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Hofner Shorty goes flying

H

Hedgehog_SBM

Guest
Nov 28, 2011
90
10
#1
Hi All,

I wanted to pass on my positive experiences of air travel with a Hofner Shorty bass.

I bought the Shorty a while back with the intention of using it as a bass used for air travel. To make it play well, and be fun to play, some very small adjustments were needed, spurred on by MacmanLou. Read this thread for info:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/hofner-shorty-bass-air-travel-any-comments-998439/

I recently had my first air travel experience with it on United. All went very well. The planes included a B757, A319, and a (relatively small) Embraer 145. I was also carrying a garment bag, and a computer bag. The garment bag was checked, and the computer bag and Shorty were carried on.

Here are the key points to this experience - which got the Shorty round-trip without a scratch:

- I used the supplied gig bag, and the shoulder strap is a godsend. I think the padding is insufficient, and so I wrapped the bass in material that is used as non-slip rug backing (the semi-spongy stuff with the large holes). Originally, I tried 1" closed cell foam, but there is no way that can fit in the gig bag with the Shorty. Even the non-slip rug backing stuff, once you wrap it around the shorty about 4 times, is a tight fit in the bag at the widest point of the bass' body. You need to work it a bit. Let the edges of the material overhang the ends, then fold them over to protect the ends of the bass. You can wrap the neck many, many times - there's plenty of space in the bag near the neck.

- Shorty was carried onto each flight. On the larger planes, there were no interrogations pre-boarding. Running the bass through security was no problem - although it did raise an eyebrow once from a TSA agent. Luckily, even though it looks lilke a rifle in the gig bag, it is very easy to see it's a bass in a TSA X-ray (I peeked once).

- On the larger planes, I smiled and politely asked a crew member to place the Shorty in their coat closet. Each time they suggested the overhead might be safer, but took the Shorty to the closet both times - even let me position it myself once. Plenty of space there, so do make sure it secured by some other bags if you do this - so it's doesn't bounce around if you experience turbulence.

- I thought the Embraer jets would be a more major hassle. I called ahead and asked the airline, and they said no problem to carry-on. I did, and the Shorty fit in the Embraer overhead with no problem. (I do suggest that you call ahead and ask the airline - the planes are getting smaller and smaller overhead compartments these days).

On the first Embraer, the Shorty was alone in the overhead, with my jacket supplying extra support for the neck.

On the second Embraer, someone came in with a small computer bag. THIS IS CRUCIAL - if you put the bass in an overhead, you need to watch the bin like a hawk until the plane door is closed and people have settled. It's trivial for someone to enter with a carry on, put it in the overhead without looking, and continually smash the bag in until it fits!!! You know what i mean! I think that's the most dangerous part of the carry-on experience - so BE WARY!!! I jumped up and just caught the guy and said I had a fragile guitar in the bin. He let me place his bag, and the Shorty over it. Actually, this was great because it kept the Shorty more secure - kept it from being able to bounce around in rough air.

Also on the second Embraer flight, the person taking the tickets said that the Shorty would not fit in the overhead, and that it had to be checked. Luckily, I knew better, and said so. The problem here is that when you are carrying the Shorty by your side, people think its a regular size guitar. Do you homework to make sure it will fit.

- As people have said on other threads - smile, and be nice! This goes a long way. The crew will almost always resist on the first requst. Just say the truth - it's a guitar, it's fragile, and it will be destroyed if checked.

- People do look at you in the airport, especially when you are carrying it on your back. When I arrived at my second destination (in the midwest, at a very small airport), a person at a small store saw the Shorty on my back and asked, "Hey, you going huntin'?". Reply as you see fit. :)

So, I will take Shorty along again as my travel bass. Of course, I want it to survive each time. But at $199 retail, even if the worst occurs, the loss is not so high. Actually, I would be more upset losing it due to the time it took to get it set up as desired. :)

I hope this will help you. There's not much info out there on the Hofner Shorty. Also - thanks to all on TalkBass that have posted regarding air travel with a bass. All of their comments, integrated, led me to this choice - which has been successful on the first go-round.
 
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#3
Shorty goes flying - AGAIN!

Here's a second experience on traveling with the Shorty. Last time, travel included four different planes, with legs between a major east coast airport, a significant midwest hub, and a small western municipal airport. I consider these spots fairly "friendly".

The present travel was simpler - coast to coast single flights to-from major international airports on a route that is usually overcrowded, with people carrying too much luggage, and are not particularly bass friendly.

The good news is that Shorty traveled again unscathed.

Again, the most worrisome part of the flight is boarding - up until the main door is closed. Wow, that's such a relief when that happens!

Before then, you basically have to guard the bass from people that want to quickly take their 25+ lb bag and shove it into the overhead as fast as possible, with no regard to your fragile instrument peacefully placed in the overhead.

One the first part of the trip, the flight crew refused to put the Shorty in the coat closet. However, they did say that if all overhead space was taken, they would consider it. I used the overhead this time, and luckily, there was an overhead that had smaller items in it (all others nearby had two large bags each - no room for anything else). Shorty works well with a few coats and a few small bags - in fact, they keep the Shorty from bouncing around in turbulence.

I thought I was safe - but you cannot let your guard down for one second in this situation. Sure enough, a woman comes in with a bag that she almost cannot lift. I jumped up, offered to help, and explained there was a fragile instrument in the overhead. Sure enough, another woman says "Well, just move it!", and rudely goes into the overheard and attempts to pull the bass out (roughly and hastily) herself - without even asking. Up to this point, I was very polite, but this is the usual case of trying to be nice, but getting stepped on. So, I changed my tone - stating that she would *not* move my bass. She then backed off a bit, and more humanly asked if I could move some items to fit the bag in the overhead. I did that, and helped with the bag (which was also "welcomed" with rudeness), but in the end, everything fit.

You understand the bottom line though - unless (i) you are really diligent and watch that bin every second during boarding and (ii) you keep people from jamming their bag into the overhead without thinking, you can end up with a damaged instrument.

On the flight back, the flight crew member took the bass to the coat cloest. Actually, I saw them place the Shorty in a business class overhead. They were very careful with it - both putting it in, and taking it out (happened to see both).

So, there it is - Shorty survives another trip, and has logged about 9,000 flight miles now. :)

One more point - as you probably well know, the airlines are packing people like sardines into planes now, with too many large carry-ons (which people elect to do more so now because of the checked baggage fees). Both of these flights were so full that (get this) that the flight announcer warned that boarding groups 4 and 5 would not have any overhead space! To me that is ridiculous! How can an airline allow this? Anyway - this made taking the Shorty much more harrowing. People get cranky and angry, and the flight crew can also be nasty when every single seat is taken, and the overheads are full by the time 3/4 of the passengers have boarded! I typically board early. It would be harder to travel with the Shorty like this, on this particular very busy route, if I was forced to board in the last boarding group.

One possible fix is for the airlines to charge for large carry-on bags, and not charge for checked bags. Something has got to give - otherwise, I can see fights starting to break out soon enough.

I hope you find this helpful.
 
#4
Hedgehog_SBM said:
One more point - as you probably well know, the airlines are packing people like sardines into planes now, with too many large carry-ons (which people elect to do more so now because of the checked baggage fees). Both of these flights were so full that (get this) that the flight announcer warned that boarding groups 4 and 5 would not have any overhead space! To me that is ridiculous! How can an airline allow this? Anyway - this made taking the Shorty much more harrowing. People get cranky and angry, and the flight crew can also be nasty when every single seat is taken, and the overheads are full by the time 3/4 of the passengers have boarded! I typically board early. It would be harder to travel with the Shorty like this, on this particular very busy route, if I was forced to board in the last boarding group.

One possible fix is for the airlines to charge for large carry-on bags, and not charge for checked bags. Something has got to give - otherwise, I can see fights starting to break out soon enough.
Click to expand...

Sooooo true.

The vicious cycle is going to take a little while to clear up. So many airlines are charging to check a bag, so people are carrying on luggage that should DEFINITELY be checked. Airline staff has to be hard-assed since a family of four takes up two overhead bins on their own since they checked nothing. The staff can't be discriminating for people that have fishing poles, golf clubs, instruments, or whatever other fragile items they might have.

Everyone is overbooking flights to ensure no empty seats, so the guy who got bumped from the last flight is already peeved. Someone starts giving him crap about the size of his carry-on, he's ready to go.
 
#5
Thanks for posting this. I'm going on a 3-month trip to various cities and was in search of a small bass I could bring with me, so your threads have been very helpful. I know some of the airlines I'll be flying on have limits on the total dimensions of carry on items. What are the dimensions of the carrying case?
 
#7
A little late but hope this will help people interested in the Hofner shorty. I went on a 3-month international trip, over 10 flights with various different carriers. Before I left, I read Hedgehog_SBM's posts (which were super helpful, thanks!) and got the 3-point strap. It worked beautifully, though did take some time to adjust to the right setting.

The gig bag does have a lot of extra space in it, so I wrapped it around some clothes. It also does make it look like a rifle, so I sewed on a few patches from bands I like, and even with that I still got questions about what it was, but mainly out of curiosity than anything. Never had trouble going through security with it.

As for the overhead bins, I made sure to get on the plane first (buying early bird access on the southwest flights was worth it) and put it in a bin directly across from my seat so I could watch it. This was crucial since, like Hedgehog_SBM said, a lot of people will try to put their bags on top of it without even bothering to check what it is. You really do need to watch it carefully until that bin is closed. If you don't mind sitting on the aisle, do so, because it's a lot easier to get up and deal with it than if you're stuck in a window or middle seat. On really full flights, I would take it out, let people put smaller carry ons up there, then put it across theirs, so it was wedged nicely between their bags and the bin door. It was actually better this way because it didn't move around during the flight and didn't piss people off.

Overall I found that people were very friendly and understanding, and only came across a handful of rude passengers who gave me a hard time. If you're nice about it and explain that it's a fragile instrument, people will sympathize and try to look for space elsewhere.
 
#8
Thanks Vmalka. l'm really glad my posts have helped.

My Shorty has flown again. In my last experience, I did what you stated above - I kept Shorty at my seat until some other people put bags into the overhead that Shorty could fit over in the thin space above the somewhat smaller bags. This helps a lot, because if you do this when the bin is full, you can close it. BUT you STILL HAVE TO BE DILIGENT! People sometimes re-open the bins and shift stuff around.

Shorty flew another 6,000 miles with no issue.

I did feel bad for another poster that couldn't strap the bass properly. Its basically impossible with a two-point strap. The three point strap is a godsend for the Shorty. It is essential.

The middle part of the strap started coming loose. I fixed that by cutting a small, thin piece of plastic and ringed it around the button over the strap, and that holds very well.

The Shorty is a great, inexpensive travel bass. I even record it when travelling, and it sounds good. I completely love playing it with the Chrome flatwounds - perfect for this bass.
 
#9
Here's my travel bass. It's a custom Roscoe six string headless, 35" scale.
image.jpg
 
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