Posted by Rick Denney on August 23, 2000 at 10:53:31:
In Reply to: BAT transportation question posted by Phil on August 23, 2000 at 07:58:14:
Many years ago, I built a flight-quality hard case for my Sanders tuba, because I was tired of seeing new dents in the horn without knowing where they came from (I had been using an Altieri bag before).
I used it for about, oh, two weeks. At the end of the period, I realized that I was ruining the interior finish on my car, and, more importantly, I was ruining the interior finish on my lower back. The case has good casters, but too few places have convenient wheelchair ramps, and a lot of the places we rehearsed only allowed us to use one door after hours. It was too difficult to use the case.
Even in the Jeep Cherokee I had later, I had to fold the back seat down to get the case in the car.
I traded that horn for a Miraphone, and haven't had the problem of unexplained dents since then. I also sold the Altieri bag and bought a Reunion Blues bag. That helped my back, too, because of the side loading rather than top loading.
I still plan to use the hard case if the horn must be transported by anyone but me. But it will not fit in my current car, so, next time I have to use it, who knows how I'll move it around.
It was big enough so that the Miraphone, in the RB bag, would go inside the case, but it's not nearly as big as an Anvil case. And that horn is no BAT. The York won't fit in the hard case, and I'm using, yes, an Altieri bag that happily came with the horn. And the York is also no BAT.
My assessement is that most cased BAT's will not fit in a real car. Even a station wagon might be a problem if the roof isn't tall enough. But, in a bag, it should not be a problem to lay it across the back seat. But, as Joe S. has been known to say, a bag is not a case.
Rick "can't simultaneously afford a big tuba and a big car" Denney