I had a case made by Calton Cases of Canada for my Kinscherff High Noon guitar. They custom make cases for all different types of instruments. There are testimonials from people saying the instruments have survived fire damage, been run over, and dropped from significant heights, (I have no idea what that is about) I don't know if anyone in the forum has an instrument to justify the expense because the case cost more than my first guitar, case and all and then some. And just to give you an idea, my first guitar was an ovation celebrity. The cases can run between $500 and $1000 but for me it was worth the cost because my instrument is irreplaceable.

I've seen guitars in "hard" cases run over by a truck -- wasn't pretty. I've also seen airline baggage guys throwing Anvil cases, so I'd consider $1,000 a fair expense if you travel a lot. Amazingly enough, I've had people who were renting guitars from the music store I worked in mail the guitar back by just putting tape around the chipboard case and putting postage on it -- and the USPS took it that way! I only have gigbags, but if my basses ever went in a truck, it'd be in at least a hard case. And I do have an Anvil-style case for my Roland bass pedals, as I did for my Taurus pedals way back when.

I've never flown with my upright, but I dread the experience of doing so. Not only will it be one of the scariest flights of my life, not knowing what happens to my instrument until I get there, it will be one of the most expensive. A flight for an upright bass can easily run $3k-$5k. I paid $3,000 for the bass itself, but I've been offered bass-for-bass trades by people who had $10k basses. It's a beautiful instrument. I must've gotten lucky on the wood or something.

On the bright side, the case is big enough that a truck would just push it or knock it out of the way before it ran over it. That's a bright side, right?

Yeah, the first thing that people ask you when you tell them about the case is; "Well lets run it over and see if it works!" Yeah right! I can rest a little easier with my guitar being in the case but I don't think I wanna test the limits. I still get nervous when the case falls over with the guitar in it.