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I am selling my leather Glenn Cronkhite gig bag made for the Eastman EBC-836/Yamaha YCB-826. The YamaYork is a copy of the smaller of Jake's two York tubas and is outstanding. Eastman made a very fine direct copy of this instrument some time back, and while tinkering with it and making some changes over time, the outer dimensions are still the same, so this 826 bag fits it perfectly.
For such a nice tuba, I decided to go big and get the "badlands" leather. It is a sort of oiled-looking finish with some intentional weathering, giving the bag a very cool, distressed look and feel. The best I can describe how it looks is oilcloth. The feel is like a nice, broken-in bomber jacket with the stiffness of tuba bag padding under it, that is.
I absolutely love it. This is the nicest tuba bag I have ever owned.
Unfortunately, I got a new cat just around the time I got this bag, and she SAVAGED my leather Cronkhite Holton 345 bag. SAVAGED it. So ever since the day I unboxed this new bag, I have lived in fear of leaving it out for her to discover.
I just bought a replacement Cordura Cronkhite bag from Dillon (in stock, ships out TODAY! None of this six to eight week nonsense! Thanks, Matt!)
I have protected this bag carefully ever since I received it. If I do not want to unpack it, the thing sits on the rug in my tuba room and is wrapped in an old quilt to keep kitty claws at bay. If I unpack it, the bag is stored in my hall closet.
However, one time I let my guard down, and one of the cats started clawing it. I got her away and wrapped it in its quilt. But she managed to damage it a little bit.
I was pretty pissed about this, so I got the Cordura bag.
The stress of having such a nice bag is like owning a classic car and having to use it as my daily driver. It's needless stress. It is stupid stress, because it is a freaking GIG BAG! I am more worried about the cats tearing up the gig bag than I am about messing up my valuable tuba, so it has to go.
I know there is an owner of a shiny, new 836 with good taste in bags and no animals that will shred or pee on this bag. I am willing to knock off a lot for the damage from my cat's predations. These bags sell new for $1300+tax+shipping, so close to % $1,500.00, all in.
I will sell this for $750, and the buyer pays the actual shipping cost via UPS.
I cannot part with it until my replacement arrives from New Jersey, but it ships today, so probably a week from now it will be available. Since my new bag is the same model as the one I am selling, I will pack this leather bag up using Dillon's materials. Good enough for Dillon, good enough for you. I have a decent UPS drop-off point I use near my house. I just have to get it priced out and labeled, then I can call you with your price + shipping total to pay me. I can take Zelle or Venmo. I normally do not trust any Mississippi UPS location for valuable, heavy, easily bent-up tubas, but for a gig bag, they are just fine.
If you want it, contact me immediately and commit to it. I will hold it until my new bag arrives, and then you can pay me. Once I have the funds, I will use some of them to ship it to you. And that means it will go out THAT DAY and not in months or the decades some of their packages seem to take if you order from the factory.
The cat damage is limited to the dots and the short scratches into them. The other scratches are part of the "distressed" look of the leather. Anyway, I hope you will agree that these small knicks are a small price to pay for a $600 discount from the price for the same bag without the knicks. I have examined the bag carefully, and this one corner seems to be the only damage extant.
The bag has left my house maybe two dozen times in total since I got it. It is essentially new.
NOTE ON FITMENT: The YamaYork was patterned from the smaller of Jake's two Yorks. Then Mr. Pokorny had Yamaha tighten things up a bit, including (I think) making the outer branches a bit smaller, so the 826 is physically smaller than any of the other York copies that are made. Only the Eastman 836 is an exact copy; therefore, no matter how much you might want to put your Nirschl York or 2165 into this bag, it will not fit. The ONLY other 6/4 tubas that *might* fit are the 6450 and the Gronitz PCK, and I am pretty sure they won't fit, either. Only inquire about this bag if you own the 836 or 826 tubas.
