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I've read for a long time, now I need advice I can't find by searching!

I'm looking for old style vinyl sousaphone cases. You would put the bell inside the body, and this case would zip around the whole thing. It had a zipper pouch for the neck and mouthpiece, and had a hole in it so you could reach through and carry the thing by grabbing the tubing.

I had two of these, and a 'colleauge' borrowed the horns and when I finally managed to get them back, no cases. We now have a good number of fiberglass sousas we share between 4 middle schools, and they're getting more and more beat up from band transportation and storage. If I could lay my hand on some of these, which I imagine would be on the cheap side, we could get a lot more mileage out of these instruments.

So far, all my searches show me the way to nice ($$) Yamaha style padded bags, and we can't shell out 200-250 bucks on those. Anyone got a lead for me?

I have one - bought it many years ago from Best Music in Oakland, CA. There is no maker's tag in it so I can't help you much. It is not that great of a bag - offers very little protection and the bell screws stress the vinyl to the point of ripping. It is more like a dust cover and it protects against scratching a bit. I don't think it would be much good for middle school kids.

Dave RIchoux

The tubas get pretty rare use, the point of the cases is mostly organizational. They are fiberglass, so I'm not too worried about the protection really. My biggest concern is that they tend to get transported and stored with the necks on so nothing gets lost. I'm pretty sure a neck and/or receiver is going to get mangled at some point if we keep this up. The dustcover would be nice too, they usually come out of storage with a pretty good coating, we only do 2 outdoor events a year (it is middle school!)

In my opinion, these cases only really protect against scratches. In the hands of young students you are asking for damage. If organization is the problem, there are companies that make Sousaphone hooks so you can hang your Sousas on a wall this might also be cheaper than a new Sousa gig bag.