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The bottom bow of my tuba has started to get beat up pretty regularly from the lack of protection of the standard Tuba Exchange gig bag I got with my B&S 795. Is there any way to add/tailor in extra padding to the bag to where it won't do that? Most of the damage is in the bottom bow and the underside of the bell.

I mean… I would probably tell you to be more careful with your tuba…

But the real answer to your question: You could go to a craft store and buy some soft/semi-soft foam blocks to shove down your bag to attempt to cushion it.

But seriously, just be more careful with your instrument. Or use a hard case if you’ve got one. Don’t put it down so hard. Change up the way you’re loading/unloading it, slow down in doorways, tie it down in your car, etc.

Back when I owned the Sanders/Cerveny dent magnet, I was using an Altieri bag for it, and the particularly vulnerable spot was the outer branch, which is usually what hits the ground first when carrying the bag by the handle. (We're talking mid-80's.) I went the fabric store and then the outdoor store and bought 1.) a yard of black Cordura nylon, as heavy as they had and obviously intended for making luggagy things, and 2.) a closed-cell foam mattress pad, the cheapest one they had.

I sewed a wrap-around Cordura pocket along the entire side of the bag, inserted three layers of the closed-cell foam (each layer was about 3/4" thick) and sewed the pocket closed. I used heavy upholstery nylon thread and sewed it by hand, just through the outer shell of the bag so that I didn't compress what little open-cell foam padding Donna had put into the bag.

It made me feel better.

Doing that around the bottom bow would be more work because of the compound curve.

Or, you could hire Peterbas to carry it for you, since he never has mishaps with his gig bags. :)

Rick "dent magnet in a dent bag: not a great combination" Denney

I don't "love" heavy cases, but I do not dislike them as much as I dislike "surprise" dents...

...even though I can remove the dents myself.

(and yes, when @peterbas doesn't place a pillow or quilt around them, hard cases can slide around in the back of a vehicle - just as can bags, with just a bit more sudden braking force...and - I'd wager - the USA isn't the only place where sudden braking force is occasionally required).

BRS wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 12:08 pm Where do you suppose Dolly bought those plastic sheets that were featured in her bags?

I was just thinking about Dolly bags today, oddly enough. I had one back in the day.

arpthark wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 2:01 pm

BRS wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 12:08 pm Where do you suppose Dolly bought those plastic sheets that were featured in her bags?

I was just thinking about Dolly bags today, oddly enough. I had one back in the day.

Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.

Dolly bags were great. Mine was a side loader, had it 20 years, Dolly fixed the zipper one time for me for free, and it was still working when I sold the piggy.

slightly heavier than a cloth gig bag, but way less than a leather one.

Being the tenth time we've reviewed this...

...and I had a Dolly bag with a shoulder strap that failed (carrying a 23 lb. 5450...NOT the 30-lb. custom 2165).
I barely caught it, and prevented it from hitting concrete.

Motorcycles weigh less than most any car - and I believe I could get to a gig with a tuba on my back riding a motorcycle, but I have always chosen to use (far heavier) cars to transport my instruments and myself.

Other than the afore mentioned zipper failure, my bag was very well built, and I would buy one over any case or bag on the market

I'm sitting here with an attic full of hard cases I couldn't give away if I wanted to

I'm sitting here with an overhead rack of Cronkhite bags that I'll never use again.
(unless I'm forced to sell my cars and buy a motorcycle).

...so is this the 11th time we've been over this...??

Sell them. They are worth something for a reason

You want an attic full of hard cases? Free!

LeMark wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 6:41 pm Sell them. They are worth something for a reason

You want an attic full of hard cases? Free!

I could have used one for my f tuba. I've got one now that's good but it's maybe 2 in too long. I might climb up there if I ever make it back down to Texas. The bags are being kept for emergencies - whereby if I'm lame, but ambulatory enough to play a job.

I think Wade has decided to use hard cases even though he's working through recovering his health.

if my tuba cost as much as his I would consider it too

Also, I can't imagine using a hard case while teaching. the rooms just aren't large enough

the wheels on a good hard case are attractive, getting them in and out of the car is not. I'm not sure the hard case that I just got with my Eastman will even fit in my car. It's massive, and HEAVY

The 7 ft tall younger guy - who does a bunch of work on his own cars and tramps around all over the world - is discussing eschewing about 1/15th the work that a percussionist does every time they show up for a rehearsal or a job. I'm thinking of a guy that's about 5 ft 5 in tall who's a severe diabetic, and - every time we play in this one particular church (which is fairly often) - he is carrying three timpani (along with probably some sort of cymbal, snare drum, and stand) up and down a steep set of stairs (being a sanctuary, about two stories worth) to/from the choir loft in the back of the church.

Well maybe I value my instruments about as much as anyone, and maybe I'm lucky to have them.

It's been a couple of decades since anyone called me young.. Thanks for that.

Hard cases are easier to move no doubt, but as I said, I don't think one would fit in my car (impala, not a small car) and I know one would not fit in most of the practice rooms I teach in, which barely have room for two chairs and a music stand

If it wasn't for those two issues, I would consider using a hard case for my new horn. It would be nice to not have to lug it all over a school

That not even getting into the protection issue. Maybe I just know how to carry a gig bag, but I've never any major, and very little minor damage using one.

You should at least stick that Miraphone in a case. It's not that large of a tuba, and smaller cases weigh less.

I made a pledge to myself - years ago - to use cases for everything, but got lazy and broke my promise to myself. Every once in awhile I would see a new dent in any any one of the instruments, and it would be disappointing - yes, even though I can fix them. Since I got the only-a-half-millimeter-thick giant instrument that came with a case, I realized there would just absolutely be no way that I would ever consider carrying it around in a sack, and then I looked at my other instruments and realized that they were just as important. I would never carry around my cimbasso in a bag (it plays considerably better than the $20,000 ones, so how much is IT worth?), and my F tuba is a precious instrument. After that, they start getting smaller, and it just seems really stupid to put a euphonium in a bag when the instrument in a case weighs less than a tuba without a case. In their cases, I can fit the really big B-flat and the cimbasso in it's long rectangular case in the back of the Toyota Matrix, and I can fit the F tuba in its case at a 45° angle and the front passenger. I can also get a euphonium - in its case - in the back, if I need to.

Maybe (??) your 6/4 B-flat is a transitional/experimental/ exploratory instrument, which will lead you towards one that you like more and might be considerably easier to play, but if you sink some serious money into a kaiser B-flat, start carrying that one around in a case just as I'm encouraging you to immediately carry around your Miraphone in a case. You might not be special ordering a $21,000 Miraphone 98, but I could see someone like you picking up a really good deal on a rotary Model 95 Fafner (which is a wonderful instrument, and far more European orchestral musicians use those than model 98's - even if the only reason is that more of them have been manufactured). There's always some place to put a case. You don't have to jam it next to yourself in a practice room at a school. I'm sure you can set it vertically in the back of the band rooms somewhere.

Just like me breaking my promise to myself to use cases, it's always easy to find a justification to not do something. You should see what three different trumpet players did to their super high-end sets of four instruments in their snazzy and pricey quad bags when the straps broke on EACH ONE of them - ALL THREE sets of four within a year's time. What a mess!!! and that's REALLY stupid, because a hard quad case with four for trumpets in it also weighs less than most any tuba without a case around it. I really think that - years ago - we all (all brass players) associated putting our instruments in bags as being cool, and carrying them around with hard cases as being sort of nerdy, because school-owned instruments are in hard cases. Think about the stuff I related above, and think about it over a period of time, and see if later on you think any of it makes any sense...
... particularly if your outing into B-flat instruments sticks, and you decide to move up to another large B-flat that might be a little bit more serious of a financial investment.
================
Okay, having stumbled into another topic, somehow I suspect that you will stick with the B-flat thing. Now, every time I pick up a C instrument (and every one that I've picked up lately is thought to be a good one) they all feel like they're missing something, and they actually are: They are missing two feet of expanding bugle, and it's audible that it's missing. I'll remind you that I played C instruments exclusively (when playing contrabass tubas) from 1974 until 2022.

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 6:40 pm I'm sitting here with an overhead rack of Cronkhite bags that I'll never use again.
(unless I'm forced to sell my cars and buy a motorcycle).

...so is this the 11th time we've been over this...??

Please DM if one of those bags will fit a Yamaha 641 BBb, and you’re willing to part with it.

BTW, I am 6’11”, and a Mark too. I drive a Ford Transit Connect, and a 2016 Outback. Unlike some people in Minnesota, my tubas have always fit in my cars. Even in my departed ‘85 Z28.

Variation on the original topic:

I had a Wessex tuba that came with a foam insert for the bell that effectively served as a "brace" - very light, very rigid foam that was covered in soft black material.

What's the easiest way to replicate these inserts?