[DaBird]

Any suggestions on a nice case for a Buescher Aristocrat Series I (275xxx), which has left side tone holes on the bell. I have the original case, but both the horn and case are in great condition so I don't want to risk damaging either.

Basically, I would like to find something that fits like a glove and is bomb-proof. But anything close to that would do fine

 

[Repentatonic]

Have a look at the Hiscox tenor cases,designed for left and right side bell keys,and as close to bombproof as you,re likely to find !

 

[Waver]

From my research on this subject it appears that there are two "sizes" of cases:

Large: Protec XL, Hiscox, ?
Standard: Protec regular, BAM, Gator, etc; Hiscox(?)

I don't know if an Aristo will fit in a standard case - if it does you have several choices; if it doesn't, I think your choices are the Protec XL or the Hiscox.

If there's a music store near you that carries Protec cases, you could take your horn in to see which one it fits in (that's what I did). Or maybe you have one of these cases that you could try, or know someone who does.

 

[BrianCC]

I do Protecs for all of my Bueschers because they fit the opposite bell keys well. And they're usually available for a deal.

 

[IBeOmega]

A standard Protec Propac should fit. My '36 Aristocrat alto fits a standard alto Propac with room to spare, and one of the early Aristocrat's defining aesthetic features is a small bell flare.
It will not fit in a MAX case, but IMO you should sooner go for a Propac in any case (pun intended).

Any brand-name universal case should fit your horn, Protec MAX cases being the only exception of which I am aware.

 

[maddenma]

An art deco 'Crat will fit just fine in a standard Protec case. You don't want the XL for this horn.

 

[DaBird]

An art deco 'Crat will fit just fine in a standard Protec case. You don't want the XL for this horn.

Perfect - that's good to know. The video on their website says the XL is for larger bells (which mine isn't of course) and horns with left side bell holes. Based on that I would've went XL, but I trust your knowledge of the Bueschers.

 

[DaBird]

I'm interested in strength of a case. Protec doesn't seem to market that feature, which makes me wonder. The Hiscox seems to stand out here and they give all sorts of facts and figures about how they're strong, but I'm having a hard time getting any pictures of a tenor case. No YouTube reviews, and their website is pretty lame - they have a picture of the closed case and a small picture of it opened, but no detailed photos of the inside. It looks pretty large and spacious, yet people on this board say it doesn't have much storage. How can that be - it's a large shape for a case.

The other case I just found is built by Pelican, called a Battle Case (https://www.facebook.com/battle.cases?fref=photo). It's airtight, waterproof and they have great sales videos of hucking them off buildings with glass vases surviving inside. Nice! That's kind of what I'm going for. Really expensive though...but still less than some people spend on a single mouthpiece.

 

[maddenma]

The padding is a good fit for your horn and will keep it from bouncing around in the case and self-destructing. It's not, however, designed to be stacked, thrown in the luggage compartment of an aircraft, or tossed from a moving vehicle. If any of these are true and you somehow are prone to falling on your horn while it's in the case, then perhaps this isn't the case for you. It's substantially stronger than a gig bag, but it's certainly NOT an ATA-rated flight case and there are other more rigid, heavier, and costly alternatives (such as a Manning or SKB) that will take more abuse.

That said, it's light and certainly stiff enough for daily, non-abusive use. I've taken mine on flights in the overhead bin with other passengers banging on it with their luggage, shipped them internationally with horns inside (adequately protected with packing peanuts in the box), loaded 9 of them in the back of the car stacked on each other for a cross-country trip, loaded and unloaded them from the car several times per week for years, and even had a bari in one sitting on the ground but propped up vertically against the tailgate of my wagon and fall to the ground without damage.

It will take a few knocks and still protect the horn, but you can certainly crush it if you decide to stand or sit on it. If you need that level of protection, you're going to have to shell out some more serious dough.

 

[Hornlip]

The padding is a good fit for your horn and will keep it from bouncing around in the case and self-destructing. It's not, however, designed to be stacked, thrown in the luggage compartment of an aircraft, or tossed from a moving vehicle. [ . . . . . ]

Ditto. My late '30s 'Crat tenor is in a standard Pro-Tec case. Certainly good enough for standard use where you're the one doing the hauling, storing etc. But I wouldn't want to hand it off to the luggage gorillas.

 

[maddenma]

One the things I would wrestle with buying a $1000, 20 lb ATA case is do I want to spend $1000 and constantly lug 35 lbs (case plus horns and effects) around to protect a $1200 horn. I can't quantify the personal value of this particular instrument to you, but I personally found it better to invest in a decent instrument case and add on some instrument insurance more than the high-end case. These are pretty easy to come by horns and the alternatives to a case that can be thrown off a building are cheaper and a whole lot lighter. Your mileage my vary, and you need to assess your own needs.

 

[DaBird]

I'm with you. The Battle Case wouldn't make sense in my situation, especially since I won't likely ever fly with it and I dint gig with a band, so I don't throw it in a van with other gear. I think the ProTec is going to be the best solution.

All else equal (weight and cost), the deciding factor would clearly lean towards case strength.but, you're correct about the cost/benefit of spending 5x more and having the case alone weigh 30 lbs.

On the personal aspect, I don't think I could replace my particular Buescher with $1,200 or even double that, and it would take a lot of time and luck to even hunt one down in its condition. I love to play it, but it's almost a museum piece so I just want to do my best (within reason) to protect it.

The ProTec will be a great improvement over the original case and will provide me some peace of mind when I put it in the trunk of my car.

 

[DaBird]

Well, I bought the ProTec ProPac Tenor case, and I would have to disagree now that a Buecscher Aristocrat fits this case. I'll post some pictures later, but the contour on the inside is not really suitable for horns with left side bell keys. The lower half rests on a padded section that is contoured for a bell without keys on that side. It's a padded section, so I can compress the horn down while zipping in order to get the lid to close, but I would definitely prefer something that allows me to set the saxophone inside and shut the lid without forcing it.

 

[DaBird]

Here's a link to a video of me testing it out in the ProTec case.

http://youtu.be/82t2Cm6a4dA

 

[maddenma]

Wow! They really did thicken that padding of the interior of that case! I can certainly see your point. I don't have my TH&C at the moment (in the shop), but I use a new Protec XL Contour on that one because of the width of the bell flair. I hadn't noticed the padding on the lower bell.

Here's my 156 Aristocrat sitting in a standard Protec Contour from 2011. As you can see it fits flawlessly and compresses the case padding just enough to insure the horn doesn't move around.

View attachment 62478 View attachment 62477 View attachment 62476 View attachment 62479

The XL will probably fit your horn, but given this I think now I'd personally want to try it in that case before I bought it.

Wow! Can you exchange it for the XL?

 

[DaBird]

That's pretty interesting to see your pictures. It seems that the main difference is that the bottom portion of the padding had a little more depth around the lower body tube, in a more squared off way. However this new case has it sitting higher up and you can see that they contoured the padding to make it rounded as if it fit perfectly against a rounded body tube.

By the way, your Big B looks like a real beauty too. I think I vaguely recall you posting about that one on the Buescher forum a while back. Looks like a gem. Sits nicely in that case.

 

[DaBird]

Can you exchange it for the XL?

I bought it through Amazon, so I'm pretty sure I could return it. I saw the standard case in a local music store, but not the XL, so I'm not sure I'll get the chance to test it out before buying the XL. I may look at the Hiscox option again as well, but from what I saw they're more than double the costS

 

[Hornlip]

Wow! They really did thicken that padding of the interior of that case! I can certainly see your point. I don't have my TH&C at the moment (in the shop), but I use a new Protec XL Contour on that one because of the width of the bell flair. I hadn't noticed the padding on the lower bell.

Here's my 156 Aristocrat sitting in a standard Protec Contour from 2011. As you can see it fits flawlessly and compresses the case padding just enough to insure the horn doesn't move around.

View attachment 62478 View attachment 62477 View attachment 62476 View attachment 62479

The XL will probably fit your horn, but given this I think now I'd personally want to try it in that case before I bought it.

Wow! Can you exchange it for the XL?

That's pretty interesting to see your pictures. It seems that the main difference is that the bottom portion of the padding had a little more depth around the lower body tube, in a more squared off way. However this new case has it sitting higher up and you can see that they contoured the padding to make it rounded as if it fit perfectly against a rounded body tube.

By the way, your Big B looks like a real beauty too. I think I vaguely recall you posting about that one on the Buescher forum a while back. Looks like a gem. Sits nicely in that case.

I'm confused about which case is which. DaBird finds that a new "ProPac" case is a tight fit for his Aristocrat; maddenma calls his case a "standard" Pro-Tec and it fits his Aristocrat fine. I know "ProPac" is a Pro-Tec model; is that different from the "standard"? Does Pro-Tec call it their "standard" case?

I'm on the verge of buying a new Pro-Tec for an Aristocrat alto, so now I'm a bit worried about which to buy.

 

[arkinet]

I have a flight case type from Kessler, the rectangular shaped one. Used it with the dynaction, but the crat1 fits perfectly too.
Lightweight, snug and well padded.

 

[DaBird]

It would seem that the design of the interior padding has changed slightly, enough so that the left hand bell key guard is a bit bulky. Pro-Tec does say that their XL fits large belled and left-side bell key saxes, so that's probably my next option.

Arkinet, I'll look at the Kessler option.