[Harp-L] Harp cases

[William Jennings <will@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've had great luck shopping in eBay for used Anvil and Calzone ATA  
road cases.
You can find these in numerous smaller sizes. There are other brands,  
but beware
of cheapy look-alike cases that claim to be ATA or 'flight' cases.

I sea kayak quite abit and have used minicell foam to customize the  
fit of my seat and thigh braces...
so I have found that blocks of minicell foam can be purchased  
relatively inexpensively.
I've used an electric carving knife, serrated bread knives, and fine  
shaping rasps (and even
an abrasive called 'shark skin') for shaping traced cut outs.  I've  
made small trays from very thin cabinet facing grade
ply wood to hold 3 layers of foam.  The bottom layer holds my vocal &  
harp mics, (1 Audix Fireball, 3 bullets, a Shure Beta 87A, an AT AE5400,
and a Microvox mini mic with battery belt pack, a spare set of tubes  
for my amp,
and my impedence adapters, a few spare 9 volts for pedals, etc.  The  
middle layer holds spare harps, harps I only
use occasionally at gigs, my harp repair kit, sharpie pens, and I  
usually keep a folder of set lists, song lyrics, etc.
here.  The top layer holds all my ten hole diatonics, three chroms, a  
few echo and trem harps, and a small Photon flashlight
that clips to a bendy arm and is anchored by a magnetic base...with  
the case lid open, I can stick the light to a recessed latch,
bend the wand arm over my case and turn on the LED light during sets  
when the stage lighting is dim...

This entire rig packs up tight, is waterproof, and I've even send it  
as checked luggage if I trusted them not to lose it.
It's efficient, weighs in on the heavy side, and I wouldn't want to  
carry it around with me all day....but a road case
isn't supposed to serve that function.

If I'm going to an informal jam, the top rack that holds my harps can  
be taken from my hard road case
and zipped into a soft sided laptop-style briefcase...with pockets to  
hold mics, etc.

Another nice thing about a hard, bomb-proof road case is that you can  
also put a few 'dry pack' moisture
absorbers (the resusable type) to keep the humidity low and protect  
both your harps and mic elements.
I play in high humidity during the summer and it's nice to keep  
things dry.

Will