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In praise of a good hard case


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Yesterday, I was looking at gig bags for the concertina. My hard case is a good one, but boxy and I was hoping to find an easier-to-carry alternative. Instead, I found an old post from John Dipper in which he listed various concertinas that came to him in need of repair because they were dropped whilst in gig bags. That night, walking to a session, I slipped on the ice and fell hard---right onto my hard case. The case sustained a bit of damage in that the vinyl was scratched off the wood. My shoulders, elbow, and wrist were a bit strained. My Morse Ceili? Totally fine.

 

So until they invent an air-bag gig bag, I'll be keeping my concertina in its hard case.

 

Christine

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37 minutes ago, mdarnton said:

Great--I have a custom-made Anvil road case I never use because I carry my instrument in a 6-pack soft cooler bag. I guess this is my warning, right?

 

Consider yourself warned! Start using the Anvil and just put beer in the cooler bag.

 

cdm

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5 hours ago, Halifax said:

I slipped on the ice and fell hard---right onto my hard case.

 

This is exactly what happened to a friend of mine on his way to a concertina gathering, only that he didn‘t use a hard case but was carrying his 30b CG Linota (some say, it‘s an even better instrument) in a rucksack on which he then fell.

 

He was just so fortunate that only the bellows was destroyed. He had a good (he says: even better) replacement made, but the gathering was spoiled for him.

 

With this accident (and @Jim Bessers plumbing nightmares) in mind I ordered and fitted Pelican cases for my dear Wheatstone team.

 

Best wishes - ?

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I once saw a good compromise. It was a hexagonal fibreglass case which opened along its axis and was, I think, blocked. It had a strap attached to each end so for carrying it was like a gig bag, but much more protective and without the sharp corners of a rectangular box. I understood (though forgive me if I'm wrong because it was some time ago) that it had been designed by Colin Dipper and made by someone in East Anglia.

 

I wish someone would take up production again.

 

LJ

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Absolutely agree  that a good hard case  is  the thing, especially when  a  virtually irreplaceable  instrument  needs protection.  

 

I  sometimes use  a  rectangular  shaped padded  backpack  that will hold two  concertinas  when  at a festival  where  much  displacement on foot is   required  but I am mindfull  that it took many years to find the  particular concertinas  in it.   Christine's  Morse Ceili  can,  currently, be replaced  but my 120 year old  Wheatstone,  which has a sound  I searched for  40 years  to find,  is not so easlily  come by.....

 

I once had the job of  repairing  a concertina that the owner had reversed  his car over !  Fitting all the  other instruments and gear  into  the  boot  on a hot day  he had  put the concertina  in the 'shade' just under  the back of the car  and forgotten  it  until  he felt /heard  the  crushing  obstruction . The nice original leather/wood  case  did a surprising  job of retaining all the  cracked  off pieces  and  the instrument went back into  service  after  a jigsaw  puzzle  reconstruction.?

 

My current  home made  double  concertina case  sits  neatly behind  the drivers seat  , supposedly  the safest  place in a car  and it is so  strongly constructed  ( from 9mm plywood)  that  is  doubles as a seat  of just the correct height  for playing.  Mind you making instrument cases  is  not one of my favourite  pastimes.

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perhaps this should be added: since most of my concertinas live in their respective boxes it is of high importance that those can be opened within seconds, and the instrument taken out likewise (which is the case, pun noticed, with the Pelican/Hardigg ones)

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On 1/13/2019 at 6:18 AM, Wolf Molkentin said:

 

This is exactly what happened to a friend of mine on his way to a concertina gathering, only that he didn‘t use a hard case but was carrying his 30b CG Linota (some say, it‘s an even better instrument) in a rucksack on which he then fell.

 

He was just so fortunate that only the bellows was destroyed. He had a good (he says: even better) replacement made, but the gathering was spoiled for him.

 

With this accident (and @Jim Bessers plumbing nightmares) in mind I ordered and fitted Pelican cases for my dear Wheatstone team.

 

Best wishes - ?

Hi Wolf what size/model of Pelican Case did you order??

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I made a (too) heavy case for my TT Edeophone several years ago.  A year or so ago I sewed a shoulder strap for it.  The shoulder strap was a big improvement, but I'm planning to replace that case made with 1/2" plywood with one made from 1/4" plywood.  When I made it, I allowed extra length so I could put in my hand held recorder, music glasses, and a 3D printed holder for the screwdriver & pencil.  A .002" cleaning shim that Greg Jowaisas gave me resides in the bottom of the box sandwiched between cereal box cardboard.

Concertina case interior (Large).jpeg

Edited by RWL
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On 1/16/2019 at 10:54 PM, RWL said:

I made a (too) heavy case for my TT Edeophone several years ago.  A year or so ago I sewed a shoulder strap for it.  The shoulder strap was a big improvement, but I'm planning to replace that case made with 1/2" plywood with one made from 1/4" plywood.  When I made it, I allowed extra length so I could put in my hand held recorder, music glasses, and a 3D printed holder for the screwdriver & pencil.  A .002" cleaning shim that Greg Jowaisas gave me resides in the bottom of the box sandwiched between cereal box cardboard.

 

With a little finesse, I bet you could get a music stand in there, too.

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I love my pelican case, and carry it in a Polar  Bear thermal cooler designed to carry 24 cans of the beverage of your choice.  This a super high quality thermal cooler is excellent protection with all it's padding.  I also carry a flute and a whistle, and I live in Chicago where it is not uncommon to be 0 or 90. This seemed like an excellent choice to keep all my goodies in one easy to grab bag.  Every now and then I am temped to replace the pelican case with  the zippered gig bag I used to use around the house and rationalize the weight of the whole package would go down if I took my flute out of its hard case and into a roll as well. But somehow I ended up going one step further instead, making a hard case for my whistle from a piece of PVC pipe.

Edited by LateToTheGame
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42 minutes ago, saguaro_squeezer said:

And when you get into the outsized instruments, it becomes more like the original, "A good case is hard to find" ....

 

Re-purposed record, camera, medical cases etc..  I've got my eye on an excellent "Shriners" hat box in a local consignment shop.

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23 minutes ago, saguaro_squeezer said:

I've got one or two of those.  You know, I didn't even think about that because it would mean storing like the old hexagonal cases.  I'll have to try that.

 

If you mean the hat box, the one I'm looking at has one flat side and so like the old hex boxes could be stored horizontally.  

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