Hardshell or Gigbag

Subject: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: 53
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:04 PM

What would you want most for your guitar? Hardshell case or a gigbag?

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Musicman
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:05 PM

hardshell..... i like my guitar.. especially if doing alot of travelling/giging.. in/out of vehicles etc..... less possibilities for damage...

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Mark Ross
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:08 PM

It depends on where you're going and how. If you keep the guitar with you all the time(or at least under close scrutiny)the gig bag is easier to travel with. But if you have to put it in baggage, a harfd shell case is the way to go. I use gig bags for most of my instruments bedause if you're going out with more than one and you don't have a roadie(or a car for that matter)the gig bag is the way to go.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Marion
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:23 PM

A couple of weeks ago a man who was standing on the subway lost his balance and fell on my guitar. It was a good reminder of why I go to the trouble of lugging a hard shell case around! (No damage to case or guitar.)

Although Ross says that a gig bag is better is you don't have a car, I find that's it's next to impossible to keep the guitar from getting banged around a little when travelling on crowded buses and subways. And having an instrument in both hands makes it even harder to protect them, thus making the hard cases even more important.

Check this thread for ideas on making hard shell cases easier to live with:Carrying an HSC on your back

Marion

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Midchuck
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:38 PM

There's no one right answer. A gigbag is very definitely easier to haul around; a hard case is very definitely better protection.

I tend to look at the value of the instrument. If I could replace it for $700 or $800 US, a gigbag is probably an acceptable risk if I get a good quality one and I'm careful. If it would cost much more than that to replace it, or it's not replaceable at all, a hard case is certainly indicated.

Of course, if you're going by commercial air, you either get a Calton case, leave it home, or ship it out to meet you.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: harpmaker
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:59 PM

If you've got a good instrument, and you don't want it damaged (even in the home) Hardcase, without question. My mate recently came home from the pub one night and fell on his (was) very nice guitar. That guitar smashed in two. Hardcase would have probably saved it. Gigbag would'nt. John.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Troll
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 10:21 PM

HARDSHELL. No question.
My son uses gigbags to carry his electrics around but his acoustic lives in a hard case. I own one gig bag. I keep an old ovation "applause" -the one with the aluminium neck- in it.

troll

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 10:22 PM

Art Thieme just posted in another thread about his guitar (in a gig bag) being smashed on a boat... `nuff said.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 11:05 PM

For autoharp-- both, depending what I am doing, and where.

~S~

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Anahootz
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 11:09 PM

Hardcase...Better yet, a fitted fiberglass case. It would be idiotic of me to carry a $5000 mandolin around in little more than a padded hankie.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 11:29 PM

When I purchased a Regal resophonic from E-Bay, it came with a sort of hybrid case--rigid foam with a gig bag cover. Light weight, good protection. Anybody know who makes/sells them? I think I'm in love.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Genie
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 01:09 AM

I recently noticed an 'owie' in the body of my 1955 Martin--a small dent that went nearly all the way through the outer frame not far from the bottom pin.

I'm pretty sure I know when it happened. A friend was helping me pack for a trip and volunteered to put stuff in my car. I asked him to put the guitar, which was at the time in a gig bag, into the trunk. When I later went to get the guitar out of the trunk, I noticed it was not only upside down (i.e., resting on the strings), but it was placed very precariously far back, in line with the supports of the trunk lid when they close. The gig bag, in fact, was slightly indented, apparently having been compressed a little by the lid apparatus. I didn't see any damage on the face of the guitar, so I thought it had just been a close call. I now suspect that the metal bar had missed the face of the guitar but hit the outside at an angle as it closed.

The guitar is repairable without too much expense, but with a vintage guitar this is hardly an OK outcome. All I can say is if/when you put a prized instrument into a gig bag, keep your eye on it and don't trust others to handle it with the same care you would!

Genie

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 01:57 AM

Hardshell (Calton) when flying; Levy padded gig bag (both made in Canada, incidentally) on my back all other times. I've been performing for 32 years and never had a guitar busted or stolen while flying, walking or driving. I just watch it at all times. Having said that, I feel that I've just tempted fate... All the best.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: C-flat
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 02:38 AM

I take three guitars to gigs.1 accoustic,2 electrics. The accoustic travels in a hard case but I've always felt that a solid body is well enough protected in a good quality gig-bag. Now I've done a "Seamus" and tempted the fickle finger of fate!

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 02:45 AM

Hardshell...

as a matter of fact, I have an old, but perfectly serviceable gigbag if anyone here wants it...

Buy or trade... make me an offer... PM me...

;-)

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 07:53 AM

Both. My instruments always travel via hardshell. If I go to a festival, I switch them to gigbags for easy portability. Then it is back into the hardshells for the journey home.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: UB Ed
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 10:07 AM

Hardshell. Period.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Mooh
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 11:18 AM

Both. If I'm footing it any distance I use a decent quality gigbag (Levy's), but otherwise I use hardshells. I find if I carry the gigbag over my shoulder it suffers fewer collisions than if I carry it at the end of my arm.

Mooh.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 11:30 AM

Hardshell -

Steve

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Mark Ross
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 12:11 PM

Clinton, What kind of a gig bag, the old Pete Seeger '60's model? Let me know. How much or what kind of a trade?

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 12:58 PM

I have a very nice classic and an extremely valuable flamenco guitar. Both of them stay in their hard-shell cases when I'm not actually playing them. My travel guitar (A "Go guitar" made by Sam Radding of San Diego) resides and travels in a very well-padded gig bag. It's a Stradivarius among travel guitars, but despite that, it's not so expensive that it can't be replaced.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 01:14 PM

Ross... it's a black nylon, padded bag... zippered around the bottom, a shoulder strap... and a velcro closed notebook bad on the front...

Ya know... there's might even be a zippered compartment on that was well... I haven't looked at it in so long...

What kida trade?? I donno... whataya got?

LOL!!!

Lemme dig it up and see if I can find a pic of it online...

;-)

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 01:29 PM

Ther only mark on it is a small oval "leather" patch with the word "GIG" on it...

There are a couple of places where it could use a few stitches of black thread... but no where that compromises the structure badly...

There is a book bag with a velcro'd 'flap' and a zipper'd compartment as well...

Be good to find it a good home...

wanna pound out the details in PM Mark Ross??

;-)

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: 53
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 07:39 PM

My son made some flight cases out of 3/4 inch plywood and they are heavy as hell.

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: C-flat
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 08:03 PM

They sound more like instrument coffins! Could be an opportunity there given the right marketing!

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: mooman
Date: 29 Mar 02 - 06:00 AM

I have good quality hardshells (Calton, Hiscox, etc.) for all my instruments and that's how they travel if there's a serious risk of a bad knock. I also now use good quality gigbags when going to a local session or gig in my car or for keeping the dust off instruments at home, or when they can be under my surveillance at all times, e.g. short-scale tenor (which is a fairly tough instrument anyway)in an overhead aircraft locker. The gigbag here takes up half the space of the hard case and is always allowed through while many airlines would force the hard case through baggage handling which I would not trust.

P.S. When travelling with my precious mandolin and its Calton case, some halfwit (not The Popular Halfwit!) at Waterloo Station in London knbocked a shelf full of glass shampoo bottles onto the Calton in a branch of Bodyshop and took a humungous chip out of the side of it, so even the best case can be damaged (the mandolin however was fine which is the most important thing!). The shop agreed to pay for the repair to the case but in the event I did it myself with epoxy and a little enamel paint the right colour!

mooman

Subject: RE: Hardshell or Gigbag
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 06 Apr 02 - 10:44 AM

Any news Mark Ross?

;-)