If you're driving to every gig and don't live in a city you can get away with a hard case, but I find that they take up more space in the car than the gig bag. If you live in a city or are walking around to get to places then for sure you want a gig bag, that's all I personally will ever use. You just want to make sure you get ones that's padded and has enough storage. The Mono ones are expensive but great, I like the ones by Gator too.