IanD

Great to have you back Tom. This sounds great - you don't appear to have lost any of your ability in the last 4 years and this has such a familiar Dusty vibe to it. I look forward to hearing more as you blow the cobwebs off.

Well done Neil! I love that you moved from jazz to pop, but still made it sound jazzy 😀 Ian

@Wim VD1 That was soooo good. I continue to be amazed and inspired by your progress. Please never stop. Ian

Wow! Diane, I am really impressed by this. I love the way that the piece builds, ebbs and flows - it's really quite evocative, I love it. This is really something to be proud of. Ian

Fantastic Greg! What a wonderful thing 😀

@gotto Greg, I have tears on my cheeks now - but this has absolutely made my day complete.... and it’s only 6am! What a wonderful recording, and it’s so nice to hear your beautiful harmonies again. Much love to you and your family. Ian

Sorry @Simira, I had somehow missed your entry. It's great! I love the tone you got from your guitar, is it nylon? Ian

@Wim VD1 Fabulous Wim! I also love the way you manage to creatively stretch the theme to fit your songs, a bit like they do on X-Factor 😆 Ian

@Simira @Nutty 1 Great theme! Wife and I watched the movie 'Yesterday' yesterday on Amazon Prime. A lovely rom-com packed full of Beatles songs and references. Ian

@WATSON43 I love it! Great song and performed very well. Ian

@NeilES335 That is wonderful! A beautiful jazz tone on the harmony and a crystal clear melody. Your recording ability has come a long way quickly! Ian

@Wim VD1, excellent as usual Wim! Ian

@Simira - fabulous! That is a very challenging piece and you did a reallygreat job with it. Keep it up and keep sharing with us. p.s. I love the artwork! Ian

Wow! @WATSON43, that is a fantastic rendition of a beautiful song. Ian

I travelled to the conference from the UK last year and was similarly worried about transporting my guitar. I took a Martin DRS2 acoustic, not one of their expensive models but expensive enough if it needs replacing. My personal thought processes and experience were: 1. Make sure it is insured and check it is appropriately covered under the insurance 2. Make sure it is a guitar that I'd be ok with replacing under insurance if the worst happened, not one with emotional attachment 3. Some people said try to take on board or check at the gate - but what if you can't when you get there? Prepare to check it with other bags 4. Buy the sturdiest flight case I could reasonably afford - I wasn't sure the wooden Martin hard case would be sturdy enough. The TSA Approved Gator Case in moulded ABS that Colder mentions looked the best option to me but I couldn't get hold of one. Instead I went for a TourTech Pro ABS Acoustic Guitar Case ('fits most dreadnoughts'), which I bought online. It looked really robust in photos, description was good and the guy on the phone said my Martin should fit. When it arrived, it looked less sturdy than I'd hoped, but not bad. The internal padding was not very deep though and the guitar sat loosely inside. I decided to risk it, but pack the heck out of it with bubble wrap. By the way it had a TSA approved lock. 5. Check it in at airport with other bags and pray. 6. On check in I was glad to be told to hand it over at the 'special' luggage place rather than put it on the belt and to receive and recheck it in Atlanta in the same way before picking it up in Nashville. It did not come out on the carousel at Nashville but was brought round by hand. What happened behind the scenes? I'm probably better off not knowing. 7. On arrival at Nashville, and again at home, the guitar was completely unscathed. However, it was apparent that TSA had opened and inspected the case on both the outward and return flights. They had re-packed it ibut the sheer amount of bubble wrap caused the hinges on the case to buckle slightly after they re-packed it. If I went again (would dearly love to, but can't afford it) then I'd do everything the same but try to find a similar case that actually fits without all the bubble wrap. I'd accept that something bad might happen and I might have to replace the guitar on insurance. I wouldn't take one that is irreplaceable. I hope that is of some help. Ian p.s. I flew with Virgin Atlantic (superb) and Delta

Wow, @Wim VD1! I love that song, and you did a great version. How cool that you are now thinking about the style and arrangement as well as the music and even interpreting piano style for guitar. You are an artist man! Ian

Good job Neil! Ian

This guy built a guitar using clear epoxy resin that looks and sounds great!

Good job Gary @Freewill, I look forward to hearing more from you now as you continue to progress. You got s great tone on 'sunshine' by the way. Ian

Hey @NeilES335, it's great to hear a recording from you. You did a good job with this, it's not an easy melody to play. Ian

@Simira That was hauntingly beautiful, very well done! Ian

@Wim VD1 Stunning! Ian

Hey everyone, I had a really busy December so just catching up on the forum now. I just listened to all of the December challenge submissions - great work everyone, I enjoyed them all! I sincerely wish everyone a happy new year and am looking forward to seeing everyone develop and hearing the stories over the next decade. Ian

@Texaspackerfan Danny, what a wonderful recording - absolutely flawless! It's a really hard one to sing in the original key though, unless you drop down an octave. It's great to hear something from you again, thanks for sharing. Ian

@Wim VD1 - simply beautiful! I love that song. Ian