A Perth musician is gutted after his favourite guitar was "absolutely pulverised" on a Qantas flight to London.
Riley Pearce was heading to London during the week for a number of gigs and couldn't believe his eyes when he spotted his crumbled Maton M808 as it passed him on the conveyor belt at Heathrow.
He brought the guitar for $2500 two years ago and purchased a Hiscox Case for $350 to protect his instrument.
"I put the guitar in a heavy duty case so this wouldn't happen," he told WAtoday.
"The same thing happened two years ago so I always put my guitars in strong cases.
"When it came out all battered and broken I thought 'not again'.
"I was too nervous to open the case. You can use your imagination, but it looks like it was run over."
The 25-year-old gathered up the remains of his guitar and quickly made a claim at the airport.
He was then given the run around and told he would have to contact Qantas.
After numerous phone calls, the alt-folk singer was told the claim would be processed in 15-working days.
By then, the WAM award nominated artist will be back in Perth.
And he's not even sure if he gets compensated it will cover the cost of the guitar or the case.
"The 15-working days is only a rough timeline so it might actually be longer," he said.
"Lucky I brought another guitar with me.
"I only played the Maton M808 maybe 10 times over the last year, so it's pretty disappointing nobody seemed to notice it was damaged."
The independent singer-songwriter, who recently released his debut album Outside the Lines, isn't going to let losing his favourite guitar stop him enjoying his week-long launch on the London music scene.
"I'm pretty excited about being in London," he said.
"I've had a few people offering to lend me a guitar, so I just want to thank everyone for their support."