That is the one knock I have against the BAM cases, which I own, one of these days I fear I will do the same. They should have designed a double handle system to prevent this from happening.

Sorry to hear about your sax, you should shoot BAM an email.

 

first of all, steve p, i'm really sorry to hear about your accident.

however, tonyg, as much as i sympathize with him, i don't think BAM is to be blamed for this mishap. i mean, the design of their cases do not exactly stem far from that of other cases'. in place of the usual latch is a zipper closure system, and its having only one handle is like almost every other case out there (except a few gigbags me thinks).

i don't want to add insult to injury, but i guess it all comes down to absent-mindedness.

 

As bad is it may be, it wouldn't hurt to get an estimate on how much it would cost to fix it.

 

Steve, I'm so sorry to hear this. I understand your sadness, anger and frustration as the exact same thing happened to me a little over a month ago.

Fortunately for me, I have been very lucky and there were not too many damages done on my sax. So sorry to hear that yours didn't stand the crash

I know this isn't going to make you feel better but, since the same accident happened, now I make it a point to secure my sax into its case after playing. I make sureh the zip (or latches) are closed. THEN I deal with people who want to talk to me - I don't care if they think I'm rude, I don't want this sort of thing hapening again.

 

This issue has mentioned before, concerning the BAM cases. Of course this can happen to any case with a single handle. I was not saying the BAM company is to blame, but with a better design it could be virtually eliminted. And for such and expensive case, it should!

I have been close to having it happen to me, it was just the sax didn't come out. Whew. So I do not believe it to be very rare for such an incident. So BAM should know about these things, its thier product.

 

Oh believe me, I know it was all my fault. Just not paying close enough attention. Now there is a large bumper sticker on my case that says ZIP!


Steve P

 

Sorry to hear that, Steve. That really bites it. Was it insured?

Regarding the fail-safe aspects of the case itself, I have had tenor and alto ProTec cases as well as one for my trumpet. I presently have Berkeley cases for my saxes a stock case for my soprano and flute and I've got to say that there's something about the black canvas cases that make them look closed when they're not.

The latches on my Berkeleys, soprano and flute cases are pretty easy to see but not so on the ProTecs. Of course not zipping up was a silly mistake but with my trumpet case, it's got a double handle which has affixed to it a velcro band that you've really go to close over the two handles just to get it out of the way. With this velcro piece closed over the handles, even if the case is picked up unzipped (and I've tried it just to see what would happen), the case will not open accidentally.

Picking up an unzipped case is exactly the kind of thing I would do and I would have only myself to thank. But a velcro piece that closes over a double handle as described above would undoubtably be a good fail-safe idea for any zippered case.

 

I second HC's suggestion of checking out how much repairs would cost. A colleague of mine did the exact same thing to his Selmer Series II several years back; he took it to Emilio Lyons in Boston, and the horn wound up better than new after Emilio's overhaul. Not pocket change, but a heck of a lot less than a new horn would've cost.

 

I agree with KSQ. Sometimes what looks really bad for us is actually quite fixable by a skilled repairman.

I also did the exact same thing to my Reference 54 tenor 2 years ago. It bent the entire body, put a big dent on the bottom. My repairman has put it back in shape and it is barely noticeable it ever happended. It costed me $250 and it plays even better now.

 

Steve, I'm just glad you're still alive.
:wink:
OANegrin

 

Wow that sux.. Well if you can't get it fixed you can have the pleasure of playing the new EX

 

Steve, I'm just glad you're still alive.

Good one! :mrgreen:

 

I agree with the above. A horn would really have to hit hard to be damaged beyond repair. If you really want to keep the horn, take it to a great tech and see if it can be repaired. Maybe post a few pictures in the repair section of this site and gather some opinions. Bent bodies, keys, bells and tone holes can all be repaired. It's only brass.

 

Steve P, any updates?

 

Hey all,
Update: BACK FROM THE DEAD

I took my horn to my tech, who is an unbelieveable repairman, and he fixed it up perfectly. You can not even tell there was a dent there. Without a doubt the best dent work I have ever seen. flawless. Fixed the bent rods, posts and the like too.

It honestly playes better now than it did before the drop. Dr.Rousseau played it when i got it back, and said 'well, it plays better than my horn. if you decide to sell it, i know a number of people who would love to have this horn'


Phew. glad it worked out so well in the end!!!!


Steve