Yesterday I prepared the new Pelican case for #018; cutting the foam to fit. I went ahead and photographed the process thoroughly and I'm documenting it here for any of you who are thinking of getting a Pelican case for your Scroll Bass.
Here's the case: It's the Pelican Vault series, the V800 model. It's sized and sold for holding two full size rifles. It's a very tough case, able to take big drops, tumbles and crushing loads. It's water-tight, and will probably float with a bass in it. It's approved by the airlines as a Flight Case.
V800 is just the right size to hold any model Scroll Bass. You can cut the foam to hold the bass in there directly. That's what I'll be doing below. Or, you can pull the foam out and a Reunion Blues Voyager case, with a Scroll Bass inside, will fit inside the Pelican. I'll be showing that further below.
The Voyager and the Pelican cases work together very well. For example, you can travel by train or truck with the bass inside the Voyager, which is inside the Pelican. When you get to the gig or hotel, you can leave the Pelican in the room or backstage, and carry the bass around locally in the Voyager. Very well protected in either. Or both.
That's what Ed elected for #018, both the Voyager case and the Pelican case. He thinks he'll normally be storing #018 at home in the Pelican, in the cut foam. And then just put it in the Voyager when he drives around to local gigs. But he'll have the option of putting the Voyager inside the Pelican for long trips. Also, either case can be used with other basses that he owns.
The current price for the Pelican V800 is $230, which I think is very reasonable. I buy them from Pelican's own "store" on Amazon. $230 total, including the shipping. And it comes through in a correct size cardboard box. Which I'll be using to ship it to Ed.
Here's what it looks like, opened up, with the blank foam. You can order extra sets of the foam sheets from Pelican, if you want to have extra sets to fit different instruments.
Inside the lid are two thinner layers of foam, which are stuck together with spots of glue. You normally wouldn't cut them to fit the contents.
In the lower half, there are two sheets of foam 1 3/4" thick each, and one 1/2" thick under it. The foam pieces are all cut accurately to fit in there, and they are keyed so they only go in one way.
Cutting the foam to fit a Scroll Bass: Since I will be doing quite a few of these, I've made up a permanent AMB-2 template from 1/8" masonite. But, if you don't have one of these, you can use the bass itself as the template.
Note how I'm positioning the bass in the case. The body is toward the end with the wheels. And I've shifted it to make sure there's at least 3" of foam between the bottom end of the body and the case wall. This is important. The most likely hard impact this case will see, from a Roadie or an Airline Gorilla, is straight down on the bottom end. You want the body to take that impact, with a thick layer of foam spread around the back perimeter to soften it.
A Silver Sharpie is the magic tool to draw the lines on the foam, around the template or bass.
Here's the outline on the upper layer of foam. Note the wider area at the neck/body joint. That provides a clearance pocket for grabbing hold of the bass to lift it in and out of the case. The headstock area is oversize; the foam wont touch the sides or end of the headstock. The outline around the body leaves about 1/8" gap around the perimeter. You don't want the bass to be squeezed into the foam. The crosswise line in the middle is to cut the foam sheet in half, and make it easier to cut out the pockets.
Cutting the foam: The best tool for neatly cutting foam is a hotwire cutter. But I don't have one. Second best is a nice big bandsaw. I've got that. If you don't have one, you can cut the foam with a single edge razor blade. I've heard of folks even using electric steak knives from the kitchen.
And there's the upper layer, cut out. The two pieces are inserted back into the case.
Now I use the Sharpie to draw out the outline of the headstock into the lower foam layer......
And it gets cut out with the bandsaw, and fitted back in.
With the upper layer back in on top, there's the finished pocket for #018 to rest comfortably in.
That's about it. You can draw and cut out extra pockets beside the neck to hold accessories or whatever.
it. I've been dying to get up there to see it in person but life keeps getting in the way.
