See there. There's a need for betterment. These "plastic" ones by Pelican, SKB, Gator and the like are sort of a hybrid. But still, I wonder how much protection they make. You could attach more handling to them, a choice of how it will be carried. Of course, it's very little reason to have any case go beyond the expense of the instrument, but as in Flight cases you can use one for many instruments. You don't have to buy one for each instrument. Provided they're all solid bodies. Same with gig bags. They can be used for a larger variety of sizes and shapes. The regular hard shell case that comes with the instrument very often doesn't fit anything else than just that instrument.
The plastic/hybrid case for my Music Man bass, that came with it, was great, but it resides in the basement. I use gig bags for it, even when traveling. The thing is when stacking up a van, is that if you have a flight case, or hard case you tend to place it so you can stack other things on top...when using gig bag, you know that that one is the last one you put on top of all other things...before you close the back doors...
It is much easier too, if space should be very very tight, to sit at the front seat, with a gig bag in between your legs for shorter runs. A hard shell case is a nuisance, and a flight case totally out of discussion. Well, if you crash, and the airbag opens, well then, if the bass hasn't survived or not, isn't your biggest problem.- - - - -
I don't know but the weight of flight cases, doesn't it defeats the purpose? Makes airport luggage personell grump and just wants to throw them around. They're heavy for sure, but it should have been quite some damage and serious drop or hits before something has happened to the instrument. Mind you, if a flight case "breaks" or cracks in any way, chances are that the bass (or instrument) in it, will take a serious hit too. I mean if something breaks a flight case...it's beyond anything else too.
