How does a bloke get a roadcase up the stairs by himself?

[Sammas]

Sorry... there is no punchline. Just sadness. Lots and lots of sadness.

Have any of you attempted such a feat for something like a fully loaded 12u shockmount case? Perhaps with the help of a trolley of some kind? It seems like swings and roundabouts to me. Break the rig up into smaller cases and you spend your evenings running up and down the stairs, then repatching all the gear together. With a big case, you avoid it all and just replace it with absolute back breaking labour.

so... what do you do?

[Ben M]

Nath, try a stair trolley with straps.

like this;

[Manning]

What Ben said. They're essential, not just for audio but also for moving in and out of apartments.

[stosostu]

I have found the standard sack truck, with large wheels, to be just about as good on stairs and a lot easier on the flat than the 'stair climber' type.

[Sammas]

Argh yes! Thanks chaps, that might just do the trick. Looks like it would work easier too if the road case doesn't have a dolly attached to the bottom of it too. Saves me some more hassles.

[AlCraig]

This one's built to move fridges.
Notice the built in ratchet strap.
And the step rollers above the wheels.
http://www.taylorrental.com/item_detail.asp?id=23

[The Tasmanian]

I suggest sell it and get 2 x 6RU's
All my racks are now 6RU high - no more PITA struggles.

[Sammas]

I suggest sell it and get 2 x 6RU's
All my racks are now 6RU high - no more PITA struggles.

Even that sounds slightly back breaking, but it might be the best of both worlds. I have a bunch of 3 & 4 unit cases at the moment which work... and I can carry two at a time (one in each hand suitcase style), but it is still a little ball breaking. Two 6u racks would be half the lug and half the patching of what I do now! ...and probably easier to get into the back of the car by myself!

[Wiz]

I suggest sell it and get 2 x 6RU's
All my racks are now 6RU high - no more PITA struggles.

Even that sounds slightly back breaking, but it might be the best of both worlds. I have a bunch of 3 & 4 unit cases at the moment which work... and I can carry two at a time (one in each hand suitcase style), but it is still a little ball breaking. Two 6u racks would be half the lug and half the patching of what I do now! ...and probably easier to get into the back of the car by myself!

When I lived in Melbourne, I was full time solo musician guy.

back then , my rig was two 15" JBL Eon top boxes and the 15" sub. (one eon in each hand 8) )

two SKB racks, one 12 space and one 6 space both fully loaded (two minidiscs, graphics wireless mic etc etc)

A 12 inch wedge, lights, milk crates, two guitars , stands etc.

One day I had to play the Geelong football Club members bar....Geelong had been on a bad trot and hadn't won a game for months (cant remember how long, but it was long) and they were playing Collingwood. Of course that day they won. There I am in my ford econovan, surround by 10,000 drunken footy fans, trying to load into the gig. Which btw is at the very top of the grandstand. When I got there , I asked the Duty Manager where the lift was, he said there wasnt one, you have to carry it up by hand. It was at least 200 yds from the van, up a couple of escalators, stairs corridors...and as I said, 10000, drunken people. My van was actually surrounded. Now, I would just drive away, it was a ludicrous situation.

I asked for securtiy, to come watch the van, nope. When I got the first load up into the bar, I shit you not, you couldnt move...I had too push people out of the way (imagine like a massively over packed cocktail party) and put a milk crate down (again, now I would just leave). It took me over two hours to get my gear in.

Heres the fun part. By the time I started playing, everyone had left practically, I did about 4 songs and the new Duty Manager who had taken over, came by and said, "Hey might as well go home, oh, and dont forget the goods lift just around the corner".................

If I ever come across the first Duty Manger I will insert a large garden gnome in him.

Fast forward a good 15 years.

I finished my gig onstage, friday night, at 730pm. I was packed in the car 9 minutes later ( a personal best).

I now own a Bose L1 Model 2 system. and take it, and an acoustic guitar. (say what you want about bose, but this is the best acoustic guitar amp and foldback system I have ever used)

So, although my tale of woe is long, the moral, do whatever you can to make the lug easier.

Oh, and if someone asks you to play the Geelong Members Bar on a game day.... say, no thanks.

[The Tasmanian]

The good thing about 2 x 6RU's is they go on their ends on a trolley
(with okie straps to stop them falling off)
So you can move 2 of them each stacked end up (12RU in total) with so much more ease than 1 x 12 RU.
To balance a 12RU on a trolley up a staircase is a dangerous task with one person.
The weight is centered too far forward for a 12RU on a trolley up stairs - and almost impossible to confidently move down stairs as the trolley almost needs to be on a 45 deg angle ( back breaking)
It only takes 1 mishap....

[jon.l.hunter]

I know your pain

I have been carting round a 16 unit Rack case unit for a few years
I purchased it to be "portable"
it certainly kept my gear safe and doubled as a good desk
but it barely fits in any cars and I could not move it on my own
I could squeeze into my old honda jazz but it completely filled the thing

recently I put my rudimentary woodworking skills to work and built 2 small 8 unit racks
and an enormous slanted face 3 x 16Ru cabinet

Portable Racks.jpg

all the stuff that I needs to be portable sits on top of the cabinet in the small racks
which have a bantam patchbay at the bottom of on
so I can connect anything in the portable racks with a 2 foot patch cable
to the patchbay in the larger permanent cabinet

it fits in a cab which makes me happy
and it takes me no time to have stuff back in place when I get back to my joint

[mylesgm]

whats the gear in the rack?

[Text_Edifice]

I can see a MOTU 828, an AWA BAR 1, summit audio tla 100, dbx160something, Toft ATC2, some sort of summing box or ssl syle buss comp?

[mylesgm]

got all those and the symmetric too but its the units at the top that I'm uncertain of...

[Text_Edifice]

Yeah sorry, being a dick.

[Hybrid88]

Oh man tell me about it! +1 for hand trolleys.

But yes, I've been thinking about this a fair bit recently, I'm only a smallish guy and some of my synths when they're in road cases can be up to half my weight! It's a struggle that's got me wanting to go mostly ITB.

[jon.l.hunter]

OK this is off the topic but to answer Text & and Myles

From top to bottom my rather simple collection stuff for taking around is:

-focusrite saphire interface ...soon to be replaced with an orion i think
-Hill Audio channel strips (wierd british strips I picked up cheap)
-Toft ACT 2
-MOTU 828 mk 1 (yes, it's still kicking)
-Summit TLA-50 (I'd like another one) leveling amp
-symetrix 501 comp/lim (and another one of these)
-dbx 263 deesser... i don't use this very often ... it really doesn't need to be in this rack (maybe it can be replaced by aonother 501)
-AWA BAR-2 ... 4 channel broadcast mixer modded to have four direct outputs

other things that go with these racks are:
Sony-MX20 8:4 mixing desk (i use this if I need more pres, or if I am doing a straight to 2-track/mono recording
which I am doing a bit of lately) or for mix down of 8 channel tape machine

Nagra 4.2
for mono fulltrack recordings
Ta@#$% TSR-8 (currently needing some repairs)
or alternatively I have a Ta@#$% 8 SD channel field recorder - if I really want to be portable I just take that, some stands and some mics