Why Your Sax Case Matters.. It’s Not What You Think

The case your saxophone lives in is usually an afterthought, but there’s some important stuff you should know about saxophone cases. If you’ve got a bari sax, I want to show you one of the best bari sax case solutions I’ve ever come across. I want to also thank the sponsor of this video, Sweetwater, our favorite place to buy music gear.

Reasons for upgrading your saxophone case

When you buy a saxophone, it comes with a case. Less expensive instruments are going to come with more basic cases and more expensive instruments are going to come with slightly upgraded cases. Many people will be fine sticking with the case that came with their saxophone, but there are some very good reasons for upgrading.

Reason #1 Your case is smelly

If you’ve got an older saxophone, the case can get smelly and nasty. When we play a lot of moisture can develop inside the horn and if we don’t swab out that moisture before putting the instrument back in the case, over time the case fabric can start to smell funky and even get moldy. Unfortunately most saxophone players never swab out their instrument, which is pretty gross.

If that’s you I recommend you pick up one of these BetterSax Ultimate microfiber swab kits. These are awesome and will keep your sax clean and dry inside, which will keep your case from getting stinky. Saxophones that have been in storage for a long time can also get pretty musty, especially depending on what type of environment they were stored in.

If your case is smelly, musty, moldy, or just generally funky, that means your saxophone mouthpiece and all the accessories you keep in there are going to have the same funk on them. As a matter of hygiene you should replace a musty old case. I have tried to clean up and restore old smelly cases in the past but since there are multiple layers and various materials involved they don’t usually get all that clean in the end.

Reason #2 Practicality

The 2nd reason for getting a new case is all about practicality. The more you move around with your saxophone, the more important this becomes. So if you never leave the house with your saxophone, a new case is probably not a great investment. But if you’re a student and you’ve got to bring your saxophone back and forth to school every day, or if you’re at university and you’re going to rehearsals and classes, or maybe you’re a teacher and have to go to different teaching studios or to different students houses, or maybe you’re a working musician and you’ve got to take your instrument to rehearsals and gigs… the size shape and weight of your case become really important considerations.

Protec Microzip Saxophone Case

Now a lot of the stock cases that come with instruments are a bit bulky heavy and don’t come with things like backpack straps to make them easier to carry around. I recently got two new Protec cases and I wanted to show them to you as possible upgrade options in case you’re looking to get a new saxophone case for one of the two reasons I mentioned earlier. This is the Protec Micro Zip alto saxophone case.

What I like about this case

The size is really the minimum, so if you want a travel light, this is perfect. It’s also lightweight despite having an ABS plastic shell. I recently traveled for 3 weeks and took this case with me on planes, trains, stuffed in car trunks and the New York City subway, and it was the most unimposing case I’ve ever traveled with. It has dual backpack straps but I only used one and slung it over my back like this so I’d have both hands free.

The horn I had with me was this prototype for the new BetterSax intermediate alto saxophone, coming out soon. It fits very snugly in the case, as will most modern saxophones. I know Protec makes a variation on this case designed to fit certain vintage instruments also. The case closes with zippers which have their pros and cons. A lot of sax players say they prefer latches, but these zippers are really nice and heavy duty they appear to be ready to last a long time. They open and close very smoothly.

The case also has these nice sturdy handles.

Concerns about this case

When I first got this case there were two things that concerned me a bit. First there’s not a huge amount of material between the saxophone and the outside world. This is an obviously necessary tradeoff if you’re going to have something as slim and compact as this case is. So while this did concern me, after thinking about it, let’s put it this way. You never want to drop your saxophone in any case, no matter how much padding your case has. The shock of a fall can still damage your instrument. No saxophone case is designed to allow you to just throw your saxophone down a flight of stairs.

Oh and by the way, the end plug is super important, so make sure you’re always using it when storing your saxophone in the case. It protects the octave key mechanism that sticks out and allows your saxophone to sit snugly inside the case. We don’t want it to move around in there when it’s closed.

My other concern was the lack of storage space. There are separate compartments for the neck and mouthpiece which are actually very nice, but that’s it. Everything else like my neck strap, reeds, Geeklet and swabs need to go in the bell or be carried somewhere else. Protec does sell an accessory pouch designed to carry stuff like this and go inside the bell. It’s always a good idea to store your swabs outside of the case since they’re absorbing all of that moisture in your saxophone and we want to keep it as dry as possible in there.

Verdict on the Protec alto case

After three weeks of heavy International traveling with this thing, I can say I do love this case. It protects the horn well, it’s super light and minimal, it fits easily in small places, and best of all the price is really reasonable considering what you’re getting.

Sweetwater has these in black and blue colors for $170 bucks. Later on I found out that Protec also offers a case cover for this thing and I ordered it, so this is how I’m going to travel from now on. The case cover offers some added padding, hideaway backpack straps, and a huge storage pouch where you can put tons of stuff. There’s even a couple zipped pockets inside for organizing all the small stuff like reeds that you don’t want just floating around in there.

While it does have the subway handle, this case does not stand up so you have to put it down horizontally. The cover does add an additional $116 to the bill so if you’re on a budget, you could just do like I did and go minimal.

Sweetwater Trip

During my trip I visited Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I was demonstrating this new horn as well as a bunch of other BetterSax products that they sell. This is one of the things that’s really extraordinary about this company. They do these massive training sessions for their staff on all the products they sell. This is why you can call them up anytime and get someone on the phone who actually knows what they’re talking about and can help you.

Not only that but all of these folks have to go through this 13-week training program at, and this is a real thing, Sweetwater University. They’ve also got extensive musical backgrounds and many of them are working musicians as well.

Protec Baritone Saxophone Case

As part of our demonstration on BetterSax Burnin mouthpieces, we played an arrangement of Mercy Mercy Mercy for alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone, and the bari player John, who works at Sweetwater, shows up with the bari version of this case as a backpack, and I was like, what is that?!

I used to play a lot of bari gigs but my bari sax case selection was always very lacking. I could never justify paying for one of those fancy BAM cases that sell for over $1,400. This case costs $379 at Sweetwater and I ordered one immediately.

I don’t have a lot of bari gigs these days, but when I do need to bring the horn out, I’m set up and ready. You can fit most low A and B flat bari saxophones in one of these. It has wheels as well as sturdy backpack straps and it comes with a padded pouch to store the neck in the bell. There is not a separate storage compartment unfortunately, but there is room to put plenty of other stuff in the case. I’m going to have to provide my own accessory bag to keep in there. This case also closes with the same sturdy zipper and has the subway strap at the top.

My Yanagisawa 901 bari sax is held very snugly in there. The wheels are big and roll very nicely. While I haven’t used the bari case in the real world yet myself, my friend John at Sweetwater has been using it extensively for the last couple years and he’s told me it served him extremely well. So considering the price, this is going to be an extremely popular bari sax case, I’m sure.

Now when it comes to saxophone gear, there’s a lot of mistakes people commonly make. Watch this video next to find out what they are, if you’re making them, and if so what you can do instead.