Guitar cases… I own two. Both of them are gig bags (which are essentially soft/padded guitar cases made for gigging – or hauling your guitar to various gigs). They offer little protection – really just like a backpack for your guitar. I should also mention, that at any given time, I probably have about 4-6 guitars hanging around.
So why am I so against guitar cases?
First – the good thing about cases:
1. They protect your instrument. Hard cases especially.
2. If you get a humidifier – they can prolong your instrument’s life (and actually make it sound better).
There you go – two reasons. Now those are two BIG reasons. But there is another big reason that I hate cases…
…they make it so you NEVER PLAY and NEVER PRACTICE!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok. Well, they make it so **I** never play or practice.
The thing is… when I lock my guitar in a case (or zip it up in a gig back) I tend to forget about it (which is seriously bad since I have a guitar lesson blog and am a guitar teacher). Having a guitar in a case gives me one more step in the practicing process (which, since I am extremely lazy, is kind of a big deal). I have to make it so practicing is as easy and convenient as possible.
Cases DO NOT EQUAL Convenience.
So really – it’s about weighing what is important to you. If you have a really really expensive/nice guitar – yeah, you probably want to stow that bad boy in humidity controlled area in a nice hard cases. If you have a cheap(er) guitar, maybe leaving it out on the guitar stand in the living room isn’t such a bad idea.
Those are my thoughts – feel free to correct me if I’m wrong – in the comments below.
(Note: the guitar case pictured above looks so sweet. Mostly because of the leather, and the pockets. I like having a lot of pockets for stuff. I don’t personally have this case, because I don’t personally have $900 to spend on a guitar case).
9 replies on “Do I Need a Guitar Case? (or… Why I HATE Guitar Cases)…”
Maybe you haven’t found a good guitar case yet, from my experience, these are worth your buck: https://www.riffsandlicks.com.au/guitars/cases-bags/ , there are a lot of choices and surely you will find the one good enough to look at.
[…] I used to be adamantly against guitar cases (as noted in my case against guitar cases here). […]
I have 2 guitars & 1 gig bag. My cheaper electric guitar goes on a stand in the bedroom & my more expensive acoustic goes in the bag. . . But i never do the zip up properly so i can just grab either as i go past. Idiot or genius, i don’t know, but Black Sabbath songs sound really cool played on acoustic.
Yeah man… cheap guitars are made to be left in the open, on stands, or hung up on walls. Nicely done. If the acoustic is REALLY nice… maybe a case with a little humidifier would be good… maybe. Also… YES to Sabbath on acoustic!
[…] could talk about things like keeping your guitar out in the open, or deliberate […]
I agree with you. Unless I’m taking the guitar out somewhere and it’s raining or snowing, I just carry it naked. And I keep it on a guitar stand in my bedroom where it’s literally the first thing I see every morning. It’s a good reminder to practice that day. I also always keep a couple picks in my pants pocket so as I go about my day working and being a dad, every time my hand goes in my pocket, I notice the picks and it gets me thinking about the guitar and my desire to practice. These little tricks keep my instrument never far from my thoughts.
Nice – I like the “pick-in-the-pocket” idea. I’m totally going to steal that. 🙂 Thanks for the advice!!
Jake
Your case opinion makes sense. My guitar has been in a case for 40 years and I strum a couple of cords I can no longer identify… I live in Epping Forest and am interested in lessons for both my daughter & I. She will only be home another 4 weeks, so can you design a lesson with that limitation? 410-212-2014
Hey Ed – sorry I’m just seeing this! (Had an issue with some of the comments on the site not showing up). I’ll shoot you an e-mail as well!