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

Tagged As: Epiphone Pr5 E Acoustic Electric Guitar

Question:
I'm planning to buy a new case for my semi-acoustic Epiphone guitar. I want one of those stiffish ones with shoulder straps so I can use it like a backpack, as I do a lot of walking around with my instruments. (I'm involved in folk and morris dancing.) I have one for my sax, by a company called Bags, and it's brilliant. I'd like something similar for the guitar but can't seem to find what I'm looking for. After an hour trawling ebay and Google I thought it was time to ask the experts. I don't want a soft bag, as things get damaged in these, and I don't want a hard shell case, as they're too awkward and don't usually come with shoulder straps. This thing is somewhere between the two: it has a soft outer cover but is padded with stiff foam. I'm sure you know the sort of thing I mean! The only thing I've found so far was one on eBay by a firm called Tribal Planet. I haven't come across them before. Are they any good?

Answer:
The Tribal Planet ones come from a firm called Music Essentials - but they say they are discontinuing them. I have one or two left in stock, but they only do electric ( strat/LP etc ), dreadnaught, classical, and bass AFAIK. If your guitar is a 335 size it could really do with something slightly wider and much thinner than a dreadnaught case. Stentor distribute a light hard case called the POD but there is no 335 version. I have Ritter 7000 series dreadnaught gigbags in stock - they are so thickly padded they pretty well stand up on their own - but they are £55 I didn't know what model number my guitar was, but after a bit of flicking through Google images I've found it - it seems to be an Epiphone PR5E Acoustic-Electric Guitar and there's a pic of exactly the same model here: http://makeashorterlink.com/?R59B2304D . It is quite wide, and probably not as thick as a dreadnaught, though not as thin as an electric guitar. Let's see... it's about 105 cm long, 40 cm wide at the widest part, and 9 cm thick.