NS Design CR Upright Bass Bag

A reasonably well-protecting gig bag which fits the instrument perfectly, but, alas, ruined by serious design faults in handle and strap.

I got this bag as a replacement for the original bag, which disintegrated within 2 years in moderate use, hoping that NS would have improved the design somewhat - because of the rather unique format of the instrument it proved next to impossible to find a suitable bag from a 3rd party manufacturer.

The carrying handle is the same uncomfortable sliding hard plastic tube component often featured in cheap Chinese backpacks distributed as conference swag.

The Achilles' heel of this bag is fastening of the straps using too light thread for stitching, and secured by a single rivet to the body of the bag, with insufficient backing material inside to spread the force to the fabric body.

Combine this with light, low UV-resistant vinyl-ish leather imitation material used to stitch through at the contact points. The material will start ripping off of the corners where the nylon straps make contact.

This ripping will later expose individual threads of the stitch to excessive stretching force, which will eventually lead to their failure, transferring all the force to the single rivets which will then rip off of the bag material.

The bag fabric itself in this newer version seems slightly more durable than the original. However, the handle and the shoulder strap attachments, after 6 months of light to moderate use, are already showing signs of failing in the manner similar to the original bag.

Though the bag itself does provide just about adequate protection to the instrument. You will soon end up carrying the bag with tho hands around its body, rather than using the straps. This makes it rather unwieldy when trying to get from A to B public transport or bike.

Bottom line: You're paying a Ritter price, but get Wang Hung Lo - quality. You don't have much choice, though: It's a monopoly.

Ok this is the fitted gig bag for the NS basses, it is very well made and has ample padding in the main compartment and will look after you bass very well. I've taken an NS bass in one of these as hand luggage on a USA trip and even though it had to go in the hold in one internal flight there were no problems and my bass was safe. My, only criticism is the attached accessory section - it is way too flimsy to hold the floor stand or the end pin, although it's fine for the boomerang strap and a spare jacket.

I bought the CR bag for my NS Design CR4M bass, even though the NXT bag would fit just as well, and is only half the price.

I was assuming the CR bag would be more robust and padded. It's not. It's adequate, but I'm going to have to be careful when transporting my CR bass in this bag.

For comparison, the Gewa bag I use for my acoustic double bass is made of tougher materials, is obviously much bigger, well padded, and was quite a bit cheaper.