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Hi all,

I would like to seek the tuba community's ideas and recommendation(s) for hard case or flight case for PT6.
Currently I only have a soft case and my previous Jakob Winter hard case is no longer with me anymore and I also had some negative experience flying with it previously(probably bad luck).. I will need to fly with my tuba again at the 2nd half of this year so I am looking for a flight case/ hard case for traveling.

I'm looking for Walt Johnson Flight case but however I read up Walt Johnson Company have closed down and doesn't do any flight cases anymore. I seek my friends' help and gotten a recommendation to get a MTS 1209V Large Frame Tuba Case. Can anyone confirm whether the MTS 1209V case fits the PT6 nicely? Read some information online and it says that the MTS case fits a lot of tubas nicely but nobody mentioned anything about the PT6 fitting it nicely so would like to seek the community's opinions.

If you don't recommend the MTS 1209V case, what hard case/flight case do you suggest for PT6?
Thank you for reading and hope everyone have a wonderful week ahead!

Unatech has a flight case for pt6. I haven't tried it.


https://www.wwbw.com/Unitec-Baer-Lightw ... HgEALw_wcB" target="_blank

I have an SKB case for my 3098 but I don't think that one is durable enough to use as a flight case.

thetubalover wrote:Hi all,

I would like to seek the tuba community's ideas and recommendation(s) for hard case or flight case for PT6.

...my previous Jakob Winter hard case is no longer with me anymore and I also had some negative experience flying with it previously(probably bad luck)...

...I will need to fly with my tuba again at the 2nd half of this year so I am looking for a flight case/ hard case for traveling...

...gotten a recommendation to get a MTS 1209V Large Frame Tuba Case.

My opinion is that the MTS 1209 won't fare any better as a flight case than your Jakob Winter case did. Those are hard cases, not flight cases. Often the comments here suggest any hard case to be a flight case. Not so. There will always be someone that comments that they've flown with such-and-such regular 'ol hard case and never had a problem but I'd call them extraordinarily lucky rather than authorities on so-called flight cases. Others will come along and tell you to take a gig bag and buy a seat for your tuba and that it works every time - I'm also less convinced of that and have asked many times over the years what those players would do if the TSA/Gate Agent/Captain/Flight Attendant didn't allow it through security or on to the plane at all.

I don't know where you have to go, but my recommendations would be to drive it there yourself or to ship it ahead of time to yourself (low and slow - Greyhound, Amtrak, Fastenal).

I have also suggested before that if I REALLY needed to fly with a tuba as an individual (not as a big orchestra pro), I'd take what I would have spent to buy an Accord or Walt Johnson case and I would buy a used Chinese tuba and fly with it using the case it comes in. For somewhere between $1000-$1500 +/-, you'd have yourself a "travel tuba." At least if something happened to it, it wouldn't be a total smash-up of your $10k PT-6.

Tom wrote:
I don't know where you have to go, but my recommendations would be to drive it there yourself or to ship it ahead of time to yourself (low and slow - Greyhound, Amtrak, Fastenal).

I have also suggested before that if I REALLY needed to fly with a tuba as an individual (not as a big orchestra pro), I'd take what I would have spent to buy an Accord or Walt Johnson case and I would buy a used Chinese tuba and fly with it using the case it comes in. For somewhere between $1000-$1500 +/-, you'd have yourself a "travel tuba." At least if something happened to it, it wouldn't be a total smash-up of your $10k PT-6.

Thank you for your advice. I agree with you totally and would consider shipping it ahead of time.

bloke wrote:
seriously:
Don't fly with your tuba, unless it's some only-worth-$2000 tuba (etc.), and a PT6 is worth considerably more.
It's nuts to fly with a tuba.
Drive, and (yes) drive 2500 miles, rather than flying with a tuba.
transcontinental flight...??
Orchestras have very-large/very-protective (more protective than any "flight case") trunks, and chartered planes.
You do not have these things.

Go ahead and find my post annoying, but please don't fly with your tuba.

Don't find your post annoying, it's the hard truth of traveling tuba players. Thank you Bloke for your advice.

Douglas wrote:Unatech has a flight case for pt6. I haven't tried it.


https://www.wwbw.com/Unitec-Baer-Lightw ... HgEALw_wcB" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thank you! Will check it out! Totally forgotten about the Unitec case, heard many good stuff about it!

I had a 1209 case collecting dust a while back that I had picked up along the way. I tried my 3098 in it and it was a very, very tight fit. Would probably work if alterations were undertaken.

Does anyone have experience flying with a Unitec “lightweight” case (any of them, not just the PT-6 version)?

Is it light enough to not get dinged for overweight? I’m sure it has to be oversize to fit a large tuba... they look a little smaller/user friendly than the Walt Johnson or anvil options.

These are about they best you can get right now. Expensive, but worth the money. I’ve used one made for my two Yamayorks and Nirschls to fly all over the planet for the last 18 years. Not sure who’s importing them currently but....here you go:
http://www.hoerschelmann-alu.de/produkt ... /index.php" target="_blank

Chris Olka wrote:These are about they best you can get right now. Expensive, but worth the money. I’ve used one made for my two Yamayorks and Nirschls to fly all over the planet for the last 18 years. Not sure who’s importing them currently but....here you go:
http://www.hoerschelmann-alu.de/produkt ... /index.php" target="_blank" target="_blank

I believe this is the company that manufactures the flight cases that Meinl-Weston offers. I've owned a couple of them and was pleased. Their case interiors are the key and they are exceptionally good. Far, far, far better than anything designed to a be a "fit 'em all" generic type case.

I would prefer different ATA road case style hardware (latches, handles, hinges, wheels) than what they use as stock equipment, but again, it's their interiors that are what makes them so special. I'd take one any day over a Walt Johnson and (even though I've never seen a tuba version in person) an Accord or a Unitec.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread.

I have one of these for my MW 182 (This case was included when I bought it used, so I don't know how it was obtained). It's an excellent, sturdy case, with high-quality material. While I haven't flown with it yet (I will be for college auditions), I'll let you all know how it goes.

I would like to know who carries them, for future reference.