I couldn't find a "gear" section so I figured this was as good as any.

I was wondering if there are any innexpensive "hard" casses out there. I have seen some trunks, but they are unreal, a few thousand dollars for a case?

The soft case I have now has 3/4" foam and does well against scratching, but not hits. When it went under a bus to go to NY, for a Carnegie Hall gig, a few chips came out of my bass' side, and this past month, a strap broke and my neck became seperated from the bodie (a reparable injury which insurance covered and the company gave me a new case) so all is good and well now, but I want a little more protection.

I've not seen them offered for sale, although I once met a guy who made a big ol' padded coffin for his bass out of plywood, 2x4s and foam padding. I wouldn't use something like that for any situation where I wasn't in charge of the case being loaded and unloaded and moving it around is a 2-man job, but it does establish a nice middle ground.

-dh

Interestingly, and my apologies to bassdude for my digression, I was sitting in a luthier's shop today thumbing thru a back-dated issue of Strad, and there was a last page article on Gary Karr's troubles and trevails with bass transportation. He supposedly had a bass on every continent when he was touring heavily. He also had a full-time assistant who had the exclusive job of making sure that his Amati got, not only from point A to point B, but once it arrived at point B, had the appropriate mode of transportation to the concert hall.

So bassdude, the answer might be a full-time assistant. Huh???

I suppose now all I will have to do is buy like 7 or 8 more bass' and hire some monkey slave to drag them around, thanks man.

I can get you one of these cases. I have to call to get an update on pricing, but I'm sure we could do it for well under $900.

http://www.delanet.com/~gollihur/hardshellbasscase.jpg

It's not really intended as a heavy duty, airplane-ready monster trunk. Just a step up from a soft case that, despite all padding, can't always protect the instrument if you take a big hit. And good for the back of the band truck or trailer or on a bus or similar situation, to address BassDude24's query.