"Hi to everybody!
I've made a custom headless guitar. It's a very compact guitar but it's about 2cm wider than a Stratocaster at its widest point. The result is that it does not fit in a standard Stratocaster case. I bought a Jaguar hardcase but it's exaggeratedly long for my guitar. I've made a compact, travel friendly guitar and I have to use an enormous case. I was quite disappointed so I decided to build my own case.
I decided to document the entire process in order to make a tutorial that will be useful to those who want to challenge themselves in the construction of their own case. Everything was made in my garage: all you need are a saw, rivets, riveter and a drill. I bought aluminum parts for the instrument case from Thomann.de and the plywood from a local bricolage store - they've even cut it from my specs.
This is the wood cut:
I used PVA to glue the parts.
(editor's note: ensure that the joints are perfect to ensure good adhesion in butt joints like these)
Some clamps.
To avoid using too many clamps I used some screws to fix the gluing.
(editor's note: these are pretty much essential!)
Repeated it for each side (I used some spacers to keep the glued sides straight).
Next the upper side....
Both completed halves....
Matching test....
Aluminium edge protection extrusions....
Cut to measure....
Now the closing profiles, cut to measure....
Detail of the 45° corner mitring....
Matching closure test....
Locations for the butterfly latches marked and cut.
I used synthetic leather material to cover the case....
....glued with more PVA
Fitting test....
The aluminium edge profiles were drilled to fasten them with rivets.
When you use rivets in wood you have to secure them with washers otherwise you will crack the wood!
More aluminium cut for the corners....
Butterfly latch temporarily positioned for drilling rivets holes.
Rivets inserted....
Butterfly latch mounted.
Hinges....
Handle....
Rear....
Front....
Interior....
Detail of the lid mechanism.
I used foam for the interior. I bought a 1m² of sound-absorbing foam which I cut for the lid. For the lower part of the case I sent the guitar profile's CAD plan to a specialised company which cut out the shape in the foam to spec.
You can compare the dimensions of all of the cases. From left to right:
My own custom case, Music Man, Jaguar.
This is the final result. Very satisfied with it!
How To Make A Custom Hardcase by Technology4Musicians is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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