Glenn or China ?

[bloke]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133942878766

[the elephant]

China. I have owned a lot of Cronkhite cases and none of them ever had "feet" on the side.

[bloke]

A couple of other details didn’t look right, either.
All four of the bags I have are Glenn bags.

NEARLY OFF TOPIC, AND GOING OFF ON TANGENTS:
I sort of feel lucky to have stumbled across - in particular - a TOP-action clamshell Glenn bag that is also long, which means that my 1958 Besson recording E-flat (but with the auxiliary upright bell that I made for it installed) fits in that bag perfectly. I even found that I have a pretty-darn-good-fit Glenn bag for the shorty Holton tuba, but I am enjoying caring it around in the really compact molded case - that Mrs. bloke completely interior-reconfigured/reupholstered to fit it perfectly.
In summary, I really like the styling and quality of the “California“ bags, whether Glenn or Glenn-like, but I’m not much for the name-sold-to-China ones.

[LeMark]

Don't all glenn bags have a detached music pocket?

I have a suspected chinese Reunion Blues bag. It does not have a detached pocket, but it doesn't exactly remind me of the older RB bags either

[the elephant]

No. The smaller ones have an integral pocket like this one. The Torpedo bag for my 186 came with an integral pocket, too, that is too small for mucic folders, AND no accessory pocket for mouthpieces and lubes. I paid $1200 for that crap. Never again.

The Chinese ones usually have the integral pocket, too. The snap-on folder pouch is generally a sign of a real GC bag, but the lack of one does not confirm it's a knock-off. To me, the "feet" are telltale.

[bloke]

I have a piggy sized Glenn bag with a detached pocket. Back pocket too. They don't get much smaller than that.

[bloke]

In the past, I had an OLD Glenn bag - into which I could JUST BARELY squeeze my F tuba.
Someone sold it to me because of a bad zipper, but ALL the zipper needed was to put pliers
to the slide and squeeze it down tighter.
Due to that bag's small size (and early vintage...??), it actually was a bit different from the others.
I loved it - even though it took 20 seconds longer to get the tuba into it.
Someone did me a VERY nice favor (GAVE me a BRAND NEW "Glenn Cronkhite" 5/4 bag),
so I felt obliged to return the generosity by giving them my beloved small/sleek/old RB/Glenn bag
with an F tuba that I sold to them.

I have a piggy sized Glenn bag with a detached pocket. Back pocket too. They don't get much smaller than that.

[the elephant]

The 621 bag has seams that are too close together to have attachment points for the snaps for the bag, so it comes with an integral pocket. I struggled with that small pocket for years, but I managed to stretch out the leather to hold my big K&M folding stand and the MSOBQ's full-sized, fat folder. That bag also did not have the accessory pouch on the strap side. I suspect that the Torpedo boys decided that this format would be less expensive to make and then overcharge for.

Here are the three bags I owned back in 2007:

Top to bottom: 2265 (now used with my Holton 345), Alexander 163, Yamaha YFB-621

Note the lack of folder pouch on the bag for the Yamaha. I loved that bag, but it was hard to carry much in it.

[tofu]

.

[LeMark]

I've never seen a RB bag with a detachable pocket, and I've never seen a GC bag without one.

[bloke]

I've never seen a RB bag with a detachable pocket, and I've never seen a GC bag without one.

All of my really/really old Cronkite-made RB bags – except that tiny one that I talked about above - either had a hanging music pocket or places to hook one on.
I think only one bag that I own now is from that old era (with a “Reunion Blues / San Francisco“ label on the interior).
… in the past, I had been hoarding them in a huge box, but Mrs. bloke had enough of that and insisted on me selling all of them other than the ones that I was using.
leather:
I always love looking at the beautiful leather ones, but know that they require a little bit of care and maintenance. I’m not much of a “care and maintenance“ person, because I always have (maintaining and caring for other peoples things) way too much to do, and tend to neglect personal “care and maintenance“ in general. This comment may raise some eyebrows, but the beautiful leather bags also sort of say, “hey… There’s something expensive in here”, and - for the few times that I’ve been forced to leave my instrument showing in my vehicle – the nylon is (well…) obviously more understated…and - though all the various colors of Cordura nylon are also beautiful, black works best for this strategy - for me.
The nylon versions are extremely nice, dust comes right off of them, they never need saddle soap, and – as long as I keep them leaning up in the back of my closet - away from the cats, there’s nothing else that they ever need. I just don’t think there are very many makes of tuba bags (other than these, and those still made in California that are similar to these…and by someone who is a member of this forum) that are designed to last a lifetime.

[MikeMason]

I ordered my current bag with integrated pocket. No problems/works great. Pt6 size. Maybe 8 years ago from California.

[York-aholic]

I too have a SF Reunion blues bag (leather) that has the detachable music pocket.

If I remember correctly, Tuba Exchange has Reunion blues make bags with their name on, then moved production offshore. I have one that was made somewhere in the middle of that that was made in Canada of all places. As far as I can tell, the quality is at a SF/Glenn level.

[the elephant]

I have a really sad, beat-up RB/SF "cordura" bag made for TE. It uses thinner padding that is softer. The covering is not genuine DuPont Cordura, but what most people would accept today as being the same. (Is it a facial tissue or a Kleenex?) But it is a much cheaper bag, with TUBA EXCHANGE embossed on two leather patches, and the RB label being very tiny and hidden inside. (It is literally the size of a postage stamp.) This was a GC-made *discount* bag sold for much less than his self-branded merch. It is a pretty great "cheap" bag as the assembly is top-notch, but the materials (padding especially) are not as nice as what his self-branded stuff uses. Hence the lower price and his hidden label.

I had it re-zippered a few years ago. The guy did a crap job, so I will send it to Torpedo to see what they can do to it as well as get a quote on how millions of shekels it will set me back. It is long enough for a 19"-belled old 2341. It is too long for a 186. I think it came with a Kalison DS, which was about the same length as a 186 but had a larger bell, so both the King and the Miraphone fit, but not really well. Combine the craptacular zipper with the lack of protection and this is my emergency bag. Of course, I have never had a bag emergency, so my homebrew 186 lives in it — albeit very loosely, and with an aversion to the travesty of a zipper that protects it from my cats.

This bag — branded RB/SF — has the separate music pouch and the strap-side integral pocket. The end is a box, like his GC bags, and not the partially openable round bell end of the very old RB stuff (which I prefer).

It is interesting to figure out how these bags changed over the decades, and when some changes were incorporated (meaning RB- or GC-era stuff).

[bloke]

There's an older European guy in Memphis behind a very tall building called "Clark Tower") that does nice zipper work (shoe/luggage repair), and charges me reasonable prices.
I would expect - over the last couple of years (with the epic money-printing, etc.) - for "reasonable" to be double the previous.
Enough clicking around the internet finds big phat zippers in any length. I have no links to offer...Only encouragement in searching.

[Rick Denney]

I have a "Brasswind"-branded RB bag from at least as far back as the 80's, sized for a 186 (I use it for my B&S F tuba). It has an integral pocket, and the side zipper does not cross the bell. It looks just like every RB-branded bag from that era that I've ever seen.

All later Cronkhite bags I've bought have detached pockets and are full clamshells, including the Torpedo-made bag for my little Eastman.

My Goetz Supersac for the Hirsbrunner has three pockets. The inner pocket is flat and integral with just a zipper showing, and (surprisingly to me from looking at it) it will accommodate a full-size black leatherette folder. The outer pocket is smaller but is sewn with depth, and will hold an iPad Pro and a stand light (but not at the same time--and they wouldn't be needed at the same time, now would they?) And there is a pocket on the inner side of the bell opening panel that presumably would hold a mouthpiece, but I don't use that one. This bag is side-opening but is not a clamshell. The zipper goes down one side and around the bottom bow, while a second zipper wraps around the audience-side edge of the bell. The two zippers meet when closed at the edge of the bell right above the mouthpiece receiver. When unzipped, the entire side panel lays open, but the bell panel stays intact and has quite a decent amount of structure. It took forever to get and it isn't cheap but it's a great bag.

Rick "all seem to be real Cordura" Denney

[bloke]

I think it would be interesting to weigh bags.
People seem so interested in how much tubas weigh, and - when legs or backs end up being lame - some seem to sell really fine tubas that weigh X and spend double what they got for their really nice tuba to turn around and buy a “pretty good“ tuba that weighs X - 2 lbs. (etc.)
… but people don’t carry tubas around when they’re playing them, but they do carry them around when they are inside bags.
Speaking of which, what was the brand of that bag that had that heavy sheet of plastic built into it that made that bag weigh almost as much as some hard cases weigh ?… so much, that the super-heavy-duty back pack straps would tear off of them...
…and - if there’s any sheet music, it and a pencil go in the sheet music hanger bag, the mouthpieces stay jabbed into the tubas, and a refilled valve or bottle of lamp oil can be found in the zipper pouches on the back sides of the bags. I haven’t looked in there lately, but - in some of my RB/Cronkhite bags’ backside zipper pouches might also be a toothbrush and a couple of clothespins (depending on the tuba and the bag).

bloke “…and Maybe even a covid quick test”

[bloke]

@bloke, was the woman’s name Sandy? I ordered one of those bags back in 1998 or so for my VMI Mel Culbertson piston. I can’t remember what the “brand name” was.

It didn’t come with a hard case, but that bag was heavy. At least I was in my 20s at the time.

An aside: it’s worthwhile to put in some resistance training early on in life to delay the onset of sarcopenia, but one can start at almost any time. Considering the instrument of focus in this forum weighs about 25lbs or so on average, hitting the weights on occasion is probably a good idea.

[bloke]

According to ancestry.com, my father was 1/4 ogre, 2/3 troll, roughly 1/12th oaf, and I believe I inherited his genetics, so I don’t believe that’s going to happen to me. I’m still carrying crap around here that’s way too heavy, but most of the stuff that’s way too heavy ends up getting thrown into washes and ravines.
I believe you indeed identified the maker of those bags.

[tofu]

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