were very cool.

well i have to move around alot as well .. and i wanna bring both my turntables with me as well as my mixer and vinyls .. well im using a dxm 06 numark.. so its small i can just chuck it into my suitcase wrapped thickly with foam along with my clothing . my vinyls will be in either a vinyl bag.. or those metal vinyl cases thingy. then heres the real prob .. i m thinking of getting seperate cases for my decks.. 1 case for each turntable .. i m gonna padded it thick will cloth.. and foam .. and stick tons of fragile stickers on it .. is there anything else i would need to do .. so

1) the airport does not damage it ..
20 the airpots pay for the damages or returns me a new one if it is stolen?!?!

or heck should i hand explain it to security and take it as a carry on both decks and vinyls.

I used to carry a crate and a bag of vinyl.. ehh it was heavy.

Now i take a laptop, a traveller, and m-audio gear - all in my MOTU bag. its killer, but securtiy is a bitch to take quite a bit out.

I once lost my record bag when I arrived at Leonardo Da Vinci in Rome. I was due to play in about 5 hours after that so you can understand the panic I had. It turned out that it never left Gatwick as there was an issue with the excess weight, which I had already paid for by the way.

I also once lost a record bag due to theft from the luggage reclaim and never say those records again If I ever catch the ****** that did that... Loss of earnings and vinyl.

Flying to Ibiza with vinyl can also be a fecking nightmare as you have so many bedroomers (No offense) who eye up your record box when it's going round on the luggage reclaim.

I never travel abroad with Vinyl any more. I just take CDs with me as I never want to put myself through that anguish again.

Cheers
Nem

Never had a problem with security yet at airports but they always make me unpack my vinyl bag so they can rummage through it on me.

Takes a bit of extra time and almost caused me to miss a flight once (I'm sure more in the future) but it's what's expected and as long as your polite and tell them exactly what they want to know you should be fine.

As for shipping equiptment, I'd insure it and have a shipping company do it for me as I wouldn't trust the baggage handlers with my DJ gear with the way they throw stuff around.

just send it....i have sent stuff to greece that weighed about 50-60 bucks and only paid 50 bucks to send which i guess figures to about 1 dollar per pound..not bad...just make sure its insured and packaged VERY well...


Also i have shipped dj equipement cross country multiple times (2 turntables, a desktop comptuer and huge crt monitor, 2 record crates, and klipsch 2.1 system) for about 250 with insurance and custom packaging from mailboxes etc (and they charge lots of $$ for packing) So yeah send it!

i'd just ship it and have it packed in tons of those peanut things and make sure to insure all the equipment for the value of the equipment. lot easier to deal with rather than lugging it through the airport. if something were to happen to it very easy to deal with shipping company usually.

hahaha .. yeah .. thats what.. i really wanna take my decks on the plane with me .. but hwat im relaly worried about is the tone arm .. i dun want it to get trashed after i arrive on the other side..

your tone arm is locked down by the plastic thing...yet in my shipping experiences that got broken off and so the tone arm was flying around. but if you pack the tables in a case or oringinal box then you are fine.

Im in the same boat (Arizona->Ireland in September for 1 year). Im just bringing about 70 of my closest babies on the airplane with me in a hard case. Im selling everything here before i leave and re-buying it overseas. The exchange rate will fuck me but not as bad as shipping rates or the risk of broken gear. Im also brining my laptop + finalscratch where most of my tracks are anyhow.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Would i have much trouble brining a small hardshell case as carry-on (Im bringing the box as my carry on and the laptop case as my "personal item")?

I've taken my mixer as a carry on, and put it in my suitcase wrapped with cloths with no problems other than odd looks after it went though the x ray. After they checked it out they would let me go. Just make sure to check with the airline before to find out about what the restrictions are to avoid hassles. I've taken vinyl a few times only as carry on. I wouldn't trust checking it. I've read too many times stories about people loosing their records when checking them as baggage. It might be best to seriously consider cost of selling than re buying over sees or if you can afford to or just buy over seas and sell before you move back. The added insurance of knowing nothing will happen might be worth the extra cost if it�s not too much.

Allen

quote:

Originally posted by tmdrums17 Im in the same boat (Arizona->Ireland in September for 1 year). Im just bringing about 70 of my closest babies on the airplane with me in a hard case. Im selling everything here before i leave and re-buying it overseas. The exchange rate will fuck me but not as bad as shipping rates or the risk of broken gear. Im also brining my laptop + finalscratch where most of my tracks are anyhow. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Would i have much trouble brining a small hardshell case as carry-on (Im bringing the box as my carry on and the laptop case as my "personal item")?

UDG trolley bag- can squeeze 70 in there and it WILL fit in an overhead locker on a boeing 747 767 777 757(bit of a squeeze that one) and airbus a320/a321/a340 and a couple of others I have flown on. The dimensions i believe are approved ones for overhead storage. A hardcase for 70 may be just too big and square for some lockers- and it will also weigh a lot more- check the dimensions carefully on it if you cant stretch to the udg one.

You want to watch the weight with carry on- SOME airlines weigh it, some dont. You wont need a hardshell if its carry on as its with you all the time and not battered in the hold.

heres what i take away often: http://i1.tinypic.com/ztf028.jpg
Laptop bag (left) as carry on, and trolley bag as carry on, and sometimes check the sling bag on- although I fly premium classes on BA so can usually get take with all three as carry on

I will always remember taking my 3 cdj1000s as carry on and JFK security having a fit when they were x-rayed. Swabbed the lot for explosives and made me explain what they were and turn them on. And they were STILL nervous.

Be aware that a lot of british airlines (BA, BMI, Virgin, RyanAir and thers to follow) are currently rejiggling their baggage allowances- both checked and carry on.

i carried 2 turntables onto a plane from US to Asia. It killed me because i have to wait for everyone to leave the plane then get the TTs and walk through immgrations and all the way to baggage claim.(dats where u get ur pushing cart thing)but i didnt want it to go through the bagroom and into the bulk of the airplane.
I can only do dat because i work for an airline so they let me bring it up on plane.
Trust me...the bagroom people and the loaders....they will fuck up ur stuff..they dont give a Sh*t...(throwing,kicking, etc..ive seen it)

i recently moved from italy to hawaii...literally around the world! for my move i shipped two technics turntables, two pioneer cdj 800s, and thousands of records. everything got to my new location with absolutely no damage and ill tell you how i did it...

first of all i put both my vinyl and cd decks in road-ready cases. i then wrapped the cases in bubble-wrap and placed them inside large cardboard boxes. finally, i insulated the empty space between the bubble wrap and the box with lots of shipping foam, clothing etc. basically whatever i could find! all my decks made it there 100% okay.

as far as the vinyl goes, i packed all my records into cardboard boxes as tightly as they could go without even leaving a millimeter of breathing room on the sides. if there was any room on the top i filled it with the same kind of foam/clothing whatever. i can go into more detail if you need more help. just pm me!

Good post. Thank you much.

My box= 13"H x 12.5"W x 9.5"D

I will be on 737 for my US connections and 757 for my overseas connections (taking the fucking scenic route but its saving me some cash).

Im on Continental airlines the whole way.

Any more advice?

I fit in the maximum combined size (L + W + D) and weight limits.

Thanks again.

quote:

Originally posted by Freak UDG trolley bag- can squeeze 70 in there and it WILL fit in an overhead locker on a boeing 747 767 777 757(bit of a squeeze that one) and airbus a320/a321/a340 and a couple of others I have flown on. The dimensions i believe are approved ones for overhead storage. A hardcase for 70 may be just too big and square for some lockers- and it will also weigh a lot more- check the dimensions carefully on it if you cant stretch to the udg one. You want to watch the weight with carry on- SOME airlines weigh it, some dont. You wont need a hardshell if its carry on as its with you all the time and not battered in the hold. heres what i take away often: http://i1.tinypic.com/ztf028.jpg Laptop bag (left) as carry on, and trolley bag as carry on, and sometimes check the sling bag on- although I fly premium classes on BA so can usually get take with all three as carry on I will always remember taking my 3 cdj1000s as carry on and JFK security having a fit when they were x-rayed. Swabbed the lot for explosives and made me explain what they were and turn them on. And they were STILL nervous. Be aware that a lot of british airlines (BA, BMI, Virgin, RyanAir and thers to follow) are currently rejiggling their baggage allowances- both checked and carry on.

quote:

Originally posted by Spirit5 I see, i'de ship them if I were you and have them insured, so if they are damaged, FedEX or whomever will handle the repair or replacement costs. I don't know if airlines insure stuff like that if it gets broken....

I would ship them 2 if i were u

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