First of all, let me say this: I am a gig bag hater. I like the big, square, wooden hard cases. Yes, they are heavy. Yes, they are inconvenient. Yes, they absolutely will protect your bass.
Molded-plastic, SKB style cases are ok, but they tend to warp pretty quickly and don't have much room for cables and straps.
Gig bags = damaged basses, if you ask me. Granted, I have a few gig bags, but I rarely take an instrument out of the house in a gig bag.
Recently, though, I downsized my car. I went from a Pontiac Aztek that could fit my 810e to a Mazda6 that can only barely fit a 112 through the trunk opening. Those big, wooden hard cases that I like are just not going to work anymore.
So I was off on a gig bag search. I wanted something hard case-like (maximum protection), but gig bag-like (minimum size). Looking through TB, I quickly came up with two contenders: The Incase slim bag and the Sadowsky portabag. Both looked to fit my needs, but what a price tag! Both of them are around $200 + shipping. For a gig bag? I don't think so.
Finally, I came up with another candidate: the ProTec Contego. Not too much about it here on TB: good bag, bad zippers, early models had no neck support. $130 list price. That's pretty much all I could find out here.
Let me correct this lack of information regarding the ProTec Contego right now.
First, the price. I bought mine from theperfectbass.com. It cost my $96 minus a $9.60 TB discount plus free shipping (I ordered an instrument cable to get my order above $99), or $86.40. It shipped quickly and arrive well-packaged. I'll be buying from there again.
Second, this is a hybrid bag. It is, in essence, a gig bag, and the padding seems to be about an inch thick. The top and bottom are somewhat flexible, but there is a fairly rigid insert in both the top and the bottom that puts this thing into the "hybrid" category.
The zippers seem durable enough to me. I suspect they have been improved on the newer models. There is a removable velcro neck support included with the case. It comes with a 5-year warranty covering defective materials and workmanship.
Here is the Contego:
It has three zippered pockets on the lid of the case. There is a small pocket at the headstock. I could probably fit a Boss-sized effects pedal up here:
There are two larger pockets at the body, perfect for cables, a paper notebook, strap, etc. I'm probably not going to be able to fit my LMII in there, though. (Not that I'd want to.)
On the back of the case, there is a place for a hook so you can hang the bag. I'm not sure why you'd want this, but it does seem to be a feature on many gig bags. It did not come with the hook, but it has a place for one:
The backpack straps are well padded, and there is a velcro strip to hold them out of the way, if necessary. The strap hardware is all plastic, so it may be fragile over time. The straps are nicely positioned so that when I use them, the bass does extend higher than the top of my head, but not ridiculously so.
The case has rubber feet so that when you set it down, the cloth (which looks to be fairly durable) won't get damaged by conrete, etc. There are three feet along the long side opposite the handle. Strangely, there is only one rubber foot at the bottom, so if you stand the bag on its end, I guess you are supposed to balance it on the one foot. Two feet on the end would be better.
The inside of the case is made of a nice, soft material. The sides are well padded, and also have the same rigid material that the top and bottom have.
There are a few pieces of fake leather sewn in strategic areas where the bass could damage the cloth. The first one is at the end pin:
There is also some fake leather to keep the bridge from poking holes in the case:
Finally, there is some fake leather at the headstock, probably to keep improperly installed string ends from damaging the case. This picture also shows the neck support, which is attached by velcro at its ends:
Once the bass is in the case, there is a little bit of wiggle room, both side-to-side and top-to-bottom. Its not too bad, and I guess this is to be expected from a one-size-fits-all case.
In summary,
PROS:
* Good price, especially compared to other similar bags.
* Nice, compact size. Not big, but big enough to fit accessories in the pouches.
* Decent protection for a bag, thanks to the rigid reinforcement of the case.
* Well padded. I estimate it to have about 1" of padding.
* Five year warranty.
CONS:
* Its a bag. It is not going to protect like a hard case. Period.
* The plastic hardware on the backpack straps could break over time. To be fair, I had a Dell laptop bag with metal strap hardware, and the metal broke while I was in a stairwell! The laptop survived the fall. The bag was burned at the stake.
* Only one rubber foot at the bottom.
* The one-size-fits-all thing means that it probably doesn't fit any bass perfectly. I sometimes fix this problem with soft washcloths to fill space.
CONCLUSION:
I won't be able to comment on durability for a couple years, but I don't anticipate any problems. It looks durable enough, and I'm pretty good to my stuff anyway. Based on price comparisons and initial quality, though, I'd have to recommend this bag as a good deal. I'm sure the Sadowsky and Incase bags are better, but they are also 2-3 times the price. Also, based on my initial experience, I have to recommend theperfectbass.com. Their customer service was transparent - they handled my order the way it should be handled. I simply placed my ordered (at the lowest price I could find, by the way!) and received it about 3 days later.
I still hate gig bags, though. I'm going to call this thing a case.
