All double bass players need a decent gig bag. Unlike the other members of the stringed instrument family, double bass players carry instruments in soft cases about 90% of the time. Having a durable, well-padded soft case is essential for any bass player.
As far as bass bags go, I definitely think that the Mooradian soft case is the best bang for your buck out there right now. I have used several different brands over the years, and the Mooradians offer a good amount of shielding from bumps and the elements. They are also not too heavy. There is a standard and deluxe model. I use the standard model and find that it has plenty of padding, pockets, and the like. The deluxe bag offers thicker padding but not much else, and I don’t think it is worth the extra $100 that Mooradian charges. The standard soft cases cost around $270, and they last a long time. The deluxe Mooradian bags cost about $379. After several years of use zippers begin to fail and need replacement, but this happens to every soft bass case (I have seen some start to fall apart within the first year!).
Stay away from Kolstein soft cases–every Kolstein soft case I have seen that is over a couple of years old is covered with duct tape to hold it together. I’ve never duct taped a Mooradian case in my life. Also, I know several players who have had handles break on them while carrying basses in Kolstein cases. One colleague here in Chicago just had to have the top taken off and have major work done after a handle broke on his Kolstein soft case. His instrument fell and cracked in several places. I had this happen to a Mooradian case myself once but the case was fourteen years old. This Kolstein case was about four years old. Stay away from these Kolstein soft cases.
Cushy offers a bass bag very similar to the Mooradian for a cheaper price, but I have seen handles break on these bags relatively soon, which is the last thing in the world anyone wants to have happen to them. I would take a Cushy over a Kolstein case any day, however. They are decent soft cases.
Soundwear and Reunion Blues also offer really great bass bags, but they are over $500 and are extremely heavy. I own a Soundwear case as well but have gone back to using the Mooradian as my main bag due to the weight difference. If you live in a cold climate, however, a Reunion Blues or Soundwear case may be just the thing for you. These brands of gig bags have backpack straps, which can be very useful when hauling other gear such as amplifiers and stools. Be careful not to crack your bass neck on door frames while wearing it on your back! These heavier cases shield the instrument from temperature changes better than Mooradian gig bags. A prime time for cracking your instrument is going from a heated car into a parking lot during sub-zero temperatures, and then entering a dry, heated concert hall. These heavier bags keep your bass at the old temperature much longer than lighter bags. My 125 year old Lowendal used to develop a couple of new cracks every winter here in Chicago. After buying a Soundwear case I quit developing winter cracks. Also, I have never had a Soundwear handle break (although all of my zippers have now broken on my six year old Soundwear case). I have seen a backpack strap break on a Reunion Blues gig bag once while the bass player was carrying it. The bass fell and was pretty severely damaged.
Overall, I recommend Mooradian to most players and Soundwear and Reunion Blues to cold climate players who don’t mind lugging heavy packages. If anyone has any opinion on these or other gig bags please leave a comment. There are many gig bags out there that I haven’t had any contact with before, and I would love to learn more about some other brands and styles of gig bag.
Bass News Right To Your Inbox!
Subscribe to get our weekly newsletter covering the double bass world.
Hi, thanks for the post. I had initially wanted to consider between Mooradian and Soundwear soft-cases, but decided to purchase a soft-case from a local music shop in Singapore. My new soft-case has a pair of wheels screwed onto the case.
I think I might prefer my Bobelock bag to all the others. I had a soundwear performance bag that was quite luxurious, but very cumbersome, as you stated.
With the neck – cinch, the Bobelock fits my very odd-sized Solano Klotz quite well.
I bought a Mooradian case @1985 when Ron was making them tailored for each bass. After many years of hard use it’s still in great shape and the zippers work like new. The only problem has been with with the bow sheath. It wore out after about 20 years and the hole is pinned together. I’ll buy another if this one ever wears out
I used a Reunion Blues through much of the 90s and was pretty happy with it – back then, it was the only gig bag available that offered a decent backpack strap. Actually, the bag still is around and in „okay“ shape – at one point, I sold it for a couple of Euros, to a student who doesn’t travel with the instrument a lot. Now I’m told that the Reunion Blues company offer quite a good service within the U.S. and Canada when it comes to minor repairs &c. That may or may not be so, but it’s obviously rather pointless for the European musician. It just doesn’t make any sense to have your gig bag shipped around half the globe to San Francisco and wait two or three weeks to have a broken zipper replaced… So, when the quality of any given items to choose from is more or less comparable, you might want to prefer the company that resides anywhere near you. I have a Soundwear now, which comes from a company in Southern Germany (about 500 km from my hometown Berlin). It’s not exactly what I’d call inexpensive, but the product as such as well as the service that comes with it are worth every cent of the price. The gig bag is still in remarkable shape after five years of heavy use. In that time, I had to send it „back home“ twice for little things to be fixed (zippers, padding, backpack) and they always sent it back to me not only like new, but even better than that (like with a little new contraption attached here and this thingy improved…) Plus, the whole thing was settled in less than 48 hours every time and they never charged me a cent. Now, I have no reason to assume that I was given an extra red carpet treatment or anything. Nor do I think that such benefits are the privilege of the customer of the aforementioned company. All I’m saying is this: double bass gig bags are, for obvious reasons, a small market and the high quality, inventive stuff invariably comes from small companies. These are folks you can keep in touch with, they’ll remember you, and if they happen to like the musical genre you’re working in, they might even show up in a concert once you play in the area (no kidding, it all happened to me). I guess all that is worth some mutual support, so if possible, I recommend you spend that extra buck and buy something from a manufacturer in your „neighborhood“, as it were. This should work for most of Europe and North America, at least. About Singapore (or Buenos Aires, for that matter), I haven’t a clue. But why shouldn’t the same idea apply there? Oh yes, by the way – Jason’s words about the climatic conditions you’re working in normally should be a major point in your considerations before you buy a bag. Very familiar with the conditions in Central Europe, a company like Soundwear come up with products that make sense under these circumstances. You travel a little, say, to a gig in Madrid, and find out that your gig bag is, first and foremost, ludicrously heavy. I don’t really want to know about my possible impressions were I to travel with that same bag to some subtropical region…
I own a Mooradian for the last 5 years. It does start to wear out – I had to repair the pockets and other seams quite a few times, it lets a fair amount of humidity into the interior during rain, the foam inside the padding starts to “thin” and wear out and some other disadvantages. Nevertheless, it is a good case, it has been serving me pretty well. I am thinking about the Soundwear and Reunion Blues (my bow Reunion Blues leather case is amazing!) I would also suggest checking out the Pro-Bass case at Bob Gollihur’s online store Gollihur Music – http://www.gollihur.com – its a heavy duty luxurious case, but again, it is heavy.
I also have the one from Bob Gollihur and after using it for 4 years, in Canada with changing weathers, it’s a really good case. Maybe a little on the heavy side, but it has wheels. Even my luthier asked me where I found that case and, when I told him the price, he wanted to contact Gollihur in order to command some of them.