price/protection/convenience/nerdiness


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Posted by js on November 26, 2001 at 23:00:01:

I think its interesting that many would be willing to spend near a "case" price to pay for a padded zippered sack for their $3,500 - $13,000 musical instrument.

Whether the padded sack costs $175 or $375, it's still (I think I coined the term.) a dent-bag. Funny: I seem to get the most folks the most annoyed with me when I bring this up. Dent-bags provide almost zero real protection, except (perhaps) from scratches. My instruments have CASES. I'm certainly no Superman. My cases have (GOOD) wheels. Is it nerdy to walk from my car to the gig making a skrrrrrrrrr noise across the parking lot? Yep. ' just about as nerdy as playing a dented-up tuba. After 60 seconds, the nerdy sound has ended. Once dented, a tuba oft remains that way for years. Almost all trumpet/trombone/horn players go through the "dent-bag" stage and get over it quickly for obvious reasons, yet most of us (with instruments that have entry prices like other instruments' top-end prices) tuba guys never get past the "bag" thing, even though dents in our instruments are FAR more costly to remove than those in smaller brass instruments.

OK, every once in a while I just don't want to mess with the case. What do I do? I wrap the tuba up in a quilt (My kids always seem to leave one there.) in the back seat of the car and when I get to the gig, I sling the "naked" tuba over my shoulder. ' dents? Nope. I don't have any false sense of security carrying my "naked" tuba that I might have with a dent-bag, and I'm much more careful than I would be with my tuba in a sack. What happens if I have to stop the car suddenly? The same thing (in a quilt) that would happen with a dent-bag. I am taking a RISK. Is this a good thing? ABSOLUTELY NOT, but at least I haven't spent hundreds of bucks on a sack that is no more protective than wrapping my instrument in a good quilt. With a case, the risk is almost zero. Decent cases with excellent wheels cost (competitively) less than $500. The best dent-bags cost about $350. I'll take the case, thanks.



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