Survey: tuba case feasibility

[hugechunkofmetal]

Hello Tubenet,

Over the last few years, airline restrictions in regards to musical instruments have changed drastically, some for the better, some for worse. My own experience in flying has made me think a lot about the way I travel with my tubas.
On a recent flight,I was asked to pay $900 to check 2 tubas. After trying to purchase a carbon fiber case for my Nirschl 6/4, there seems to be no better option than to look into the feasibility of designing and building my own case. I'm looking at the potential for this venture to help the tuba playing community, and would love your input if you have a moment to spare.

Please fill out the following preliminary survey . It is very basic, and shouldn't take longer than 2-3 minutes to complete.:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XLVWXC5" target="_blank


Thank you in advance!

Duncan Spry
Civic Orchestra of Chicago

[ds_le_moulin]

The accord case are probably great, but if I understood my own experience, they have one size case, and if your tuba doesn't fit, they refuse to do it...

[cambrook]

HI Duncan,

I understand your frustration, I'd start by searching the archives for posts by Joe Exley about Accord and then talking to him. Maybe if you got a group of Nirschl owners together you could share the costs (and logistics) of having Accord make a case?

Cheers,

Cam

[hugechunkofmetal]

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. I have contacted many companies about building a case, including accord and many others making carbon fiber cases. When I approached accord, Joe Exley was one of the first people I sought out to get more info about the cases. I also had helpful input from Aubrey Foard and Aaron Tindall (Thanks Guys!).

If you haven't filled out the survey, please do so if you have a moment. As I mentioned in the my initial post, the survey is extremely basic and is a preliminary gauge of what peoples needs are when flying with tubas. Once I've compiled the results, I will definitely be following up with more specific questions.

Huge thanks to the people who have filled it out so far, there have been many responses already.

Cheers,
Duncan

[tofu]

I think the Accord case that TubaJoe has for his 186 is exactly what I want in a case. I've always bought a soft case and a hard case for all my horns, but I've never bought a flight case as I only fly 1-2 times a year with one of my groups. So when I have to put a horn on a plane I hold my breath. So far I've been lucky, but I know you can't count on luck. I just don't want to have to haul/transport a heavy/unwieldy/expensive flight case around -plus having to store them in addition to a soft and regular hard case.

After you add up the cost of say a Cronkite soft case and a Jacob Winter hard case versus what TubaJoe paid for his Accord case I figure the premium is maybe 50% and I'd be willing to pay that for the added bonus of the thing also acting as a flight case for the couple of times a year I need it. There are a lot of other positives for it as well. However, it appears to be a giant hassle to get one of these cases and I don't have the time to fly overseas to have adjustments made etc. I think the Accord folks are missing a real market opportunity here. A centrally located facility in the US for measuring/ordering/adjusting their cases for tubas -maybe even building them - I think would generate a lot of business. I don't know much about the company/nor their business model & it may be they just don't feel they can scale up to meet the demand and/or they found out it that there are so many variances with tubas that they just can't make them at a price point that is a reasonable premium. The idea of something as light as a soft case that you can put on your back or shoulder and not worry if you nick a door etc. or if you set it down and some idiot falls on it your horn doesn't get banged up is very appealing to me.