I had to transport the mighty dragon wing in its OHSC when i noticed the middle of the case trying to open itself and let the bass leak out. upon further investigation, it appears that C&G has been cheaping out on thier case latches. that center latch will only hold the case closed under the most optimistic handeling conditions. this is a 2018 bass. i pulled the case out for my 2018 MKD and it has a latch that actually captures the two halves of the case and pulls them together. pretty sure my other OHSCs are all built the same way..
as it stands, i'm pretty hesitant to transport the bass in its OHSC because i can't trust it. not with a bass in it, anyway. anybody else notice this? now i'm gonna hafta find a luggage repairman and get a good latch put on this case before i can use it with my instrument inside. latches pictured below for your perusal
Yes I have noticed this for years on these cases and even though I only store my basses in these cases, so they never leave the house. I have one of those cases for my strat and on one occasion it flipped open, thankfully against my leg so I was able to stop the guitar hitting the ground.
I have flight cases or gig bags for carrying my alembics to gigs.
See FC's post #12 here-
https://club.alembicguitars.com/troubleshooting/loose-case/msg54489/#msg54489
well i was a little steamed when i wrote that. i mighta been a little harsh, i think i'm better now. guess it's not just me.
that DW case is HUGe, even bigger than the flight case for my SII. it kinda got on my bad side right outta the UPS box when the lid fell on my right arm whilest wrestling the bass out of it and that center latch blade took a gouge outta my forearm. the scab just now fell off, btw :o
i've got a cheeapo coffin case from GC that's big enuff for the SII and barely big enuff for the DW that fits in my clown car behind the driver's seat for shuttling back and forth to rehearsal. the problem is it's gotta ride in the OHSC when it gets loaded into the band van with the rest of our gear when we gig.
so it's off to the luggage guy. kinda irritating but i guess i'll live though it.
It looks like the center latch is a case that has the sliding locks on the the two ends. We've changed to have all teh cases with the heavier latches you show in your second picture, like this one (https://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/394/222795.jpg) for at least the last 8 years. A 2018 Dragon Wing might have an older case before we made that change. But yeah, finding a local luggage repair service is a good idea.
The '83 Exploiter I bought from you has that same flip-up latch in the middle, and it was the ONLY thing holding that case closed all the way from CO as the two spring latches were broken. I almost had a heart attack when I saw that giant case with a shipping label attached to the handle, but it was thankfully perfectly fine.
PS - this is not a jab at Tim, it's a jab at the UPS store that was supposed to PACK it.
Those broken locking spring latches is why we went to the heavy duty noon-locking type on all new cases.
well fortunately the DW was well packed for shipment so it survived shipment well. looks like it travels with me to shows in the coffin case in the clown car to shows until i can get the case reenforced. since that case is so big, ill probably have 2 latches put on it spaced on either side of the handle.
i never gigged that exploiter so its case only saw the light of day being shipped somewheres. i don't remember what kinda shape it was in. it's gotta be almost as big as that DW case, tho.
back in the day my '74 P-bass travelled in its HSC in the band van. one load-in i saw our roadie using the HSC as a lever to force a bass bin to the front of the van. so we never travel sans well-secured HSC after that.
cheers!
🗿🐕