gig bags - the repair man's friend

My Mirafone Althorn came with a gig bag which I used constantly, and a hard case, which I never used.  I completely wore out my bag.  I had to throw it out.  I found a Great bag manufacturer in Denver, CO USA, Altieri Instrument Bags.  http://www.altieribags.com/index.html  I sent them the measurements of my horn and some pictures.  They made me a new gig bag, and it arrived today.  It's a work of art.  I enthusiastically recommend them to you.  Here is a photo of my new bag, showing the bell of the horn surrounded by the padded inner sleeve, pulled tight with the draw string.

It came with a large zipper pocket covered with an Indian pattern I picked out.  Inside the large pocket is a smaller Velcro pocket in which I keep my Eb slide.  There is a smaller outside zipper pocket in which I am keeping my mouthpiece in its own small mouthpiece case.  The bag has a handle, a sling strap, and is fitted with back pack style shoulder straps.  It's real high end quality.

iBowTie Brass wrote on 09/15/06 at 08:27:45:


Jim, I won't disagree.  But, I will point out that it's a mistake to think that your instrument is protected from rough handling damage just because it's in a hard shell case.  I have a beautiful 4 valve, gold, Alexander Bb single French Horn that I used for Principal and solo work.  It was only damaged once.  It was in its hard case, strapped down just like it was supposed to be.  The case, with the Horn inside,  was dropped about 18 inches onto a hardwood floor.  That resulted in a huge dent in the bell section of the Horn.

The bottom line, always handle your instruments carefully and gently, regardless of what type of bag or case you use.

trumpetmike wrote on 10/24/04 at 15:45:12:

Couldn't agree with you more...

The only time I have had an instrument badly damaged was when it was in a gig bag on my back.  I was riding my bicycle down a hill and collided with a car, bouncing off the car bonnet and landing on my trumpet.  Had the trumpet been in a hard case strapped to my bike, the cances are it would have been undamaged.  I do, however, still use the gig bag often, though only for the same trumpet that was damaged before and repaired.  I don't put my Conn trumpet in the gig bag, but keep it safely in its case.

I have Gig brand bags for cornet/trumpet and also for my tenor horn. I acknowledge comments by Mike et al that gig bags pose a degree of risk. I am very careful with my horns but accidents can (and do) happen. I think the GIG brand are better than most as they seem much more solid and well padded than the usual offerings. For my tenor horn it was the only choice as I bought an old Besson 2-20 in good condition off eBay without a case. A new hard case was going to cost more than the horn did by a very long way. Even a GIG bag cost as much as the horn but it was by far the cheapest option and the horn is pretty sturdy (must be something about vintage Bessons iipopes!)
Cheers
Rod

As far as I'm aware the guy from the 'octave-above' shop in huddersfield that made the 'GiG' bags Ben mentioned in the original post went bust, which is a nuisance as I wanted another!! Mine's had near enough 10 years of daily use, looks a complete mess with some tears and zips and handles going all over the place! but it's still a great bag.
Think my next one will have to be a decent triple trumpet one, maybe the fusion.