I'm conflicted all the time. Do I take my empeg out of the dash or not? ~99% of the time Tony's admonition does it's trick, and I pull it out (the rest of the time I'm going into Quicky Mart)

Today, following my usual, "But it's such a PITA." debate I took it out and put it in my laptop bag. I go into a nice little restaraunt with a hardwood floor. Flipping Open my laptop bag rather forcefully a rather loud "BANG" can be heard through out the restaraunt.

OH

[censored].

I rushed outside to check the damage. The little bugger booted right up and started playing as though notthing had happened.

When weighing possible theft vs. almost certain destruction at my hands... It's going in the trunk from now on...

You know, I did a similar thing about a year ago with what is now my backup Mk2. Brought it inside and the bag wasn't closed properly and the empeg suffered a significant amount of deceleration trauma. The fascia was busted, the frame was bent, and two buttons broke off. But that's all. From the 3+ feet it fell, I could not believe when it powered on. So I sent away and David hooked me up with buttons, and it's now all good.

I am now much more careful when carrying my baby around. It only takes one mishap like this for me.

Reminds me of my college days. I had an electric guitar that I brought to school in the back of my car. Kept it in the back hatch area. When I had spare time between classes, I would sometimes go out to the parking lot and practice.

I'll never forget the day I closed the lid, but left the latches open on the case. When I got home, I opened the back hatch, grabbed the case handle, and pulled it out. The guitar fell hard, directly onto the pavement, from hatch-height. OUCH. Lots of damage to the translucent laquer on the body, in a couple of places. God, I felt bad about that.

Guitar still plays great, though.

When weighing possible theft vs. almost certain destruction at my hands... It's going in the trunk from now on...

Get a padded carrying case. The Pelican cases (I think allelectronics.com had them?) has been mentioned here before.

I know what you mean about dropping the thing and being careless with it. Im really pretty lazy about taking the thing with me when going into a store as well, dont you guys get a hassle about bringing those pelican cases in stores?

I ended up having to go to a club with my empeg, the bouncer didn't believe that it was my car stereo and made me completely empty the bag, including examining the allen key for undoing the fascia. I was one step away from having to open the empeg itself.

I suppose the bag is about the right size to conceal a handgun, if you were that way inclined. I think if it had been a pelican case I wouldn't have got in.

Man do I remember every first scratch I ever put in a guitar. I put serious gash in a $1,000 guitar only minutes after I brought it home by somehow (and to this day I'm not certain how it happend) shutting the case on it. My D-28 (the only possession I prize more highly than my Empeg) still has yet to have anything more serious than typical wear on the pick guard, but I'm waiting.

As for the Empeg, I dropped it once, klutz that I am, but no damage at is apparent. It is a tough little device.

I usually manage to damage most expensive things I buy within days of purchasing them and then never inflict another bit of damage on them the whole time I own them. For example I have dropped and scratched every mobile phone I have owned with 48 hours of buying them, but then not added any scratches to them in the next couple of years of use...

I usually manage to damage most expensive things I buy within days of purchasing them

Yeah, I'm the same. I'd had my shiny new Vaio for about two weeks, before I managed to take a chunk out of the lid. Actually, it was because it was in the same bag as my empeg. Obviously a case of gadget jealousy, I reckon.

I've had the same jealousy problems with my empeg. I had it in a bag with the face to my Pioneer head unit and it made a nasty scratch in the plastic face. I was not a happy camper. WORD TO THE WISE: Don't put the empeg loose in a bag with anything that you mind getting scratched up.

Vaio: [ Bossily ] Move over, move over, make room.

Empeg: [Angrily] Who the hell are you? Some of use are trying to sleep.

V: I'm the Vaio, dontcha know. Surely you've heard of me...

E: Nope. Should I have?

V: [Flustered] Of course you should damn well know who I am. I was designed from scratch for multimedia use.

E: [Yawns]

V: I can play mp3s.

E: [Yawns again]

V: I have a 30GB hard disk.

E: [Yawns again]

V: I run Windows XP!

E: [Smirks]

V: [Angrily] Right that's it. I've tried to be nice, but all you've done is yawn and smirk at me.

E: Yeah? Well, Who woke up Who here? I was trying to sleep, and you came in with your self-important attitude and started to spout off crap. I'm not happy that you're here, but since I have no choice in that matter, why don't you shut up and let me sleep?

V: [Totally wound up] How Dare You!? I'm the coolest gadget to ever see the light of day. I even have a curvy alloy case. Beat that! [Throws ineffectual punch]

E: [Laughing] Do ya wanna piece of me then? Do ya? Do ya?

V: [Unleashes a flurry of punches, none of which have any effect]

E: [Laughing so hard he thinks he's going to throw his guts up]

V: [Continues punching]

E: Ok, this is getting boring now.

V: [Continues]

E: Look, why don't you stop before you do something even more stupid?

V: [Continues]

E: Fsck this for a game of soldiers. [Punch]
...
[Time passes]
...
V: [Dizzy] Who...are...you?

Hahahahahaha!

In fact, thinking about it, I managed to scratch my iPod by leaving in the same bag as the empeg as well.

You'd think I'd learn, wouldn't you?