What's wrong with Drummer's cases!

And what are the alternatives?

I think I've used pretty much every major make and type of drum case over the years.  
Way back when, pretty much all you could get were flimsy style cases that were basically made from cardboard.  These days they've improved significantly, but I still remember how they would literally dissolve when they got wet, and I would have to wait for them to dry again before I could fix the seams with a pop-rivet gun.

Like the Mogwai, never get it wet, don't feed it after midnight.

If you were rich, or Hercules, or had a roadcrew - you would probably use Full or Semi Flight Cases.  However, most people I know who do use them for drums also put the drums in some kind of individual cases first.  Flight Cases can be incredibly strong, but without great padding inside they are not particularly kind to their contents!

Thon Cymbal Semi Flight Case

Although there were other choices, these were the two main ones for the first decade or so when I started gigging.  But all this changed in the early 90's when Protection Racket hit the scene!  By now I'm sure every drummer is aware of them and probably owns some of their cases.  It's good stuff and was revolutionary at the time.  Tough, waterproof, affordable (don't get me wrong, they are not cheap and never have been!) and virtually indestructible.  I'm still using two of the hardware bags today that I bought back in the mid 90's and although they will need replacing sometime soon, you can't argue that I haven't had my money's worth out of them.

Protection Racket Tom Case

Today lots of people make soft cases and although Protection Racket are still right up there, I think there are better choices for my money.  The Ahead cases, for example, have really pushed forward in terms of their intelligent design and there are other companies out there who are at least as good, but by now it's just variations on a theme.


The other main choice today is the hard plastic ones.  Again, there are a few manufacturers out there, but the best known is probably Hardcase.  As they name suggests they are hard plastic outer shell (now in a variety of colours) with some minimal foam padding on the inside.  Again, lots of variations  out there, although most hard plastic cases seem to be for cymbals (we'll come to that in a minute!).

Hardcase Tom Case

I have (different) issues with all of these cases, and I'll tell you why.

Soft cases protect against scrapes, but that's about all.  If you drop a drum (in a soft case) from a pretty low height it might be ok, depending how heavy it is.  But if your heavy snare drum rolls out of your panel van when you open the door and makes it's way to the tarmac waiting below .... let's just say you'll probably be shopping for a new snare drum! They also offer almost nothing in the way of crush protection.

Hardcases do a little better on the impact & crush protection, and also protect from scrapes and scratches.  However, they are not so user-friendly (think about the interior of your family car after a year of loading hardcases in and out of it) and they can be pretty damned brittle.  I've had a (cymbal) Hardcase gently fall out the back of my estate car and land on the pavement - maybe a half metre drop.  The case was smashed where it hit the pavement and the centre bolt was so bent that I had trouble getting the cymbals out of the case again.  I know you could say the case did it's job and protected the cymbals, but these are not cheap cases to replace for such a minor (and probably fairly common) interaction.

Flight Cases, even semi-flight, are really really heavy compared to the above options.  They suffer even worse in the user-friendly stakes (try clipping your ankle with one of these bad boys when negotiating a staircase) and only offer really good protection to the contents if there is ample padding inside.  With that though, they are bomb proof.  I've seen pictures of trucks driving over Flight Cases with barely a mark on the case afterwards (although the truck may have had some minor damage!).


So what's the answer?

Well, if money, time, weight and size were not issues - I would have all of my shinies fitted with Ahead cases and then snuggled safely inside full Flight Cases.  However, that isn't practical for all except the top 1% of people in our profession.

What I seem to be settling with, is mixing and matching depending on what I'm protecting and why I'm protecting it.  I'm slowly replacing my (ageing) Protection Racket cases with Ahead cases as and when they fail, or I see them come-up cheap in the various retail channels.  For my buck, the Ahead offer slightly better protection and feature a little more innovation in terms of design and materials.  For the 'high value' or more delicate items I'm plumping for semi Flight Cases - even though this means adding considerably to the weight and reducing the skin on my shinbones.  So far this is equating to cymbals, the more expensive of the snare drums (DW Edge) and all the microphones and electronics.

For any case designers out there, please take on-board that there is still no perfect solution for the majority of drummers, and I eagerly await your new line of 'Unobtainium' drum cases in the not-too-distant future :-)