D’Addario Backline Gear Transport Pack Solo

Recently we got a ‘traveling closet’ bag for dance recitals. It was a game changer. All the girl’s costumes can stay nice because they hang up. Then it has space below that for all the other equipment needed. It all stays in there between dance events and doesn’t have to be gathered up or get lost. Make up, hair equipment, accessories and more are all stored in it for upcoming events.

We thought we’d do the same thing now for the musicians stuff. This bag is fantastic for holding the accessories for performing. It doesn’t hold the actual instrument (unless you play a tiny instrument) but has places the other stuff.
It has a big pocket on the back that fits the laptop and sheet music. It has a nice place for a business card/id/return to card. This pocket it highly padded on the outside and within. It should keep the laptop safe unless someone really tried to destroy it.
The straps are also nicely padded and very adjustable. I really like the attention to detail as they have a holder to keep the end of the strap from hanging down. It holds it nicely in place and make this look so much more professional.
Very quality construction through out this bag.
The front has two big sections; one above and one below plus two side pockets that have pockets within them.
The top section is perfect for the microphones and stuff that you need to keep upright. It has nice waterproof section dividers. These have strong velcro on them so you can change the size of the sections.
The bottom section is similar but it’s shape is completely different. It can hold a whole lot of CDs if you are a DJ. If not you can have so many accessories in these pockets. Again, the dividers are velcroed in and can be moved to customize the shape. Cords,clips, etc.
If you take them all out you could fit some types of small instruments within this. There are additional small pockets on the inside of this section. Things like picks, guitar strings etc.
It’s a very unique design and could also be useful for those doing electronic repair or building computers. Components can be carefully separated in the pockets. Tools could go in the side pockets.
Piano tuners might be able to use this as well.
There are a ton of possibilities. It’s very padded, solid and well built.
Very impressed with this.
It’s not a cheap bag in any way, thus the higher price. So far that would be my only drawback. Not affordable for all. But you get what you pay for with this. It’s top notch.

I received the new down-sized “Solo” version of the Gear Transport bag. Basically, this eliminates the middle microphone compartment of the larger bag to create a pack that is 2/3 the size, but still capable of housing a solo musician’s needed gear, probably with some room to spare. Even with the reduced size, this is not a “small” bag at all. It was still larger than I expected when I unboxed it. As other reviewers have remarked about the original large version, the “Solo” bag is also a quality purpose-built bag with great features and a well thought-out design. I’ve been carrying my gear in a DeWalt tool backpack, which is also a super high quality bag, but it doesn’t offer the ability to keep music gear organized the way this D’Addario bag does, and things tend to get lost inside the DW bag. No more digging through countless pockets and compartments trying to remember where I put that ONE cable that I really need!
The large bag seems to hold more stuff than one person would normally carry just for themselves. While having extra capacity is great, I think this smaller Solo bag would be sufficient for many of us without being as large and bulky. Yes, you’re giving up the dedicated microphone compartment, but there are other places to put mics here for sure. D’Addario’s images on their site show mics being carried in unused cable slots. If you want to carry gear for more than one person or you carry a lot just for yourself, the large bag would be great, but if you like to keep things a little more simple and compact and the small bag will hold what you need it to, I think it would be a more practical solution. Honestly though, you can’t go wrong with either one, these bags are great!