Official Luthiers Forum!

I searched the forum and didn't see any posts on building a case -- has anyone here done that?

I know you can guy a nice case for most guitars and it may not be economically advantageous to build one, but I'm intrigued by the idea.

I'm thinking of building a Uke for my Dad -- he's been playing this Arthur Godfrey "Solo Lute" -- baritone uke -- since he was in college in the early 50's. I measured it the last time I visited thinking that it would be fun to build a replica. It has a longer scale length (21") and more accessible frets that normal baritone ukes. Part of the concept is building a case that is a little fancy, maybe a tooled leather panel on the front or something. I can see the appeal of a custom case to compliment one of the guitars I'm making too.

My thinking is to build a form enough larger than the instrument to allow for the padding, and then laminating the sides out of several layers of either veneer or thin wood. If I used 1/8" wood I'd probably try steam bending it and use two or three layers. I could probably buy a bunch of cheap backer veneer and laminate the sides that way. Some oversized kerfing to join the top and bottom. It seems pretty doable, although there are a number of details to figure out (hinging, attaching the inside and outside covering materials neatly, etc).

If anyone has done this I'd love to see pictures to help think through the process.

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Blog on Making Stuff: http://www.McGlynnOnMaking.com

I have seen several threads where folks have built coffin cases for "old style" guitars. Not sure if they were here on on the MIMF.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Joe no pics but we have a very busy guitar repair business in the People's Republic of Ann Arbor. We also have over 50,000 university students in our area.

A couple of times now I've seen beautiful (but heavy...) hand made wooden cases beautifully done, dovetail joints, velvet padding, etc. These were presents from proud Dads to graduating sons and daughters.

One of the nicest features that I wanted to suggest to you for your Dad's case is to have a brass plate engraved with your message to him. It makes it very special. If you can keep an eye on the weight of the case that would be helpful too.

Google "coffin cases" to see what Martin did in the Civil War era too for some ideas.

Over the years I have built perhaps a dozen plus cases for various instruments. If you can buy ready make it often is cheaper and better. One exception might be where you scrounge the materials and hardware, or where, as you have mentioned you want something a little different.
Some of what I consider my more successful efforts have been the simple coffin cases that were typically used in the 1800's. I made the sides out of 1/2 inch pine and the top and bottom out of 1/8 th inch plywood. This helped to keep the weight down, which is the bane of the homemade case. If you wanted to fancy it up you could veneer it with BRW or some other exotic veneer. I usually just paint them flat black like the originals. I will scrounge 3/4 inch thick "shorts" or even wood that looks very weathered. The longest piece needed is usually less than 2 feet and some are as small as 6 inches. Weathered wood when planed down to 1/2 inch often presents bright clear faces. To line the case I wrap cloth around corrugated cardboard panels. It provides some padding and doesn't add to the bulkiness of the case. I stack and glue layers of cardboard and cut them out on the bandsaw to make "blocks" which I cover with cloth.
I have also used bending ply (wacky wood) but by the time you add stiffeners (usually a second layer) it starts to get heavy.

I made a case for an upright electric bass that I built, mainly because I couldn't buy anything to fit it. Later on I made the same style case for an F style mandolin. Both turned out nice ,but as mentioned, a bit heavy.

Todd Cambio of Fraulini Guitars has an article on his Blog on building cases:
http://fraulini.blogspot.com/2016_03_01_archive.html

Glenn

It looks like he really got involved in case making. I wonder how long the case took to build compared to building the guitar that it fits.

never built a case before, but I've thought heavily upon it...great article, but I'd use 2 layers of 1/8" bender plywood ( http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/p ... g-plywood/ ) and make it real easy on myself...I've found many uses for that material, and I can guarantee you that when you glue 2 layers together it holds it shape real nice. I note of that page they say minimum radius of 12", but I'm thinking that surely applies to the 3/8" thick stuff as I've easily bent that thickness to 13" in 2 glued up layers and had no issues whatsoever...

agreed home made coffin style cases can be heavy, then again the case for my '84 Jackson Rhoads is a darned boat of a thing! I've seen the more modern day version of cases used to house that guitar and surely then are lighter, but I'm thinking the pure rectangular shape makes life a bit easier as far as dealing with it in transit/storage/etc.

I'd sure like to give it a go.
I built an over-sized explorer that required a coffin case.
That thing was almost big enough for my burial.
For a smaller instrument, I think a hand-made case would be dandy.

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wah
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Wah

I occasionally build a simple case of this style:



The lining is a rich purple, not the blue my camera shows here:



The case is made from 3.2mm hardwood plywood, which is cheaper and lighter than birch ply and bends easily on a hot pipe. It's simply glued up - no linings to reinforce the joints - because the tweed covering is glued securely on and so reinforces the construction. You could use a different fabric (denim can be cool) or some kind of faux leather.

I made a tenor guitar case (21 inch scale) on the same lines and it works well. Not heavy at all. Previously I've used 3mm (1/4 inch) MDF, which is OK for a soprano uke but I'm not certain it would hold up to a baritone sized instrument.

NB, because the wood is thin you can't screw on the fixings, so you need to use split rivets.

That's a beautiful case Mark L.

I built one once for an eletric guitar and sort of vowed to never be bothered wit hit again.

Wasn't there some company out there that made case making kits so to speak? I seem to remember this for some reason.

really nice work on those cases Mark L and ProfChris. I'll have to pick up some thin plywood and make a form for the two L-1 style guitars I'm building and see what happens.

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Blog on Making Stuff: http://www.McGlynnOnMaking.com

Seattle luthiers group has a pdf with a presentation from a recent meeting, http://seattleluthiers.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Form-Fit-Guitar-Case-Construction.pdf

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

The coffin cases and other simple cases described in this thread are appealing. And I can imagine that building a factory-style case, as described in the Seattle luthiers group presentation, could be very satisfying. Personally, rather than laminate plywwod and hand-carve an arched lid, I'd rather spend the many hours required making guitars. Factories have proven they can make plywood guitar-shaped-objects quickly and economically.

One thing I have thought about doing is re-lining a factory case to fit a handmade instrument. The Seattle case construction pdf addresses upholstering cases, so it's useful to me even though I don't envision making factory style cases. Thanks, John, for posting it.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

That is something I would be interested in seeing - how to take a factory case and re-line it to fit something else.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"