Building a case

[Chadtuba]

I have a buddy who is a cabinet maker who has offered to put together a quote to build me a case for my 983 as I don't have one. I need something so that I can safely transport the tuba in the back of the pick-up since the baby has been born and the car seat and gigbag don't both fit in the extra cab very easily. I have a tonneau cover so I'm hoping to get it no higher than the bed rails. What I'm thinking is some sort of trunk style case. Has anybody ever done this and if so, do you have any suggestions on how to go about this to safely protect the 983. Would it be best to try and get it form fitted somehow or to just pad the heck out of the inside and leave the tuba in the gigbag in the trunk?

Thanks.

[SousaSaver]

This may seem obvious, but include wheels and a handle into your design.

Also, get a quote include labor and materials. It might not be cheaper to have one built than to buy one made for your horn from MTS or some other such case outfit.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Art Hovey]

The general idea is to provide fairly firm but widely-distributed support for the strong parts of the instrument, with no pressure applied to the fragile parts such as pistons, valve tubing, and bell rim. Wheels are fine if you always handle the case yourself, but if anyone else is going to toss it around they will be broken off pretty quickly. In that case a separate folding dolly is preferable.

Here's a description of the case I made:

http://www.galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/tubacase.html

[Chadtuba]

I'll keep all this in mind and pass along the information to my buddy if we go this way.

On another note, does anybody know if the 983 would fit in the SKB medium case? I might have a lead on one of these cheap so there's another option. Just gotta get something done soon. Thanks.