Travel case for "breakables" suggestions?

gauze

Junior Member
Hello,
Fairly often I play gigs when I have to travel by plane and all I want/have to/choose to bring are snare, cymbals, kick pedal and sticks.

Right now what I do is a have a suitcase I put the sticks, snare, kick in and check my cymbal case. If any of you fly you know many airlines have decreased free check in allowances do I figure rather than paying an extra $50-$70 round trip for the additional "bag" again I'd try to find something to pack all my gear in together. I haven't found a lot of options or I just don't know how to search for such things.

Any suggestions w/ links would be appreciated. I guess the entire thing loaded would also have to be under 50 pounds/20kg (?) as well so a tanky 40lb flightcase is out!

Thanks,
b
 
I usually use Pelican cases when I fly by they weigh close to 20 lbs empty and it looks like you wanna fly 40 lbs worth of gear. Believe it or not, your best bet will probably be a cardboard box. Manufacturers ship all their products in cardboard with proper packing. So find a suitable box and then use packing tape around the whole thing. You might also find some hard cardboard 1x1" corner material that you can glue down the long sides of your box on the inside. I used to have to fly with speakers in cardboard boxes. I had to plug the power cords out to hit 49.5 lbs so I threw them in my suitcase. Never had a problem doing 75k miles per year.

Good luck!
 
I'd see if there was a place I could rent stuff from before I left. Bring your sticks in your luggage and rent the rest. If you're gonna by to a large metropolitan city there should be someone to rent from.
 
I don't really fly myself, but yeah, those I know rent pretty much anything that isn't uniquely essential. Snare and pedals don't usually fall in that category. It's stickbag, special percussion and maybe just the seat for the throne if they're picky.

I do however try to go small when I can. I just use a big suitcase and throw some towels, old t-shirts or stuff like that around things don't have their own bag. I usually have my throne, stick bag and all sorts of small percussion in it, but if I removed the throne I could surely fit the essential cymbals in there.

Sort out the stuff you want to bring, Throw it all together without unnecessary bags, and then just find a case that's the right size.

Save for the snare, a regular suitcase is fine as long as you pack and pad things well.
 
Find a big, old school hard shell suitcase (at a thrift store) and some foam.

Even a soft case will be fine with enough foam/padding added.
 
Find a big, old school hard shell suitcase (at a thrift store) and some foam.

Even a soft case will be fine with enough foam/padding added.


Pretty much.

Unless you're in a touring band with a big truck and flight cases for everything just get some cheap suitcases. When it breaks, just get another one.

I got this one on vacation in China when I bought too many souvenirs.



It's the only plane ride it's been on, but it's my general small gig and accessory case, so it's been around. After 3 years it doesn't really show much.
 
Can I ask why you bring the bass pedal as well?

I travel quite a bit, and I just use a bag (Humes and Berg I think) that carries my cymbals and snare. I manage to fit a smaller stick bag in with the cymbals as well.

I understand that some styles use the bass drum more than others, so maybe you do need the pedal, but for me my sound comes from the snare and cymbals.
 
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