Heee yuk yuk yuk yuk.....

Being as though theres plenty of parts on relic'd guitars you dont want damaged unintentionaly (gouges out of the frets anyone?). I say hardcases for everything.

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No no and no

It seems that the bubble wrap will do for the road worns

If I paid good money to have Fender relic (damage) my guitar I sure don't want any "real" damage done to it! Hardshell!!

might as well have no case at all, you bought a beat up and purposely damaged guitar, no need to try to protect it now

Right now American Musical Supply is listing a Roadworn 60s Stratocaster “Dent & Scratch” for $719.95!
I wonder how they can tell?

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-FEN-131010-LIST

(middle of the page - right side)

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Old age and treachery will win every time over youth and enthusiasm.

"You can never have too many Tele's." A quote from my Sweetwater Sales Engineer

Hard case all the way, i don't want to ave a single ding that doesn't fit the template, after all how will I sell it as mint ten years from now?

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

This is, as always, my ever so humble opinion here but personally I use a hardshell case for ANY of my guitars...even the cheapies! Very simply a gig bag provides your instrument with virtually no protection AT ALL...I would NEVER carry around one of my instruments in a gig bag...period. Even one of those so-called "chip board" cases (those old suckers made out of cardboard) don't really provide much protection...drop it hard enough and you could still snap the guitar's neck.

Any time I take ANY of my guitars out of the house, they are in a hardshell. My attitude is this; if you care enough about an instrument to have bought it in the first place...even if it's only a $100 Squier Bullet or something let alone a $1000+ instrument, then you should do whatever you can to protect that instrument and in my mind, that starts with a decent hardshell case (or a good ATA flight case if you can afford it!). Of course I've NEVER bought a guitar...any guitar, with the intent of purposely damaging the instrument. Sorry but I really just don't understand that kind of mentality.

One last note...in regards to "Road Worns" or "Relic" instruments specifically, while I don't care for them myself I will say that part of the point of these instruments is to have a guitar that looks and feels as though it's been well played for many years. That's the wear that they are supposed to emulate, NOT that of some dip sh*t who was too stupid to put his guitar in a decent case! Enough crap happens to most guitars over the course of time...you bump it into a mic stand while playing or some drunk sob trips over the chord at a gig and knocks it off the stand, etc.. Why add to all of this by careless or mindless transport?

Honestly...if you really care that little for your guitar that you're not going to bother putting it in a decent case, then go ahead and send me a private email and I'll send you my address...I'll even pay for the shipping and I promise that I -WILL- take care of it!

Again, just my $.02 worth as usual.

Jim

Ah so you have been to see my band play.

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No no and no

Actually...this was more or less from personal experience. It wasn't actually me...I was playing drums at the time but my old band played this one club that was -really- small and basically people had to walk right thru the "stage" (aka the open spot on the floor in front of the jukebox) to get to the men's room. One dumba@@ drunk came stumbling through, knocked over my wife's mic stand and almost took out the bass players amp! Fortunately I was right there and was able to catch the amp before it hit the ground.

I also played one gig with a band MANY years ago...it was a frat party as I remember, where the place we were playing had something really screwy going on with the electrical. In one night we fried 2 mics, one of my guitars shorted out (ended up re-wiring the pickups) -and- we had a PA speaker actually catch fire! It was an early learning experience...now a days I always carry a small socket circuit tester in my gig tool box and I'll check the electrical outlets in any place I haven't played before. Ya just never know....

As I recently posted elsewhere, I've also had problems with other musicians. A few months back we auditioned a guitar player and as he was packing up his guitar, he had the case sitting on my amp (this was my Lab L5). He ended up knocking the amp off the stand and busted the speaker jack...looked at it for a moment, shrugged and walked away. Also a few months back, someone knocked over my old Kay P-bass clone and busted the headstock then put the bass back on the stand as though nothing had happened. I -know- it was an old guy we were auditioning as a bass player...I think he did it while I was up in the bathroom, but I can't prove it. Fortunately because I'm me, I was able to fix both but it still REALLY p*ssed me off.

For that matter, just last night one of my dogs almost knocked my '96 MIM over! My wife was tossing a tennis ball around the living room and I had the guitar sitting out because I just restrung it night before last but still needed to check the intonation and set up (I always wait a day after putting new strings on before checking the setup to give the new strings time to settle a bit). My youngest dog Mariah slid into one of the puppy pillows chasing the ball and the pillow slid right into the bottom of the guitar. No damage, but "another close call".

I dunno...maybe it's just that some of these "kids" haven't really seen a lot of the horror stories that a few of us older players have. Maybe they just think their instruments need a little more "mileage" because they haven't really played for all that long. Like I said though...enough crap happens during the course of regular playing. Why risk your instrument during transport when something like a decent hardshell case can cost as little as $50 or less? Just doesn't make sense.

Sorry...I know that reiteration got a bit off track...

L8r,
Jim

wow Jim your stories bring back some similar bad/(surprisingly fond,) memories. Good to have you back here BTW.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I think you should put your Road Worn guitar in a hard case to keep it from rubbing up against something that might polish it.

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

+1

No, just toss it in the back of the pickup!