Dennis Sherman

I recently purchased some new-to-me instruments, an alto and tenor Renaissance shawm, made by John Hanchet.  That leads to a need for a new instrument case, as what I’ve been carrying isn’t deep enough for the 5″ bell on the tenor.

I spent much too long looking at various options and cases from Pelican, SKB, Gator, and several other manufacturers.  I’ve got a Pelican case for my hurdy-gurdy, and I like it a lot. The Gator web site has the best search-by-size option available, by far. SKB cases come highly recommended by other musicians and photographers.  The choice was tough…

The biggest two considerations were enough depth to hold the instrument bells safely, but not too large a case to fit in the back of the car.  ATA certification is a strong bonus characteristic, so I can fly with instruments in the cargo hold and not worry about them too much.

I looked at rifle cases, shotgun cases, double bow and bow and rifle cases, keyboard cases, trombone cases, and some general purpose military shipping cases.

What I ended up ordering is a case made as a 61 note keyboard case by SKB. I expect to have to do some interior customization to hold my instruments, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem for me.  This case is a few inches shorter than my old instrument gun case, a couple inches wider, and the inch and a half deeper I need to hold the new instruments.  And it has wheels!