Review of the Incase Slim and Dub Bags

I need more protection for my basses for when I keep them onboard a Navy destroyer. The little tin can rocks and rolls like a muther and everything my basses and I will slam against are made of metal. HSCs are bulky and unwieldy in the narrow confines of a ship also so I went ahead and sprung for these expensive "gig bags".

First the Slimbag. Got it for $199 shipped from EBay seller Magdon-Music

Details are here: http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/slim-bag-cl56065

It is really closer to "case" than "gig bag". Form follows function here. You cannot fold nor roll this gig bag up. It is really a soft case. The material is similar to what is used for good luggage. Much, much thicker than your average Rockbag or $50 Drugrunner. The focus is on instrument protection and not the number of pockets you can hide your gadgets in. It has multiple layers of foam and stiff plastic panels that surround your baby. Additionally, it has a full length neck support (with small zipper pockets) and furry stuff inside to further secure your bass. It has one main pocket which only opens partway (see photo). Inside this main pocket is a laptop sleeve and a flat pocket. There's not much storage room between the neck support and main pockets but for a laptop, a gadget or two, a tuner and some cables.
The stowable carrying system is very ergonomic. It has shoulder, chest and waist straps as well as a slinger style single strap.
The only included accessory is a heavy duty bent piece of metal 1.5" wide X 1/8" thick attached to a strap; this is the hanger. BTW, Don't let the declared weight on Incase's website fool you. Being made of lightweight materials the SlimBag is not heavy at all.

Picture of Slimbag pocket at max opening. You can plainly see the laptop sleeve. The pocket enjoys the full protection afforded to the rest of the case.



Next is the Dub Bag. I got it for $279 from Fat Tone Guitars. I always hear that these Dub Bags are hard to find but Fat Tone got it to me in one week.

Details of the Dub are here:

http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/dub-bag-cl56066

This thing is MASSIVE. Like the smaller Slim Bag, it is more a soft case than a gig bag. Not much to say about it really than it is almost twice as deep than the Slim Bag to make room for two basses and the thick, fur lined, internal divider that separates them. The neck support on the top compartment does not have the little zipped pockets but it is removable. I imagine that I can use the top compartment as storage space for a small pedalboard or a Little Mark II if I'm not carrying a bass in it.
Once again, the focus here is intrument protection and so it is heavy on the layers of padding but light on storage. The main pocket does not have a laptop sleeve but merely two flat pockets and only the bottom bass compartment's neck support pads has pockets.
The carrying system and the hanger are the same for both units.
The Dub is a little heftier than the Slim but even a 42 yr. old fart like myself did not have any trouble walking three blocks with two basses slung over my shoulder.

Comparison pics. Two bags edge on with an Ibby SR506 in between.



Side by side on the floor. Dub on the left. You can see the pocketless neck support of the top compartment of the Dub. There is an SR4 in the bottom compartment



Back shot with the Slim's straps showing and the Dub's stowed. Both have the slinger strap attached.



The HUGE boxes they ship in



Fat Tone's nice business card (blister packed with a free clear pick)



Soo what can I say about them? None of my basses cost over $2K but they are/were limited in availability so they are worth a lot TO ME. I figure $500 is a good amount to spend on protecting my babies in bags that will outlast me. Sure the Incase bags are cumbersome to store and use because you cannot fold or roll them up and you pretty much have to lay them flat to get the contents out (and you have to remove the top bass to get the bottom one in the Dub) but they have the wear resistance and lightweight of typical good gig bags while not being as bulky or as dent or scuff prone as a HSC. Incase also included little things that improve the bags' ergonomics (grippy materials on the straps and handles, carabiner loops to allow multiple carrying options, heavy duty feet and strap pin protection etc. etc) so the prices were somewhat easier to swallow.