ahh ok, that makes sense. Well the one I am getting is a cloth tweed, not fuzzy but with wear it would be. I just got a nice deal on it and Im on a tight budget so it works. I had to get something for my Tele, couldnt bear carrying my new one in a bag.

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

Easy . . . . because they say "Fender" on them!
Squier cases don't cost as much
(And don't even get people started on MIA VS MIM case controversy)

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Hi dbr2026: that's interesting - a local case maker, huh? Does he have a website we could look at by any chance?

Tell us more.

Cheers - C

i can forward you his contact info, he is in north carolina. An older guy who is retired and works on guitars and makes stuff like cases and stands in his spare time. Said his goal is to start making them and selling them on ebay for more income. He plays in the meetup group I am a member of and had a super sweet case the other night, when I asked him about he said "well it's one I made"

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

Hi again dbr2026: too far away for me to make personal use of, I'm afraid.

But always fascinated to hear of guys doing this sort of thing at a bespoke level and keen to see what they're turning out. And who knows, if you post his name someone closer may find it useful. Does he have anything to look at on Ebay at present, do you know?

Cheers - C

I think he is in the early stages of trying to get his "business" planned out and just made the first one as a personal piece. let me see what he says about posting his info, I dont want to do it without asking first. He said he is going to make mine and 2 others and the other two will be going on ebay and craigslist so sounds like it'll be soon.

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

As with all things, these are just my own personal opinions...please take them as such.

I have a molded case exactly like the one you have in the picture (well...mine has a ton of bumper stickers on it now). I had gotten it new back in 1996 when I bought my '96 MIM Standard new. It is a good case...as Randy1 said though, yea...mine I have to fudge with the latches a little bit as well. I also have one of the newer inexpensive tweed cases which I got about a year ago from Amazon for $50. Now between the two, the molded case certainly would provide more protection I'm sure. I'm sure that if I were to drop a speaker cab or my amp on both cases, the tweed case would probably be crushed as well as whatever was inside of it. On the other hand, it does provide significantly more protection than something like a chipboard case, let alone a gig bag.

That said, I really tend to think it really depends on the application. If for example you're doing a road tour or something and you have the proverbial "drunk roadies" tossing your gear in and out of the backs of trucks, then BY ALL MEANS get the best freakin' case you can! Get yourself an SKB or something that can be loaded in to an Anvil ATA flight case!!! On the other hand, if you're just hauling your guitar around in your trunk back and forth to lessons, jams or the occasional gig and you otherwise take good care of your gear, than one of these "el cheapo" tweeds does a pretty good job....and again, it's about 1000% better than a gig bag.

Again I've had my cheap tweed for about a year now and so far I haven't had any problems with it at all. Now I will add here that I am really a sucker for tweed -but- I wasn't about to fork out a ton of dough for a real vintage case...I just like the vintagy look. Yea...for me, it's an aesthetic thing. I've got tolex and I have a couple of molded hardshells but I use the tweed more than the others....well...at the risk of sounding rather pathetic...because it "looks cool". That said, I also take good care of my gear (including my cases) and I -am- very careful when I'm packing stuff in to the car so that nothing falls on it or anything. Also, if I were traveling cross country or something and had all the gear loaded in to a truck or a trailer or I had other people handling my gear, yes...ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY I would have my guitars packed in better cases....again probably something with ATA specs. For basic practices or jams though, my cheap tweed does a fine job and it looks really nice to boot.

Again, just my $.02 worth,
Peace,
Jim

The hardshell plastic cases are what you get with an American Standard. If I were trying to pass off a fake as an AS I would want to put it in one of these cases.

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James Burton Upgrade Telecaster
Hot Rodded Am Fat Strat Texas Special (now featuring Kinman Traditional II pickups)
Fender Blues Jr.
SWR California Blonde
Pedals Pedals Pedals

The answer is, because players are willing to pay that much for them. If everyone got together and simply refused, the prices would drop over night.

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You dig?

I agree it would be nice to be able to choose the interior color. I just got the brown tweed case last week for My Classic Players 50s and I like it a lot. I always wanted a tweed case 'cause I think they look cool. I really like the brown tolex with the gold interior too, so I was torn, but I opted for the tweed in the end.

The tan tweed with that gold interior would be sweet in my humble opinion.

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The tweed cases look great but if you've ever had to carry your guitar around to gigs and don't want to use a bag you'll go looking for a molded plastic case in a hurry because they weigh about half that of the reissue cases

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Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

It would be sweet if they mixed the two.. Molded shape so you're not carrying around redundant weight but with the tweed case look.. That would be sweet. I'd love one like that grey/black tweed posted earlier with a blue or black interior and the molded strat shape