ATA flight cases, finally…

March 9th, 2009

So for the past 8 months, I’ve been hauling around this stuff:

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This picture was taken at the Green Room, a worship service we do on the MSU campus at 9pm every sunday night. Now, I’ve always been a fan of British gear, but one problem is that they make everything really freaking heavy and don’t build wheels on them. That deck got me by, but I really wanted something that would also protect my investments.

After reading around and talking to people at various music stores in town, I came to the realization that the cases were going to cost a lot. So, I looked up plans on how to make these suckers. This idea ended quickly because I have zero to no talent at building things, plus the parts are pretty expensive anyway.

Then, about 3 months ago, I found Affordable-Cases.com, and (even though they have a really ugly site) they seemed to be the best deal. I read some reviews on a few music forums and decided I’d go with them.

It took about a month to get someone to call or email me back, but once they did, the ball began to roll really quickly and smoothly. They didn’t need to know the dimensions of any of my gear, I just told them what style of cases I wanted and if I wanted recessed hardware, etc.

For my orange 2×12 cabinet, I went with a “Live-In” 1/4″ plywood case. This thing rocks:

img_0140img_0142The back has a little latch that you just open up to plug stuff in, so you don’t have to take off both sides. I had them put locking casters on the corners and they seem to work really well.  Nothing too special about this cases, other than they did a great job building it and fitting it precisely to the size of the cab.

Now for the Vox, I went a little crazy. This case has a 3unit shockrack on top of the place for the amp. In that rack is a steel locking drawer to store cables, mics, footswitches, etc. This case has lids that come off both sides for access plus locking casters.

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All in all, I’m really happy with the cases. The biggest problem is I can’t lift the amp case by myself (neither could you). The Vox is already insanely heavy, then when you add all the hardware and wood and make it freaking huge, it makes it impossible to carry. This presents a pretty big problem, because I need to be able to lift stuff in and out of my car by myself. So, I’m debating whether or not I need to see about getting a smaller cases, perhaps without the depth of the drawer, to keep the weight down.

Either way, I’m really excited to push stuff around and not worry about getting scratches and stuff. Oh, and I definitely recommend Affordable Cases, they’re based out of St. Louis, and they’ll custom build you a case for anything you want.

Anyway, now my gear looks like this:

img_0145Bye!

admin Gear

Hi everybody!

February 24th, 2009

hi dr. nick!Well, I’ve officially re-entered myself into the “blogosphere.” As you can see from the tagline, this blog will mainly focus on thoughts about modern worship leading (that i’m privelidged to do at Schweitzer United Methodist Church in Springfield, MO) and also my work as a freelance web designer.

However, I still reserve the write to talk about strange things that interest me: such as television (see the yellow dude), film (how did Frost/Nixon win no oscars?), technology (omgzz@#!! apple is so amazing), and much much more!

And let me just say one thing: my writing skillz are below average and I tend to talk like a “gangsta” or a “nerdzors” out of nowhere, so be ready/looking forward to that.

See ya around!

-Zak

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