Cronkhite Gig Bags

Ace · Post by **Ace** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:55 pm

For those who may want a high-quality leather Reunion Blues tuba bag, please see my ad in the For Sale section.

Tubadan · Post by **Tubadan** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:38 am

I don't post a lot...

For your money... buy a hard case with good sturdy wheels. Deal with stairs. Any of the best gig bags are not worth the money, especially if you deal with students in high school or middle school. Lord knows that the instrument will get damaged in these situations:

Car accident
Something hits at the zipper
Fall from broken strap (or anything higher than 6")
Something falls on it (High school situation likely to occur)

And if you ever need to take it on a plane, you would certainly need the hard case (or purchase a seat ticket for your tuba). Plus hard cases don't wear as fast.

Lew · Post by **Lew** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:18 am

I got a Soundwear bag with my Besson 983 when I bought it from Dillon Music a couple of years ago. It has very nice features and has done a nice job of protecting the horn, but after 2 years of use, traveling about 3 or 4 times a week, it has durability issues. One of the straps has separated from the top, and a couple of the seams are opening up. Nothing that appears to be major yet, but I may be repairing or replacing it soon.

This may be typical for a bag with this amount of use, but I would have expected it to stand up better than it has.

tubanerd · Post by **tubanerd** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:24 am

Sounds like for long-term durability the Chronkite is the way to go.

Tubadan wrote:For your money... buy a hard case with good sturdy wheels. Deal with stairs. Any of the best gig bags are not worth the money, especially if you deal with students in high school or middle school

I purchased a hard case made for the horn I have when I purchased it 6 years ago. It has a set of sturdy wheels on it, but not helpful with stairs (lived on flat land when I bought it) or going across a large street fair. I play pretty much solely with a community band so all of our gigs involve mobility.

I know a gig-bag doesn't provide nearly as much protection, but my back/etc can't deal with lugging the hard case up and down. I'm open to other ideas, but seems a gig-bag is my only other option.

KevinMadden · Post by **KevinMadden** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:51 am

A system that I used when I had my Ceveny pretty much made my horn darn near impervious. I was a stupid high schooler at the time, and bought the horn sight unseen from WWBW (i got lucky, it was nice 'un) I bought a Unitec universal case, a tank of a case. But not the best fit for my particular horn, and when I got to school, it wouldn't fit in my locker. so I bought an Alliteri gig bag, which I found I could put the horn in, and still fit both in the flight case. that horn was well protected!

MaryAnn · Post by **MaryAnn** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:50 am

You know, with adults and especially older adults, "dent bag issues" really aren't issues; unless you are old enough to be falling a lot, in which case you should have someone else carry your tuba anyway. If it gets mashed in a car accident, well, that's the breaks. I'd rather take a chance on a car accident than on a slipped disk.

I have the cordura pre-China RB bags for my euph and for my 184, and I'm quite happy with both.

I have the leather, pre-China RB bag for my horn, and I seat-belt it in the back seat of the car. When I travel with other things in the car, it goes in a hard case.

MA

tubanerd · Post by **tubanerd** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:20 am

I really like the seatbelt idea. For my last car I bought an SUV so I could fit the hard case in and take people too. Seat-belting the tuba in the back seat I could put the other crap (chair/stand/etc) in the back. Thanks for the great idea.