FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Acoustic Guitar Hard Cases

Question:
I am going to suggest a change to the following phrase. Old Phrase: That's as hard to come by as hen's teeth. New Phrase: That's as hard to come by as a Guitar Center guitar case. What happens to all the cases that guitars come in? I bought a used bass this weekend. The salesman said that there was no case or gig bag with it. I have hear several times that an instrument does not come with a case or gig bag. Does someone just walk into GC with a guitar in a plastic garbage bag?

Answer:
Most guitars DON'T come in in a case. No, really. New, they arrive in boxes. Cases in a different box. It doesn't make sense to ship every guitar in hard case or gig bag, since not every buyer wants a hard case, or gig bag. The store would end up with a surfeit of each, and hard cases especially take up a lot of storage space. The further up the food chain you go, though, the more likely the instrument is shipped in a hard case. GC has a bad rep for unbundling even those cases from the instruments. Damn them all to hell for that. That's pretty much the truth. I work in a music store, and MOST of our trade-in or used guitars come in in someone's hand, and that's about it. OR, they come in with a Strat ( for example) in a case or gig bag, and trade it in on a different Strat, and keep their original case or gig bag. You'd be amazed at how many people, even when buying high dollar guitars, DON'T want to buy a case AT ALL. No gig bag, no hard case. On the other hand, you have people who get angry that the $100 starter acoustic guitar doesn't come with a hard shell case included.