ESB-4 Cases

[fender3x]

With all the padding in, the bass is held firmly, but without undue pressure, so it's a good fit. I have only ever had one other ABS case...for a trombone. It was made in the 60s I think, and is as solid today as it was then. The bass case seems fine, but the shell is not quite as thick. There are two kinds of foam under the fur... Mostly it seems to use a rigid polystyrene type foam; it's not soft to the touch. The exception is in the channel on the lid where the neck goes. This has nice soft foam that holds but does not press down too hard on the strings. So, overall a good fit. It'd prefer a bit more room around the headstock, but it should be fine unless I get a direct blow in just the wrong spot. But that's less of a danger than getting the butt of the body or top of the headstock whacked...and would be reparable even if it did.

You don't really see how big this thing is when it is just lying on the bed...



Where you really see it is when I put it on the shelf next to other hard cases. The new one is the one on the right. The one on the left is a Fender P-bass case from the 1970s. The one in the middle is an Italian knockoff of a strat case. You can see how huge the new case is. In fairness, that is partly because it uses WAY more padding than the those old fender cases that had VERY little in the sides. I suspect that the ABS shell and polystyrene foam offer a LOT more protection...yet the case, at 11 lbs, is not super heavy. I haven't weighed the P-bass case, but it is smaller and heavier for sure. Still...if I could design one myself it would be about two inches thinner...



Hardware is OK-not-great. PS innards have a kind of a cheap feel. Not quite as satisfying as my old beautiful Gretsch hard case. That said, I am pretty sure this will protect the instrument better than about anything but ATA case.

I feel a little bad that I did not build the case. After building the bass it seems like the case should be easier...but I am not sure I'd do a decent job, and I have no motivation to do it at all... So this may not be the best case scenario (pun intended) and I may mod it a bit more over time. But for now it'll do.

[JimC]

I feel a little bad that I did not build the case.

I've built a few instrument cases this last coupla years. Also modified the internals of a couple of guitar cases. The one for my Ibanez acoustic that's doubling for my ESB got a load of extra padding in the bottom because it was far too deep for the Ibanez. I would have liked to make it shallower, but when I considered the job I decided it was too hard. Happily there was enough soft padding that the ESB doesn't rattle about either, so once I'd modded the guitar to fit the case I didn't have to mod the case again.

I reckon guitar cases really are kinda boring and unsatisfying, and spraying up furry fabric with aerosol impact adhesive is messy and irritating. Also the glue and stuff is expensive and it seems like a lot of money for no saving. The only one that was kinda interesting was a case for my concertina... But also a pain in a different way because six sided... But the thing that really puts me off guitar cases are they are so damn big.