We do take repair work for Glenn’s older cases, even back to the old San Francisco line when they were labelled “Reunion Blues” — the pre-China ones, please. However, we don’t fix them for free as they were not made by us, and as far as we know there weren’t sold with a lifetime guarantee. We feel we are best suited for the job, having direct knowledge of Glenn’s methods, materials, and mostly importantly, his patterns.

Generally, the ones we are repairing appear to be 20+ years old, so you shouldn’t expect to need this service for many years, if the existence of this page gives you pause. We just fixed a 24 year old leather tuba bag, and for $150, this guy is going to get another 10-15 years out of his 1994 investment!

However, please send us a photo of the issue first. 9 times out of 10, we can fix whatever shows up, but we sometimes get an item that was dragged under a bus and someone wants us to fix the unfixable. It’s good to see what’s going on before you spend money to ship it here.

If it’s a simple zipper pull failure, usually a shoe repair guy can fix that for less than shipping your bag to us would cost.

If we see the photo and think it’s worth repairing, you’d send it to us at this address:

Torpedo Bags, Inc.

Attn: Repair Services

1195 7th St E

St Paul, MN 55106

Print out your return address, email, and phone number inside the case, and use card stock so it stays put. If your name falls off, we don’t know who it belongs to! We will tag it when it gets here, but your name tag helps ensure we record it correctly. Include a brief description of the issues you are having or seeing.

Then, purchase a SINGLE $40 minute repair unit on this page. We may add units to the charge later, but this gets the ball rolling, and helps with documentation when your box arrives.

We charge $40 for each 30 minutes of repair time, plus shop materials and return shipping. Most repairs can be done in less than an hour, and even overhauls aren’t much more if the outer materials are sound. We will generally salvage and patch what we can, rather than incur the high labor and material costs associated with recutting large outer pieces. Leather can run $8/sq foot! The goal is to give your bag more years on the road — if you are expecting a 20 year old bag to look new after the repair, you should probably buy a new bag. 🙂

We will add a charge to your card once we have a total (minus the $40 you already paid). We can also bill you for the balance via PayPal, or you can call in a credit card number. We return bags after the payment is made.

Here is a general guide, and these are estimates based on past experience. The larger the case, the more “worth it” a repair can be:

• A few patches where handles and straps attach from normal wear and tear: $40 + shipping.
• Zipper replacement: $80 – $120 + shipping.
• Complete overhaul of a small trumpet case: $100 + shipping
• Complete overhaul of a multi-trumpet case, Fr. Horn case, etc.: $150-200 shipping
• Complete overhaul of a guitar bag, tuba bag: $200-300 + shipping
• Overhauls would include new foam and new zippers where needed, and would likely include new liner material.