Playing local shows I use the hard case that came with my main bass. They usually get stacked up against the wall and I wouldn't trust a gig bag for that. And we just pile all the equipment into two SUV's, I can stash my hardcase on the side rather than it being stacked. For touring, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned these types of tour cases. They're cheaper than two flight cases.
Well, I am not surprised nobody has mentioned it. The thread was
mainly about what comes with the bass when buying it new. Maybe they'll ship a thing like that if you buy 5-6 Fenders you get this one thrown in. Plus a 12 DVD box set with directors cut of Games Of Thrones, with unreleased material.
The thread was about, when buying high-end, or the more expensive end of the line, if it passes a certain point, you definitely not want a soft gig bag to come with it (any), you feel it's insufficeint for protection, but you feel like the old vinyl/tolex kind of hard case doesn't do that
too. You want to ramp that one up as well. The cases doesn't follow the value it's supposed to protect. I don't mean that if you buy an all graphite headless Steinberger or Status bass, you'll get a grocery store plastic bag with it, but as far as I recall they just came with the gig bags, and when swung over your shoulder they just looked like a.... ahemmm...rifle. That's some security, and gives a protection don't you think?
If anyone tries to rob you..."is it a Steiny or is it a rifle?...take a guess.."
What I thought about, that the cases doesn't follow the prices on basses when they go up. They just stay at one level. If there's a regular hard case in the old tolex/vinyl style for a 1 K bass, there's the same with a 4-5 K boutique custom bass. Maybe the facade and superficial desgin and logos is worked on, but not really the protection. I remember Babicz signature guitars (acostic) had initially offered a very special hard case of the molded thing, with hydrometers and temperature meters built in on the top. To vigilantly watch the inner temperature and moisture all of the time. After a very short while they stopped doing that because it did nothing in terms of protection really. That case was a fortune, too. Spending and wasting.
I just think that square hard cases like the regular ones are as unwieldy and bumps into walls as easily as flight cases. As one said, bumping a flight case into a wall is unwise. But I've found I whack corners of a regular hard cases into more things as well, than ANY soft gig bag, MONO. If you avoid bumping anything (gig bag, case) into anything it's protected. I e the handling and normal operation of a gig bag (say a high quality one) sort of lends itself to non bumping into things because there are no square corners. It has - though - come forward on thing in this thread which I find intriguing. The risk of "leaning" the bass against anything, as you have to do with gig bags. But it's not really so that the tuners goes one quarter away. I've actually seen quite a few hard cases that came with the bass where you really have to turn on the tuners of your P or J bass first before it can be laid down properly in the case. Beats me. But it was for keeping your tuning skills up, maybe. But eventually they got wind of it, and made those cases a little bit deeper.
I would love to have some kind of case, where the stand is built in. So whenever you put away your bass, it's in the case as well as a stand. My opinion is that any instrument on any stand on the floor are the most unprotected thing there is for any instrument. Naked and exposing it to all things, just to be able to show it off to the audience. But we digress now...I ususall do cram my soft gig bag (MONO) which can be set to stand up without folding or any bass in it, into a corner behind the combo amp, so the combo forms a distance protection and when the breaks within sets comes I just squeeze the bass in there from above, so it resides there as a stand. It cannot tip over in any direction. It makes the bass stand right straight up without leaning against a wall. A hard case would not allow this at all.
