Taking a Nord Electro 2 61 on a plane. Does it even stand a chance?

[Caseous]

Hey there. Got a show a somewhat long plane ride away. I usually keep my Nord in a soft case for my local gigs but I figure that I hard case if I stand half a chance of seeing it arrive in one piece. Any suggestions on case brands or advice?

 

Thanks,

 

CC

[AnotherScott]

If this is a one-off, it might be cheaper to try to get an Electro from a local backline company at your destination, compared to the cost of a flight-suitable hard case plus I assume over-size luggage check fees both ways.

 

Also, if you still have the original box the Electro came in and it's in solid shape with all the original packing, that might be fine for just one or two uses...?

 

In a similar situation, I was thinking of coming up with the smallest board that would qualify for carry-on (rules are a little more lax for musical instruments than other kinds of carry-on, but it can vary by carrier and by aircraft)... maybe a Samson Graphite 49 which has nice feel and nice controls, but if that's too big, there are even smaller ones (I know that 61 is out of the question for this)... carry-on, it could go in a soft case... and pair that with a laptop or tablet. Since the Electro only plays one sound at a time, and doesn't have all that many sounds in it, it would not be too complicated to reproduce that functionality in a laptop/tablet... and if you already have the laptop/tablet, this could be a pretty cheap way to go, if you could get by with 49 keys.

[pinkfloydcramer61]

Maybe try to score an Electro 2 rack? On the basis that the Electro soundset is harder to replace than the keyboard. Whether the OP is comfortable playing the Nord EP's on a lighter action board, or organ on non-waterfall keys (assuming the backline can't provide say, a Roland VK series or Korg CX3 etc.) is a matter of his personal taste.

I realize that Electro 2 racks are hard to find anymore, and pricey (last I saw on eBay was $600) but it may be possible for the OP contact Nord repair centers and locate a dead Electro 2 rack to host his motherboard, it's not much trouble to swap out.

 

Until recently, I myself had a non-working rack-mount, but was happy to find a tech that could fix it for very little- it turned out to be a problem with the power supply instead of the motherboard. I don't fly to gigs, but it will be nice to park the rack on my Yamaha DP for the occasional organ part on my "casuals" (jazz combo) gigs.

 

 

[lerber3]

I have traveled (non-stop) from Canada to Mexico and back with my E3 HP twice, and before that with an E3 three times. The first four trips were in a softcase reinforced with plywood on both sides and a ton of duct tape... No problems, but lucky. Now I have a hard case that fits over the soft case and comes in about 0.1 lbs under the airline weight limit, without pedals, etc.