[Harp-L] Question: I need to replace the foam inset

["MLeFree" <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

With the talk about using "pick and pluck" foam to customize a harp case, I
thought I'd relate my personal experience.

I used the toy soldier-type pick and pluck foam inserts to build some very
elaborate and highly functional harp-holding innards for an old laptop case
I had laying around. I was very happy with it and even reported on it here
several years ago. I was doing quite fine with it for some time until one
fateful day I dropped the case. Of course it weighed probably 15 pounds with
all the harps I had crammed into it, and the result of the fall was pretty
much a disaster. I heard the loose harps clanking around as I picked the
case up. When I opened it, I was dismayed to find what was basically an even
mixture of harps and little cubes of the pick and pluck foam. The weight of
the harps had ripped my carefully constructed foam inserts to shreds on that
single, sudden impact.

As a result, I'd be very reluctant to use pick and pluck foam to build the
foam innards to a case that contains more than a few harps. Harps weigh a
lot when you get more than a few together and the pick and pluck foam just
isn't stout enough to hold together under any significant stress. Of course
you'll probably be fine using it if you ~never~ drop your case.   ;^)

My opinion, based on my own experience.

Michelle