For touring bands and musical artists, the road holds many surprises. One surprise that no musician wants to face is damage to shipped instruments discovered an hour before showtime. Roadies have been known to be a little overzealous when loading, transporting and unloading equipment, but most of the damage to items within musical shipping cases is because of the poor quality of the cases.
Give your treasured instrument the case it deserves!
When you’re a young musician – a guitarist, for instance – any guitar case will do as long as it has a handle you can use to carry it to your friend’s garage for band practice. When all that garage-time pays off and you start making a name for yourself, you naturally begin to invest in higher-quality instruments. Damage to a low-priced Squier Strat isn’t the end of the world. Damage to a $6,000 custom shop vintage Fender Strat that you’ve played for 15 years can be problematic, to say the least.
Everything that’s involved in the performing and recording of music needs to be protected in transit. The way you do that is by using the best shipping cases designed by trusted manufacturers that are known for producing top-level products. This often means heavy-duty music transit cases by names such as Anvil, SKB and Gator.
Shipping case customization is the key
Shipping cases for musicians made by these reputable manufacturers are strong, secure and built to last. Outer shells are nearly impenetrable, yet the products are engineered to be lightweight, a plus if your shipping involves cost-per-pound.
Most top makers create shipping cases for various sizes of musical instruments and touring and production equipment. This may be all you need to hit the road with peace of mind. Certain situations, however, require professional customization of instrument and equipment cases, either because the items to be shipped are of unusual configurations, or because the owners simply want every single safety base covered.
Any transit case – whether self-carry or part of loaded cargo – can be customized according to strict specifications. You can customize:
Some manufacturers perform music case custom work. There are also professional custom shops whose job is creating the most secure shipping environment for all your important instruments and equipment.
What is music case customization?
The simple answer is: making the case in the exact proportions necessary to protect the gear. Accomplishing this often involves modifications with high-density polyethylene foam that creates snug and secure transport for any product used on stage or in the studio. Special injection molding processes can further safeguard valuable cargo.
Other customization work, either at the manufacturing or custom shop level, involves making cases ATA 300, Category 1 compliant for airplane transit. When buying music cases, always ask about ATA compliance if you expect to ship by air.
You can get both standard and customized musical equipment shipping cases from Florida’s largest and most-respected transit case dealer and customizer, Cases2Go. Headquartered in Tampa, FL, we bring more than 35 years’ experience to the shipping case industry and regularly work with touring musical acts to allow them to experience one less surprise on the road. Call us at (800) 636-1690 and tell us your shipping case requirements.