I’ve had my Roth and Junius double bass case for about nine months now. By and large I have been very pleased with it. The case is well padded, has a decent allotment of pockets and plenty of handles and straps, all of which are well stitched in. However, I’ve become aware of one quite critical flaw which could render all of that useless.

The point in question is the positioning of the zip. It runs down one side of the case, around the base and slightly up the other side. Unfortunately, it is positioned centrally and so sits directly underneath the mounting for the endpin of the instrument. That means that, when stood upright (as shown in the picture) the weight of the instrument is concentrated through this small bit of metal, placing a substantial downwards force directly on the zip.

A few months ago I had to do some repairs where one of the zippers jumped of it’s tracks, caused by the resistance caused by minor deformation of the zip. It has now got worse and I’ve had to repeat the repair after Thursday evening’s outing and, this time, stitch some breaks in to stop me moving the zippers past the endpin holder. Exposing it isn’t ideal (I’ll probably leave the pin in to stop the metal damaging other surfaces) but it is better than not being able to zip the case up and thus not being able to carry the bass.

I’ve seen similar problems in other cases for carrying heavy instruments (for example, my electric basses). I think I can keep this case going for quite a long time but, next time I’m case shopping for one of the instruments that has this problem, I’ll definitely be on the look out for novel solutions. Or, if I can’t find one, perhaps I should get round to testing the brainwave I had for how it could theoretically be solved.

Anyway, the case is good for now so I’m ready to head down to the General Eliott pub in South Hinksey later tonight for a late (11:30pm!) performance with The String Project.