I believe the role of road cases is critically important to the profitability of a sound company. But not every case made out there is really road-worthy. A lot of my anklebiter friends think I am insane to pay $600 or more on semi-custom rack cases to haul power amplifiers and signal processing gear. I look at it as cheap insurance to keep the gear performing throughout its scheduled life, and to put more gear on wheels instead of having my back do the lifting. So this month's installment is about rack road cases, and a guide to getting them built and maintained. Ruggedness
I am sorry to say it, but if you're going to a music or typical pro audio store to buy a rack case, you're falling prey to the idea of road cases, and not the spirit. With the exception of some smaller 3/8-inch wood signal processing rack cases for guest engineers, all the lesser-shelled cases are just pieces of junk chasing after your foolishly spent dollars. I believe we all go through that phase with quarter-inch plywood or blow-mold plastic rack casing while learning the ropes, but sooner or later you have to bite the bullet and move up to professional half-inch plywood under laminate casing. Yeah, it is heavy, but behind all the wood and aluminum extrusions is a rack case that stands to stick around for more than a decade of road abuse.
Shock-Mount or Pullover
All professional rack cases are "shockresistant" to a certain degree, but the rack case designs typically come in two versions–shock-mount or pullover. Shockmount rack cases look like music industry (MI) rack cases, but have a surround of foamed rubber a couple inches around with an inner rack and an outer shell in between. Typically, the bottom foam rubber will be stiffer so it can handle the weight of the inner rack and gear attached to it. And shock-mount rack cases will obviously be a little larger in dimensions, and have less rack space efficiency inside.
Pullover rack cases do not have front and rear lids, but instead have a single latched seam at the bottom to come apart as a wheeled tray and a pull-over top, which hides the inner rack during transportation. Like shock-mount rack cases, the tray has stiffer foam that the inner rack rests on, but the top's interior has a softer foam inner lining that fits nicely with the inner rack. The inner rack may also be constructed of laminate-based wood and aluminum, or epoxy-coated wood.
Rack Rails
The heart of the case is the front and rear rack rails. These L-shaped steel pieces with 10-32 taped holes follow the nearly century-old telephone company specification for mounting 19-inch-wide rack gear in 1.75-inch height increments. Most professional racks will have a modest inch or two rail recess from the inner rack wood or aluminum for clearance of control knobs, switches and gear handles.
There may also be one or two sets of rear rack rails for gear rear attachment, as heavy gear needs to have some of its weight supported to avoid bending the faceplates on the front rack rails during rough transportation. Typical front-to-back rail-to-rail spacings are 11, 14 and 18 inches, depending on whether you have signal processing or short or deep power amplifiers to contain within the rack. A second, more rearward set of rails may be installed for connector panels or fans.
Truck Packing
Most professional rack cases will be accessorized with hardware to facilitate the packing of many rack cases side by side. Little things like recessed handles and latch plates (spring-loaded) take up less air once inside the truck or trailer. And having a 3/4-inch or heavier wood castor board on the bottom of the rack case is a necessity for case and wheel attachment. Well-designed castor boards should also have pairs of handgrip holes on the edges for roadies to lift the rack case when necessary.
Castors should be the four-inch (or larger) rubber-wheel types. I believe most of us know the thrill of dragging heavy rack cases through soft sand or small gravel, and it is next to impossible to do that with smaller wheels. You do not have to buy the nice Guitel swivel castor wheels, but the $15 to $20 you will spend on each really is worth it. If your truck or trailer is not equipped with sidewall strap features–to hold the cases captive during transportation–then I would recommend upgrading the two rear castors to locking types for minimizing movement on the road. And locking castors are also handy when they are placed on tilted surfaces or used as step stools.
Color My World
I hate to say it, but I agree with Henry Ford when it comes to color. Satin black (between gloss and flat) is my choice in laminate color when it comes to rack cases. Not only to hide dirt and dust, but it gets back to stage psychology–anything black tends to be ignored by human eyes. Now, I understand that you may choose a different primary color for finding your cases during festival shows, but in corporate gigs, black hides better backstage from a show planner's perspective.
To maintain rack cases, periodic rag dusting in the shop goes a long way. Spiders and other critters just love collecting below the castor boards if you give them a few days. And I recommend a yearly treatment of the roadie's secret weapon, WD-40, to maintain the satin look and to beat back corrosion on the steel and aluminum hardware. Do not lube the castors unless they squeak, as every bit of oil or grease lubrication will collect dust and dirt. Have a can of silicone or graphite spray around for lubrication when needed.
Build or Buy
I recommend everyone should at least attempt to build some kind of roadcase just to get an idea of the time and effort required. This way, you will either enjoy it and take on roadcase building as a sideline, or get wise and pay someone handsomely for their expertise. After building a pair of drum hardware cases, I learned quickly that the amount of scrounging, gluing, screwing and riveting was not for me anymore. But neither were the cheap cases coming from the stores.
To find a good road case builder, do a little networking to find out what other soundcos are using. There are the national brands– some of which advertise here in FOH–and smaller road case shops that market by word of mouth. Save the discount cases for the musicians, buy quality rack cases with half-inch or better wood construction from good case builders and you may only have to buy casing once. Buy once, cry once; buy cheap, cry twice.
