Includes Hardshell Case

[Little Pigbacon]

I was just looking at a catalog (paper catalog) that had come in the mail, and I was struck by the creeping up of price points where guitar manufacturers seem to think it’s acceptable to send a new instrument out the door in a gig bag. “$1,199.99 . . . Deluxe gig bag included.” “$1,399 . . . includes gig bag.”

What’s an “Includes hardshell case” price to you?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Anything that isn’t a beginner or first upgrade guitar. In the Fender line, starting at MIM the Classic, Classic Player, etc. should include a case (but don’t), and anything MIA should as well. (The entry MIA doesn’t, right?)

Now I get why they don’t, a good case costs money, and they are competing on price and who knows what kind of case a player wants. They can generically say that if you buy a reissue style guitar you probably want a vintage style case, and if you buy a “high performance” guitar you probably want a high performance case, but it’s really down to each player. Personally, the new Elite case is the best non-aftermarket case I’ve owned. It’s also the ugliest. The G&G looks the best, but has some shortfalls.

The gigbag I got with my CIJ 52 Tele is ridiculous. Just a thin layer of nylon. At least some of the padded gigbags have some protection.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Seems like a thousand bucks would be a fair number. And speaking of thousand-dollar guitars? When I bought my EVH Striped a few years ago, I somehow forgot that I could’ve bought any case in the store and for some reason left with an Ibanez gig bag. Nice gig bag, but what the actual?

 

[ErikH]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Back when I bought an American Standard Strat in 1994, I paid $499 + tax at GC and it came with the hardshell case. I would think anything $700-$800 and up would come with a hardshell case or a soft case (the ones that are light like a gig bag but more like a hardshell).

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Entry-level American Fenders come with gig bags — $1,099, $1,199 guitars. High-end MIM comes, I think, with a gig bag. (My previous-gen Deluxe Roadhouse Strat did.) Faded Gibson comes with a gig bag. Gibson Explorer B-2 at $1,399 comes with a gig bag.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Back when I bought an American Standard Strat in 1994, I paid $499 + tax at GC and it came with the hardshell case. I would think anything $700-$800 and up would come with a hardshell case or a soft case (the ones that are light like a gig bag but more like a hardshell).

Was that Strat used? I remember buying a standard MIM Strat in 1995 for $319 + tax.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Was that Strat used? I remember buying a standard MIM Strat in 1995 for $319 + tax.

You sure? I thought MIMs were $299 for solid, $319 for burst around 1999/2000.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

You sure? I thought MIMs were $299 for solid, $319 for burst around 1999/2000.

Maybe people were buying them for that, but in my town? At the penny-pinching mom-and-pop? That’s definitely what I paid in ‘95.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

25 years ago, I spent over $2k on a carbon fiber acoustic, which, when I picked it up after paying it off, was told that it doesn't come with a hard case. I asked for all of my $ back. They found a hard case to throw in for me.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Was that Strat used? I remember buying a standard MIM Strat in 1995 for $319 + tax.

Nope. Brand spankin new, in the case even with the sheet over the fretboard. Never played. They had one with a RW board on the wall but I wanted maple with that color and they had one in the back unopened. GC sold them new all day long for $499 back then.

You sure? I thought MIMs were $299 for solid, $319 for burst around 1999/2000.

Yup. MIM Strats were $299 new all day long in the solid colors.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Over a 1K I want a bag or something
At 1.5K I want some sort of case
At 2K it better be a a nice case, seriously

 

[akio]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

How about just cutting out the gig bag and 50$, let the buyer add what they really want for protection.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

A: Guitar Center

Q: What are things that weren’t in my town in 1995, Alex.

Maybe it was my youth and inexperience; maybe I have a face that says, “Exploit me”; maybe it was before the e-commerce boom, but my experience with guitar stores in the 90s was that they thought they were doing you a favour by being there and having some guitars to look at. If you had enough money to buy something, you paid the price they asked, and that was it.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

I hate hardshell cases. The Schecter and PRS SE I recently traded for both included nice gig bags (Road Runner w/ the Schecter, factory PRS with the PRS). The Ibanez 8 string included a really nice poly foam & vinyl hard case. The gig bags are so MF-ing convenient, and even the poly foam case is enormous and super bulky.

When buying a new guitar, either give me a sweet gig bag, or knock off the cost of the case (especially if a hard case) and let me buy my own.

LPB, first time I went to GC or Sam Ash was in like 2002 or so. Prior to that, it was all local joints, some of which were total ripoffs. Don't feel too bad about paying what you did for your Strat, I distinctly remember them being $350 in 1993 or 94 when I started playing.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

It was twenty dollars, twenty-four years ago. I sold that guitar years before GC came to town.

 

[Open lane]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

One of my dean vmnt v’s was sold to me used without a case. Was a stupid buy because now i have to pony up 100 dollars if i want it to see outside of the house... it’s just not good enough to spend the extra 100... and it sits here collecting dust

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

The only time a hardshell case isn’t an epic pain in the ass is when there’s a guitar in it. Okay... even then. When a guitar comes w/ HSC, I like to think it’s special to the company whose name is on the headstock, and they want it to be protected. The only new guitars I’ve ever bought that came with were my Jackson SL2HT (a 2006 USA Select model) and my 2017 Gibson Explorer T. A lot of used ones. Some new ones for which I bought a case. A good case is like a wingman, or an opening act, or someone who introduces a speaker. It’s equal parts hype and substance.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Two words:

Gig
Bag

Also:

Be
Careful
With
Your
Fvcking
Guitar

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

I once read a bass instruction book in which the author said you should carry your bass close to your body, so in a gig bag — not a hardshell case.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Includes Hardshell Case

Most pro-mandolin players use instruments that are $5k-10k, many north of that. They typically carry their instruments in fiberglas cases, such as Hoffe or Calton. These cases cost well over a grand.

There's one guy, Mike Marshall (world class bad mofo), who packs his $200k+ 1924 Gibson Lloyd Loar signed F5 (the mandolin equivalent of a '59 burst) in a $75 Chinese Travelite polyfoam case. His reasoning is that if he's on a bus or in a cab, it's on his lap, if he's walking somewhere, it's strapped to his back, and never gets laid down anywhere. This makes sense to me.