cross CAN-US border with guitar?

Subject: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 01:45 PM

I realize this question has been asked before, but it's about time for an update ...

I'm flying south soon - not for a gig, no, not me, of course not - and I will need a guitar. Now, a couple of years ago when in the same situation, I arranged to borrow one when I got there, but even though it was a fine guitar, it just wasn't like my own. So this time I want to take my own guitar, so - any Canuckians out there who've had the experience of crossing into the US via air carrying a guitar within the last couple of years? Any problems or scary moments?

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 02:13 PM

Just the usual baggage handler worries. Prior to a recent flight to Edmonton, they tested one of mine for explosives (the X-ray picked up the battery & wiring) but I usually feel re-assured when they're paying attention. Just go ahead and worry about the usual stuff.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Big Mick
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 02:24 PM

I have more trouble going into Canada with an instrument than my Canadian friends tell me about when coming out. I always face a lot of questions about the reason I am bringing instruments in, whether it is for work or not.

Mick

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Musicman
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 07:48 PM

if the instrument is worth anything, make sure you stop at canadian customs, you can get some sort of form/id that shows that the instrument is yours and was purchased in canada and you are bringing it back. I havn't had a problem before at all, but it is sometimes recommended. They can fill you in to what exactly it is.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 08:04 PM

I'm not too worried about coming back; the thing's an old battle-axe, and the case is held together with tape and stickers ... My only concern is the possibility of being turned away trying to get into the States - whether they're likely to assume I have a gig if I'm carrying a guitar ...

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Musicman
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 08:05 PM

'doubt that.. i often cross with mine

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 08:09 PM

Apart from baggage handling worries you shouldn't have much trouble. Now, if it was a banjo....

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 08:11 PM

How far are you going, Meself?

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 08:13 PM

Far: Tifton, Georgia (!).

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 08:27 PM

That's a wee jump if you're in a hurry, I suppose. I've never gone down to the States to work. Seems every time I think about it, something happens and border security goes nuts for a while.
If I do then I'll rejoin the Union. They're good at handling the paperwork. It has occurred to me though that I'd make no record of such an event on a web calendar.
Don't over-think this one. People carry instruments back and forth all of the time. The only trouble I've had was in London. Funny that!

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 09:47 PM

Okay, I'm starting to think maybe it's nothing to worry about. I just have a hard time not looking and acting guilty when I go through American customs. Tell you the truth, though, I've had more hassles coming back through Canadian customs ...

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:03 PM

I've crossed both directions many times by car and so far have never been asked to open the case. Now if your name was Capone and you were carrying a violin case it may be different.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:09 PM

I'm not concerned about having to open it, etc.; it's more the problem of being taken for a professional on the way to a job, which can get you refused entry.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:10 PM

Just be yourself

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 10:15 PM

I suppose .... That's the policy that's gotten me where I am today!

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: iancarterb
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 11:54 PM

mandolins are apparently more forgiving. The only hassle ever has been a counter clerk on the Victoria Clipper telling me she had to CALL it a guitar and I had to buy a seat for it. Of course it's about a third the volume of the rectangular dimensions allowed, and the ship's crew corrected her. That was one I didn't expect. Customs has never hassled me either direction. On that score, I usually carry a US-made mandola bought in Canada, but all my instruments are so old and grody it wouldn't be a likely challenge anyway. Can you get away with Occupation - Student? No lie there!

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 02:15 AM

I shipped a guitar to Canada. An acoustic with a factory magnetic pickup, and an aftermarket internal undersaddle and endpin preamp. Customs not only opened it and checked it (no problem there - but they also dismantled the electrics and left them rattling around the inside of the guitar for the buyer to find, identify, and re-install in the hope they were not broken. That's just rude.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 02:46 AM

"it's more the problem of being taken for a professional on the way to a job, which can get you refused entry".

If it was me, I'd just play for them - they'd soon realise I'm not a pro.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 03:46 AM

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

Purchase one instrument to be used in each country. It is not like you or the audience will know the diffenrence.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 07:10 AM

When I flew over for the Getaway in 2005 I took a mandolin , a banjola , and a SCAD of whistles ! Just said I was meeting friends and going to a couple of folk weekends - NO problem - and I am a card carrying member of Equity !

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Willie-O
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 09:42 AM

It's no big deal. Honest. It's not. As Richard's post shows, shipping instruments cross-border is more problematic, in either direction.

You might be asked about it, but you're not going to be refused entry on some kind of vague suspicion. Just tell the truth, or lie convincingly, depending on what the truth really is! (If you need to re-invent the truth, just have your story straight before you talk to them, so that you can believe it yourself.)

The notion of having an instrument in each country is just plain ridiculous.

W-O

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GEST
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 10:07 AM

Canadian Customs, as always, is primarily concerned with any duty which may be owed on newly purchased items coming into Canada. That's why a customs declaration slip or a proof of purchase slip is a good item to carry in one's wallet. For four years, I carried a U.S. Customs declaration slip (approx.2"x4") for four items of old electronic equipment used twice a year on vacation in Canada. An agent from Canada Customs once asked to see it, simply because she had never heard of such a thing. I told her truthfully it was so I could bring my gear back to the USA without paying duty. U.S. Customs never asked for it.

GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 10:58 AM

"Can you get away with Occupation - Student? No lie there!"

Actually, I could get away with that at the moment. But the issue is simply the matter of whether the border guards believe you are going across to make some US$ that you will then take out of the US.

"If it was me, I'd just play for them - they'd soon realise I'm not a pro."

I'm QUITE sure that would work for me ...

"KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid"

Please don't call me stupid. I'm a little sensitive about my lack of intellectual acumen.

"Purchase one instrument to be used in each country. It is not like you or the audience will know the diffenrence."

Last time, as I mentioned, I borrowed a guitar when I got there, but I found it uncomfortable using an unfamiliar instrument. This would hold true for an instrument that I owned but seldom used - even if I had some convenient place to store it.

"That's just rude." Agreed. Canada Customs needs some sensitivity training ... A friend once sent me a new copy of a book he had written; I had to pay Customs $8 duty. It struck me as ironic that the guy who had written the book didn't get a penny for that copy, but the government got a nice little chunk of my hard-earned cash for same. Petty, bureaucratic extortion, really.

You guys are collectively convincing me that there's no real worry. On the other hand, I recently heard about a carload of musicians who were turned back at the border; whether or not their paperwork was in order I don't know.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Bee
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 11:08 AM

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2005/07/21/despres050721.html

They had no problem letting this guy cross the border a couple years ago - they did confiscate his bloody chainsaw, though.

Musicians, however...

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 11:13 AM

(For our British friends: that's "bloody" as in "covered in blood", not as in ... well, whatever the heck it means over there).

I'll be sure to wash the blood off my axe - my guitar, that is - before I reach the border ...

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 11:17 AM

Meself: Are you still here? Ithought you were off to Amerikay!

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 11:23 AM

Not yet - I know you said something earlier on that implied that you understood me to be in a rush, but I have a few weeks yet ...

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 11:41 AM

I was kidding, Meself.

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 11:42 AM

So was I - I knew you'd fall for it!

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 11:22 AM

I've been to Tifton, Ga. Great pecans and peanuts at Adcock's. Very fresh. Take some home. (And impress your hosts with your knowledge of the local delicacies.)

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 12:34 PM

Thanks, will do ... But I think they will only be impressed if I remember to use the local(regoinal/southern) pronunciation of "pecan", which is, um ... ?

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 12:37 PM

"Gerry"

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 12:39 PM

Really? No! You're kidding me, right?

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 01:42 AM

My son has had trouble going into Canada with a van full of instruments and equipment. The customs officials want to see a work permit. For the money they used to get for a punk rock gig, it wasn't worth getting a permit. Now that they actually make money, they have an agent who handles work permits and such.
But for a time, it was a real hassle for them. They thought it was better to go through Sarnia or Niagara Falls, not through Detroit-Windsor.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 11:35 PM

Funny that it would be that much worse at Detroit-Windsor. Maybe it's because it's so industrial there, and there are so many people going back and forth on temporary contracts, etc. Although you'd think that would apply to Sarnia, too ...

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 06 Apr 07 - 12:59 AM

Is he away then?

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Willie-O
Date: 06 Apr 07 - 11:11 AM

Detroit-Windsor is the busiest border crossing of the whole 3000 miles and the wait-times are the stuff of legend. Much better to go up to Sarnia/Port Huron, even though they delayed us for an hour for a secondary exam, mostly of my (American) wife's paperwork (we were entering the US).

Entering either country with a van FULL of guitars, amps and punks is a whole diffferent proposition than a middle-aged traveller with an acoustic guitar. These days I almost always drive across, with one to three acoustic instruments, and never get asked more than "what's in the case?"

W-O

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: Willie-O
Date: 06 Apr 07 - 11:14 AM

I did used to make a point of having the Canada Customs registration card for each instrument of any value that I took into the States--just to avoid the very remote possibility of hassles on the way back to Canada. A good practice. Failing that, keep the original bill of sale and/or repair receipts that show you had the instrument long before you entered the US.


W-O

Subject: RE: cross CAN-US border with guitar?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 06 Apr 07 - 12:50 PM

"a middle-aged traveller with an acoustic guitar" -

Middle-aged!? If that's me you're referring to, I'll have you know I'm not a year over fifty!

Okay, I AM a year over fifty - but no more! And I can cut the mustard just like I did back when I was a young buckaroo of forty-nine!