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Custom cases...

Ray Holt

Ray Holt

Mar 7, 2006
1,446
1
39
Fort Montgomery, NY
#1
Hey guys! I was just wondering if any of you have had to order custom cases for your basses (Hah, I'm a poet...), and if so, where you got them from. I haven't built a bass yet, but my electric guitars are a little bit too wide for standard TKL cases. Even for the bass one! I was amazed, I didn't think it had that big of a butt on it!

I've done some searching and found a couple of options, but wanted to get some input from you guys! Price isn't TOO much of an issue... I do want my guitars to have good protection afterall.

Thanks for any help!
 
#5
If you spend that much time and effort and money in building such perfected basses, it's well worth the investment to order up a Road Ready ATA guitar case, and then carve out the styrofoam to what you need.

Just ask them to send you the case and the foam core uncut, and then you spend some time with a steak knife and a fork. Cut and scrape away the foam to fit what you need, then go buy some soft velvet fabric and a can of 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. Glue down the fabric, and you're done. Custom fit to exactly how you want it.

Actually, I forgot... I met a guy this summer who had his bass' case lined with upholstery seat cushion foam, the softer stuff not the dense heavy stuff. That bass almost bounced inside that foam. It's like shock-mounting your case! Very comfy cozy and the shock absorption value was quite obvious. He kinda did his piece by piece and it looked a little scrappy. But if you go get 1" thick pieces, you can glue one solid layer to the top and bottom of the case. Then glue two pieces together to make a 2" thick middle section, and cut the silouhette of your bass exactly. Then glue that to the bottom layer, and everything should fit really well.

But regardless of how you custom fit your bass, I'd leave the shell construction to the pros. From experience, it is far more expensive to get the tools, materials, and fasteners, than to just order it up.
 
#9
It's an idea though... I did some searching for it, and most of the stuff has to do with beds. But they sell mattress "toppers", which are eithe 2 or 3 inches thick... I could buy one of those and cut it up to fit inside of a case right? That'd be pretty neat to try, and memory foam case! Found them for as low as $50 on Amazon. Not cheap, but it might be cool to try.
 
#10
I would think using all soft foam would result in the instrument banging around when the case was stood up on its hinge sidesince the soft foam would compress too much.

How about this: ordering the case with uncut stiffer foam, and cut out a hole 7/8" larger than the bass on all sides. Then line the hole with a 1" wide strip of the soft foam. Add the velvet liner, and you should now have about a 1/4" squish every time you put the bass in, but it's backed up by something more solid.
 
#11
Well softer foam is more compressable with a heavy weight. A bass that's maybe 10 pounds isn't enough mass to squish it terribly, especially if you think about how much surface area it contacts along the whole length of the bass.

The shock-absorbing characteristics of soft foam is very valuable, cuz even if the bass moves around inside the case, it's not putting much stress on the body, neck or parts. It'll kinda hug it firmly if it does shift around inside, and you'd have to really be banging the crao outta the thing to make it move that terribly.

I've never worked with the memory foam stuff. I know that soft upholstery foam is very nice, and should be good enough for even the most precious piece of artwork. But if you go with the memory foam, make sure to photo the whole process to share with us!
 
#12
TKL will custom make cases for you. They'll do it from an outline or you can send the instrument to them.

You can pick your colors, coverings, how many plys, leather, tolex, all different color and materials for the liners.....etc.

They've made $10,000 cases!!!!!!!!! Well, they made at least one. It was for Eric Clapton.
 
#14
WHAT? Screw that. Tell em to make your case, no lining or foam, and send it to you. Then do the foam yourself.

Super 77 spray adhesive, a good steak knife, maybe a razor utility knife, and a sharpie marker. After you're done, if you want, you can make a small pocket box to fit inside alongside the neck, to throw your strap, tuner, extra strings, nicknacks in there. You could probably find a nifty box at Pier 1 Imports that would do the trick. Just cut the foam out and glue it in place.
 
#17
Hmm... I wanna say that you can buy SKB or some other flight cases with the foam inside cut into little squares that you just pop out to make the shape you want... Maybe its only keybpoard cases, though... but I dunno.
 

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