[equipment] In The Bag

It feels sort of weird to wax rhapsodic about a bass drum case, but in this instance (yeah, I could have said "in this case," but I didn't, so you can thank me later), I feel it's warranted.

If you've ever seen me before or after a gig in the last couple of years, you would know just how much I would swear at the hard case for my kick drum. When I was using an 20" kick, the 22" case wasn't much of a problem, although I did scrape out some of the padding inside once or twice. Once I switched up to a 22" drum -- the size that the case was actually built for -- I started having massive problems. The drum would get caught on the padding, the drum would tear the living crap out of the padding, that sort of thing. And to say it was unwieldy to carry was a bit of an understatement. Same goes for fitting it in the car, which, while not impossible, had some room for improvement.

As part of the current effort to make the live kit more easily portable, I got myself a 16"x22" soft case from Kaces. And, like I said before, I'm actually really excited about a case. It's not without it's slight drawbacks, as the fit is awfully snug, to the point where it's a bit of a struggle to get the drum in, but the salesman at Guitar Center insists that will improve after some use. The footprint of the bag is so much smaller than the hard case, it's remarkable. Not only can I get more creative with positioning inside the car, but I can actually carry the damn thing slung over my shoulder if I wanted to. Not necessarily a good idea for long distances, but it helps tremdously on short trips, and the strap is sturdy enough that I don't worry about the weight snapping it.

I still need to lighten the load in my hardware bag, but that should be happening soon. I might even be able to load the kit in two trips!