Comments for ophicleide gig bag for Douglas Yeo October 2, 2008

Donna:

Thank you so much for agreeing to make this bag for me and I appreciate David Zimet coming up with the idea to ask you and acting as my middle man. Here is what I would like.

The photos should tell you the dimensions you need. Ideally, I would ship the horn to you, but I’m preparing for a solo performance with orchestra that will happen in November and I just can’t part with the horn right now. Hopefully the photos will suffice; if you need any clarification, please let David know and I’ll get them to you.

The ophicleide is a fragile instrument, made of very thin brass, with fragile key work. It is the ancestor of the saxophone (truly: Adolphe Sax put a bass clarinet mouthpiece on the end of an ophicleide bocal and liked the sound and the rest is history…). Not shown in the photos is the bocal – I will always carry that separately.

Imagine a round tube, semi rigid. The ophicleide slides down the tube, the butt end in first. The tube is padded and the inner diameter of the tube is 8 ½ inches (the same as the diameter of the bell). The ophicleide goes down the tube and the butt end sits on the bottom in a little recessed compartment. The keys never touch the side walls of the tube.

This is the ideal ophicleide gig bag. I realize you may not be thinking of this particular design, but you can see that the idea I have is that when the gig bag is closed, there is as little pressure as possible on the keywork. Obviously this is not a hard case – I already have one of those – and I do not expect the gig bag to get rough and tumble use. But if you can design something – I know your trombone gig bags load from the top rather than have a lengthwise zipper – I like that – that will give general protection to the instrument, I’ll be very, very happy.

I would like it in black cordura or leather – I don’t know what kind of options you have. Ideally there would be a light structure in the bag – some kind of thin plastic around the whole bag so there is a slight bit of rigidity to the bag that would protect the instrument from a gentle bump. I would like two hand handles (if possible) and two padded backpack straps (essential). Put the straps on the gig bag in a way that – imagining the bag on my back – the bell would be by my head and the butt end near, well, my butt. Interior fabric color red or blue, your call.

The approximate price you quoted David Zimet is great. If, as you get into this, the cost goes up a little, I understand. Just let me know if we start getting over $500 or so.

I’m happy for you to add any special touches you can think of to this gig bag. It’s a special case for a special instrument. For instance, if you embroider your own patches for your logo, if you can make one with my name (Douglas Yeo, not just “Doug”) and put that on the case, that would be great. Anything else your creative mind comes to would be great.

I realize you’re the expert on making cases so I don’t want to try to micromanage this. I play the ophicleide, you make the gig bag. Keep the dimensions – if this works out well, there are a great many ophicleide players around the world who have been looking for something like this and while ophicleides are made in a variety of lengths and bell sizes, all are around the dimensions of mine (perhaps two inches longer for an instrument in B flat and with a bell perhaps ½” larger). There’s a pretty vigorous ophicleide fraternity as the instrument has a great many players around the world who play with both period and modern instrument orchestras.

With thanks,

Douglas Yeo Bass Trombonist, Boston Symphony Orchestra 9 Freemont Street Lexington, MA 02421 781.861.1472 (home) 339.927.0442 (mobile) [email protected] www.yeodoug.com