hard or soft cases?

I am looking at some cases on musicians friends for my new Taye kit. What is better, the Nomad hard cases or the Beato or Roadrunner bags(not the lower end ones). Opinions?

hmmmmm...if you want to be extra careful, go with the hard ones but my personal choice is soft cases. I feel theyre easier to move stuff about in and lighter.

I just bought cases myself - I went with the Roadrunner bags because of A) cost, B) what I need, and C) portability.

By "what I need," I mean my drums don't need cases that cost almost as much as them, and I play out less than once a week, so it's not a huge concern. I move my own gear into my spacious truck, and everything is taken care of, so I saved myself the $200+ and went with the bags.

With "portability," I can cram all the bags into the bass drum case!

If you are going to go with bags, get Protection Racket. Best there is.

I use mostly soft cases (mix of beato bags, and H&B tuxedos). I have a hard cymbal case, and an old hard H&B vulcanized case for one of my toms left over from my old kit.

To me, the decision is all about how they'll be used. If you don't gig all the time, and/or you move your own kit in your own vehicle to mostly "local" gigs, a GOOD set of soft cases/bags will be fine. Beato, Protection racket, H&B, etc.

If, on the other hand, you gig a lot (1 once a week or more), travel extensively with your kit, and/or your drums are generally transported in some kind of communal van/truck/trailer with the a random assortment of other gear, then hard cases (good ones) are a good investment. Beware, however, that some hard cases are barely a step above cardboard boxes....if you're looking at those, you're probably safer with good bags.

Here's my logic on the subject:

The vast majority of damage to a kit will most likely involve scratches and gouges in the finish. In those cases, soft cases will prevent that kind of damage in almost every instance. So if you move your kit yourself, in your own vehicle, and aren't doing it on a constant basis, you'll probably be reasonably careful moving your kit around, and probably won't subject it to very many really bad situations. Also, keep in mind that stucturally, drums are pretty strong (as evidenced by idiots who stand on their kits, etc.).

On the other hand, if your kit is thrown in the band trailer with the PA gear, amps, and lights, it's very possible that the person doing the packing isn't considering every possible problem that could happen inside the trailer. So if/when the head from your bassist's amp falls off the PA speakers and lands on your floor tom, the extra protection from a good hard case might be exactly what you need.

Final consideration: soft cases are usually cheaper than hard ones. Also, ALL soft cases can be squished together and nested inside each other, so they take up almost zero storage space when they're not being used, wheres most hard cases don't offer that kind of space savings.

I've got Tuxedo bags for all mine. I originally went with a cheap set of Beato bags, no padding whatsoever, essentially waterproof bags with no other protection. They worked, I suppose... but the Tuxedos are great. Plus as has been said, you can squish 'em all into the kick bag and they don't take up much space.

I can't see any reason to ever need hard cases for local gigs... especially cheap hard cases. The drummer in our last band had cheap SKB-style cases, they were indeed hard cases but had no padding in them so the drums just bounced around.

The only thing I prefer about cases is that it's easier to load the drums in and out; if your toms use rim mounts that are pretty big, you might want to get the next size up. My 12" tom with rim mount fits in the 12" tuxedo that I have, but it's a snug fit. Makes it kinda a pain in the ass to get the drum in there after a long gig. I used a 13" Beato bag for it before, which worked perfect, though it did slide around a bit in there.

I have a set of the Kaces HD series bags, they strike me as pretty awesome, and they came in @ $250 for a seven-piece double bass kit (excluding the snare, which I simply forgot to order).

They are semi-ridgid, it would take a serious collision to mar a drum inside one, or maybe even outright malice. They have pockets inside, ostensibly for sparer heads, and excellent handles and shoulder straps. On the downside, due to the rigidity, they can't be squashed down to a pizza bag, so they'd store like cases.

Good points all around. I have soft cases for the same reasons most mention above. I don't really plan on throwing my drums around or dropping them down stairs, so soft cases are fine. I believe mine are Levy's and they have a very good amount padding. I went with the nicer soft cases, instead of those are essentially raincoats for your drums as zeromus says and even with the fat padding, they can still all be crammed into the bass drum case.

The only thing about mine that I don't like is the bass drum case only has one handle on it, and I think it should have two considering it's weight and size. The last thing I need is for the lone strap to snap and, well, yeah that would be bad. Thinking about installing another one on there, but I'm not sure how.

Great points everyone. I was definatly gonna go cheap on hard cases, but it seems that the good soft ones are the way to go. Which ones do you recomend that are available from musicians friend...sorry, have a gift card there The roadrunners like nice.

Also, since my Tayes are very shallow, can I just stack 2 toms and put them in a bag...will that make much of a differnce? The 10" and the 12" can fit in my old 13" bag

Beatos (I think anyway) come in different styles. My beatos are every bit as padded as my Tuxedos, but I've seen other beatos that are unpadded.

Tuxedos, Protection Racket, Beato (if they're the padded ones) are all good.

What model Beatos do you have? There are so many

Originally posted by goodbye,beautiful What model Beatos do you have? There are so many

Mine are the original old ones...I think the current equivalent are the Pro 1 ones....at least that's what it looks like from the photos.

If they fit well enough then it should be fine but maybe consider seperating them with some cardboard or something similiar.

I do that with my 16" tom and my piccolo snare. My bag is for a 16x16 floor tom, but now I have a 16x14 floor tom. The snare is only 3" deep, so it fits just fine. I put one of those "sound off" neoprene drum pads on the drum to keep them seperated.

If you're gigging out with the drums, get hard cases.

Especially if you plan on having your drums for a while.

When I bought my drums in 98, I got the hard cases for them. they're heavier and bulkier than bags, and more expensive.

If I hadn't bought the hard cases, my drums would have been trash by now.

I've moved halfway across the country twice, had unknown strangers moving them around... {censored}, once half my kit disappeared for 3 months(!!)

Who knows what you and your drums may go through in the next 10-20 years? Buy good cases if you want to keep your drums that long.

Thats a great point! There are just so many cases on musicians friend. Anyone have some suggestions? That credit is burning a hole in my pocket!

One other option: get good bags for now (certainly better than nothing) and over time you can get oversized, non-padded plastic cases. Then put the drums in the bags, and the bags in the cases. You'll have the safest drums on the planet.

T's correct that good hard cases do offer better protection. Hell, ATA-rated flight cases offer even better protection (the giant wooden ones on casters that REAL rockstars use). There's always something that will be "better" than whatever you decide. The question you need to answer is what's "good enough" for my useage. You can use heat seeking air-to-air missiles to rid your house of flies, but MOST people only really need a flyswatter.

Answer these questions, and we can all chime in:

1.) describe your kit....brand, sizes, age, hardware, cymbals, etc.

2.) how often do you currently gig with this kit?

3.) in the next 5 years do you see your gigging schedule increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same?

4.) where do you gig: stadiums, large clubs, small bars, weddings/corporate gigs, indoors, outdoors

5.) do you see the type of gigs you plan on doing changing significantly over the next 5 years? If so, how?

6.) Do you plan on storing your kit in the cases for significant periods of time? If so, describe where they'll be stored.

7.) Do you plan on moving in the next 5 years?

8.) Describe how you transport your drums (vehicle, by yourself/with help of others, share vehicles with bandmates).

Obviously, the needs of a guy playing a small jazz kit in small clubs will be different from a guy playing Bozzio's kit in a stadium. Tell us what you're doing, and you'll probably get several recommendations.

Regardless of how much "better protected" mine would be in hard-shell cases, I can't see ever owning a set. If I'm gigging locally I'm going to keep them in the padded bags. If I'm gigging regionally they'll be in a van but I'll be the one packing 'em, so no worries there either... and these things are pretty well packed. If I'm gigging nationally, they're going in trap cases, not individual drum cases, so that I can just wheel the trap case to where it needs to be and store 3-4 drums in it.

Individual cases for drums are heavy, take up a ton of room in the car, and in my opinion offer no more protection than my padded ones do. If a large spike threatens to fly through my bags, yes, that could be an issue. Fortunately that's pretty rare around here.

sometimes I wish I had drums made out of hard cases so I wouldn't have to worry about any of it.

Opps, I quoted my own answers, heh

hm. If you do decide on bags, get really really nice ones.

make sure you think ahead.

Since you're locked into MF (gift certificate), and based on what they carry, I'd go with the Beato Pro 1 bags. From what I can tell, they're identical to the cordura ones except for the outer covering (tolex vs. cordura). Both are very durable (my H&B Tuxedo bag is cordura), but the tolex is more "plasticy", so it would probably repel water better. Not that it's a big deal based on what you're doing, but I priced out a 10" tom bag in each line, and the tolex was about $6 more for a bag.

Also, you may want to check out Beato's double tom holder bags. Basically one bag that you can put two toms into. That would probably save you an extra trip to the car loading in and out.

If you see your gigging increasing, you may want to move up to cases if it's going to be a big change. If so, get something like the SKB's or other plastic cases. The nomads are crappy...avoid them. Padded bags are waaaaay better than those nomad cases.

If you have a laquered kit, then I always come down on the side of getting hard cases.

The piece of mind is more than worth it. Obviously if you've got a wrapped finish then you can afford to be more cavalier about them.

I have a set of SKB's and even though my band is not gigging right now, and had my main kit at my band's rehearsal studio since May, I know I'm ready for anything.

Old Steve's right about the storage of hard cases, they can be a pain. Though I can nest my SKB's inside each other in two groups.

-bruce