All You Should About a Guitar Case: Specs & Details

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Top 3 Types of Guitar Cases & Their Features

You might believe that a guitar case’s only function is to shield your instrument from harm or the elements. Sure, they serve to protect you, but they also serve to simplify your life. Even an inexpensive gig bag will make transporting a guitar simpler because they may be cumbersome to carry about. If you like, you can strap the guitar to your back and ride it around town on your bike.

Three main types of guitar cases are available:

“Gig bags” or soft cases
Hard cases
Hybrid cases

Of fact, there are many variations within each of these three major categories, including wide ranges in each product’s cost, weight, durability, and degree of guitar protection. What you want to accomplish with the guitar ultimately determines the type of guitar case you require.

Are you constantly loading it into a trailer and driving it to live performances, or are you just lugging it around within your home? You can really want more than one kind of case, depending on how active you are as a musician.

Table of Contents

1 – Soft Guitar Cases (Gig Bags)

The outside of gig bags is often composed of leather, nylon, or a mix of those materials. They often come with at least one additional shoulder strap in addition to the conventional carrying handles. Many even include straps that resemble backpacks so you can wear the gig bag on your back comfortably and free up your hands to do other things, like ride a bicycle. For sheet music, cords, straps, and other accessories, most gig bags have at least one sizable exterior accessory pocket. Some upscale gig bags also have outside rubberized reinforcing.

Gig bags used to be considered solely as inexpensive, basic protection, suited for cheap guitars that weren’t going to undergo arduous travel/transport. Not to safeguard the guitar, but to make transporting it simpler, you purchased a gig bag. But gig bags have advanced significantly, and while inexpensive, light-duty gig bags are still readily accessible, companies like Mono, Fusion, and GruvGear now make premium gig bags that offer excellent impact protection.

Gig bags can cost as little as $10 to as much as $300, with the majority of decent-quality gig bags ranging between $75 and $150. When carrying the guitar around town, the stronger gig bags provide enough protection. Gig bags can be useful for transporting your guitar to and from gigs, but only if you want to carry it by hand or have it with you almost constantly.

If you need to load your guitar into an equipment trailer or otherwise anticipate it being jostled around a lot, gig bags are not ideal. Never use a gig bag in an area where it could fall or where something else might run into, bump against, or stack on top of it.

Recommendations:

Acoustic Guitar

Cordoba Classic Guitar Case
World Tour Gig Bag

Electric Guitar

2 – Hard Guitar Cases

The exterior shell of a guitar hard case can be constructed from a variety of hard materials, including wood, plastic, fiberglass, metal, and even pricey specialized materials like carbon fiber. They are coated on the inside with a plush material that won’t damage the surface of the guitar and is soft, cushioned, and will protect it from serious hits. They frequently include one or more inside compartments for more compact equipment. Hard cases often come with a single primary handle for carrying and an additional shoulder strap as an option. Some even have wheels like those on baggage.

Hard cases can be subdivided into the following:

Chipboard (Cardboard) Guitar Cases
Hardshell (Wooden) Guitar Cases
Molded Guitar Cases
Road Cases

Chipboard (Cardboard) Guitar Cases

They are a hybrid between a soft case and a hard case since they are made of chipboard, a thick cardboard-like material. They have hardware that is exceedingly flimsy and prone to breaking. They don’t have any interior cushioning or soft material to grip the instrument firmly or protect it.

Really, chipboard casings are only offered for acoustic guitars. Be extremely cautious when getting an acoustic guitar case online since you won’t always find “chipboard” listed in the product title. If you find what appears to be a robust acoustic guitar box for about $50, it may be one of these chipboard junks (but not always).

The fact that online vendors almost never promote chipboard cases with the lid open is a clear giveaway. They won’t reveal the inside since most consumers would be turned off by the absence of a nice, fluffy interior—and understandably so.

As you might have imagined, chipboard guitar cases provide very little security, and some might even be harmful due to the lack of padding within. Even worse, the carrying handle, hinges, or latches might malfunction or come loose—typically when you least expect it. Simply avoiding these situations is our recommendation because better alternatives are available for roughly the same cost.

Hardshell (Wooden) Guitar Cases

This is the tried-and-true guitar case that has become synonymous with new guitars for many years. It is the only hard case available in this design. Although they are still widely used, more and more guitar manufacturers are switching to different materials in place of these wooden boxes.

Hardshell guitar cases are typically constructed from 14″ or 3/8″ plywood and are mainly coated with tweed or tolex (the same stuff most guitar amps are covered with). A guitar’s factory OEM hard case may have molded interiors that perfectly fit the instrument, which can provide exceptional (but not guaranteed) protection from damaging impacts.

For regular ground transportation, including lugging the guitar about town or on road vacations, wooden hardshell cases provide great all-around protection. They are not indestructible, but they can take some fairly severe beatings. Do not neglect to check your hardshell case for any indications of severe structural or hardware (latches, hinges, and handle) damage if you often travel.