SKB 375 case

[daviste]

I was a little irritated when I found out that my mouthpiece wouldn't fit in my SKB case. So instead I stored the mouthpiece in a little drawstring bag with my music, valve oil, and left-hand strap.

Was the Besson just too fat/deep for the case? Or was it also too wide and/or too tall?

[RandyL]

I think the depth was the main thing. Not too fat and certainly not too tall. The wrap may be a little different; the two bows didn't both seem to want to lie in their places. I think this may be related to the depth. The horizontal axis of the bottom and top bows don't lie in the same plane; the top bow has to angle across the main body of the instrument. I think the greater depth of the Besson horn may increase this angle compared to "shallower" horns. So the horn did not lie down quite right in the "bottom" half of the case even before closing the case and finding that the two halves won't meet without crunching the horn. The misfit was not extreme; I think it could be tolerable if the case would close without excessive pressure.

[jkircoff]

Euphoniums are too varied in shape for a molded case to be truly universal.

[RandyL]

True, but the design of this one seems to be more restrictive than necessary. For example, does the channel for the upper bow really need to fit the most common wrap so closely? And when the manufacturer can list only 4 horns known to fit the case (none of which is the horn shown in the picture, since the four listed all have 4 valves and the horn in the picture has only 3), you get a strong impression that they have not worked very hard to make sure the design of the case accommodates as many horns as possible.

I suggested in correspondence with them that perhaps one of their dealers who also sells a broad variety of horns might help them expand their list of what horns fit and what horns do not. From there, I would hope that perhaps they'd go back to the drawing board to see whether they might be able to accommodate more horns than the current design does. We shall see what happens; no change on the website yet. I really love those stiffener ribs on the sides of the case. They make it highly resistant to side impacts. So I hope they can move the design toward greater universality.

Randy