In short, I am considering that Musicians Gear case for an upcoming trip (where I plan to carry on, but realize the guitar may be stowed underneath). A trusted source (the owner of Charley’s Guitars here in Dallas) mentioned that might be a good alternative for the trip I’m considering, but he had no direct experience with the case.

My questions are:
- Are the sides more rigid than a standard thermoplastic case (I have Martin 640 case now)?
- Do you feel this case would be suitable for carrying on a flight, but gate checking if necessary (guitar rides in the hold)? I would plan on packing the headstock, loosening the strings, duct-taping the hinges and locks, and placing extra straps around the case.
- Would you feel comfortable traveling in the manner I have described with a nice Martin HD35 (carrying on, but gate-checking if forced to do so)?

BTW, I was electric/acoustic guitarist on worship team at Park Community Church in Chicago when we lived there (~1 year ago).

Any info you could provide would be appreciated.

Regards and thanks in advance,
Jay Altizer
* please reply to the hidden email I submitted

I bought a brand new barebones kit (AMD 64 5000+ X2 with 4 G of ram) for $200 and bought an OEM copy of Vista for $100. This thing flies with no problems and is very secure. I don’t know why so many people hate it. You can get a Vista computer that runs smoothly and runs all of your games (I have been playing Americas Army) for $300 or a new mac for $2,000. What is the problem?

Those last few lines were really quite amusing… but true. Havalah and I had a good laugh.
Though I must say, how did you ever room with Kevin Cathey and not end up in a fight to death, Brett-guy.