@hammer, I've been on the road a fair bit and at the level I've been at, I've witnessed musical instruments getting damaged on stage and seen the aftermath when stuff has been stolen from bands.
In one band I played in, they recalled a situation when all their equipment was held to ransom in a hotel store room because the promoter of a festival they were playing at sneaked out over night without paying the bill for the bands that were staying there and since they were the last band to check out of the hotel, the manager held onto their gear as security. They never got the stuff back even after calling the police. Imagine if you had put your Alembic in the hotel baggage store and that happened.
Even back stage where bands share hospitality and dressing rooms it is not unheard of for musiclans to steal from each other and in my own personal case, I have had equipment sabotaged. So security is pretty high up on my list of concerns about taking Alembics out.
I've taken my alembic guitar out on tour many times to Europe and the States and it only has minor battle scars.
Even though I try to think of my instruments merely an musicians tools, I think one of the main problems is we see them, at least I do, as an Expensive Alembic before we see it as merely a bass.
I guess in a nutshell its like this Even if you paid a shed load of money for a hammer, at some point you have to bash a nail with it to prove it is indeed a hammer. Otherwise it's just an expensive piece of metal.
Goodnight
Jazzyvee
