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I recently saw an ad for a "Gator Andante" case near me listed for very cheap. I looked at pics and realized it was actually a new Jakob Winter hard case, made in Germany. I drove the hour and a half to go check it out at the seller's storage unit and sure enough, it was, little German flag stitched in the padding and everything.

I haven't encountered new versions of these, but this one is much improved from the ones we used 20 years ago to haul around school-owned Cervenys -- very rugged wheels, supportive foam, really nice quality. It fits my old 186 CC like a glove. New they go for over 1000 EUR, so I am glad to have snagged this one for about a tenth of that!

Very nice.

I saw one on local craigslist for $50 6 months ago. Went to go have a look. They had been left behind by the past renter (no idea what happened), but they'd been there at this rental house for about a year. I'd brought my 186 along to check the fit. They said they had two. So I started to check which case fit it best. The lady said "No, you can have them both for $50. I just want them out of here." So I managed to shoe horn them both into the back seat of the car.

Got home to find one fits my 186 pretty well (tiny bit loose) and the other fits my 6/4! But as I said, older and not nearly as nice as yours.

Good find!

Wow! What a great find.

arpthark wrote: Tue Oct 06, 2026 9:07 am ...I drove the hour and a half to go check it out at the seller's storage unit and sure enough...

I'm pretty sure I saw that scene in Dexter.


LOL! Congrats on the hard case.

As you can see, that frame is actually made to accommodate a much taller instrument, can anyone who's a little bit talented in crafts could pull some stuff out of there, glue some of it back in and make it look sort of factory-ish on the inside for a taller tuba.

It would require maybe an hour's worth of work, but you basically have what you have, in addition to (were it ever needed) something else as well. (If you ever do make it larger, go to the trouble to get the yellow hot glue, and don't settle for the white.)

Those are nice hard cases -- they came with German & Czech tubas in the 1990s and early 2000s. My modified MW-2155r - that I've had for over 25+ years now - included a Jakob Winter case when bought used. That tuba is about 40 inches tall, and with a large-throated 17.7 inch bell. I think the guy I bought it from was the original owner as both the case & tuba were in used, almost like-new condition at the time. That was around the turn of the century, so both the tuba & case were made in the 1990s. The case fits the tuba like a glove

After some years, I had the small, undersized crappy wheels replaced and that crappy plastic side handle eventually snapped off. I made a make-do handle in its place. Otherwise, it's a great case

The particular type of plastic that Winter uses seems less likely to crack than with MTS and whatever that other three letter brand is that I can't remember, but when you get up to the six quarter size Winter cases, that type of plastic becomes a little bit flexible, and one has to line up the halves when shutting the case on the six quarter size. I even went back and installed a piano hinge, and it was still just too flexible to not just close in a casual manner. Back to the original sentence of this response, at least it doesn't readily crack, and even the older Winter cases don't seem to sport a propensity to crack.
I'm not too impressed with the OLDER Winter sheet metal latches nor hinges nor handles, but that sort of hardware can all be replaced.

The wheels, handles/hardware all seem pretty sturdy on this newer one. I was most impressed with the wheels.

I bought one new a couple years ago for my DS. It handles a lot better than the one on my 181 (about 20yo at this point).

bloke wrote: Tue Oct 06, 2026 4:07 pm whatever that other three letter brand is that I can't remember

SKB?

SKB made really nice affordable shotguns in Japan, but that's a different company, I think....

Their cases tend to crack over the years.