The Steel Guitar Forum

How often does it happen that you forget to close your latches and pick up your seat to carry it -- and EVERYTHING falls out all over the floor?!

Probably about 3x a year for me. Always a party...Aaarghhh!

I blame it on a faulty latch.

Lee Baucum wrote:I blame it on a faulty latch.

Yes. Both of them.

One time, following my arrival at a steel guitar show, I opened my seat to put something in it before taking it out of my van, forgetting to close the latches. Everything fell out in the hotel parking lot and yes, there were plenty of onlookers.

I can beat that. I forgot to latch it and leaned back on the backrest. Wasn't a pretty site.

Not yet.

I did once get off my motorcycle without putting the kick stand down.

That's nuts, Jim......but I've heard of worse.

Get this, I know a guy who totally FORGOT TO BRING HIS PEDAL BAR to a gig!!! Can you believe it?!?! What a maroon!!

A maroon?
Was he purple?

Jim Fogarty wrote:That's nuts, Jim......but I've heard of worse.

Get this, I know a guy who totally FORGOT TO BRING HIS PEDAL BAR to a gig!!! Can you believe it?!?! What a maroon!!

What kind of imbecile would do that?

Not yet. I do have a habit of leaving the lid unlatched when I sit down to play. I guess I'm just too lazy to button it up in case I need to go back in for something.

When I would visit my friend Boogie, if I lifted the lid for some reason and didn't latch it back per my M.O., he would say, no, didn't get it and be sure that I latched it back.

Besides the possibility of spilling the contents, he said sitting on it unlatched let the top wiggle and was hard on the hinges and fasteners, which is true.

Richard Sinkler wrote:I can beat that. I forgot to latch it and leaned back on the backrest. Wasn't a pretty site.

But wouldn't your weight on the seat prevent you from falling backwards?

Jim Cohen wrote: But wouldn't your weight on the seat prevent you from falling backwards?

The pivot point of the hinge is far enough back that it does not take much at all to flip you over if it's not latched. When my back starts objecting, I'll lean back against the backrest and push a little to relieve the cramping. That's when it can bite you.

I once started to pick up the case - with the steel in it - and realized just in time I had not latched it!

I have seen a few steel seats someone made years ago that only had 1 latch in the middle of the lid. It was so close to the handle that if someone thought they would help you, And picked the seat up with the cushion toward their leg, Their fingers would catch the latch. What happened next was "A revolting development".

I seen a seat picked up to get it out of a players vehicle, And the contents dumped. Next time I saw that seat it had 3 latches on it.

As a Wildlife Officer, I had a man asking questions about a regulation from my job while loading my gear after a gig. Got down the road a mile or so and something did not feel right. I stopped, Looked at the back seat of my vehicle, Seat and Amp. present, Opened trunk, No steel. Went back and there sat my MSA on the sidewalk at the venue.

Had everything fall out once. After that I got into the habit of latching it every time I closed it.

Richard Sinkler wrote:I can beat that. I forgot to latch it and leaned back on the backrest. Wasn't a pretty site.

Yup, just once, and that one cured me for life

Yep..

A small push-button lock, the kind they used to have on glove compartments in cars, would fix that problem! Undo the standard latches and push the button to open, and slam or sit on the seat to latch the push button lock.

Dave wrote:Yup, just once, and that one cured me for life

Same here...

One time years ago I had to fly to a gig and my seat had to go as checked baggage.
To keep the backrest from flopping all over the place I wrapped a bungie cord around the whole seat. When my seat came down the ramp at baggage claim I saw that the latch had sprung open somehow, and the only thing holding it closed was the bungie.
Whew...major disaster averted. Installed a new latch with a key lock so that sort of thing could never happen again.

And yeah, I've picked it up with the latch open before. D'oh!

I wouldn't consider myself a fully-seasoned pro if I hadn't done that at least once.

Mine doesn't travel these days. The other day, I noticed that Mrs. R had hung a pair of my pants over the backrest!

An afterthought: If I left it unlatched today and moved it, the consequences would indeed be dire. All my various tool-bags are unzipped and there's loose stuff everywhere: bell-cranks, E-clips, Allen wrenches and lots more. It all weighs a ton!!!

Here's my solution when the pack seat has to go in a trailer or bus or whatever. Found this case at an electronics salvage place for 20 bucks. It just fits my pack seat, and it's not super heavy. Besides avoiding the 'latch got popped open' disaster, it protects the vinyl/pad from 'trailer rash'.

Jim Cohen wrote:How often does it happen that you forget to close your latches and pick up your seat to carry it -- and EVERYTHING falls out all over the floor?!

Probably about 3x a year for me. Always a party...Aaarghhh!

Never done that, BUT those open latches will chew up the back of your legs in a hurry

Never done that, BUT those open latches will chew up the back of your legs in a hurry

Oh yeah!

That’s never happened to me…at least so far today…

I got rid of my pack-a-seat and bought a small box with two latches from Harbor Freight to stop that and it still happens. I'm axen ya, what's wrong wit me?