You might think a guitar is a hard wearing piece of equipment. In some instances you may be right, but neglect your guitar and its looks will slowly start to deteriorate, sound quality reduce and may become faulty. Without a guitar case your beloved instrument is a sitting duck to potentially harmful effects of the atmosphere and its surroundings.

Since you are reading this article im going to assume that you don’t have a guitar case. In that case you probably leave your axe lying around whenever you are not using it. Depending on where you leave it, it could be at the mercy of the atmosphere. Unless your practice room or house is air tight, and has a controlled environment, then there could be harm occurring to your guitar and you don’t realise it.

If your guitar is left in a room with varying heat and humidity there is every chance that this could be taking its toll on it Excessive variations in humidity could very well be warping the finger board or even the body itself.<

Leaving your guitar in your garage after that band practice? There is every chance that your garage is going to be damp to some degree. We all know what the effects of water and oxygen are on metal fixings. The control knobs, bridge, you strings etc could be rusting before your very eyes. Not quite that fast, but we don't want any rust. Replacing these components is a expenditure that we really don't want to be putting out when it can be easily avoided.

Only the other day a young guy walked onto the bus I was on with his guitar over his shoulder without a case. If you have spent a load of your hard earned cash buying your guitar you want to run the risk of damaging it, or even someone else damaging it when you are out and about. If your going to practice with your band at a rehearsal room you really need to have a case to avoid causing unnecessary damage.

When you are not playing your axe you want to keep it safe from potential damage too, leaving it lying against a wall, your bed, chair or anything else is an accident waiting to happen. If it falls over who knows what damage it could do to itself, or anything that it happens to fall on top of.

As you can see there are plenty of reasons to bite the bullet and get a guitar case for your pride and joy, be that a soft guitar case or a hard guitar case. It may seem like a hardy instrument but its made from natural materials and is therefore very delicate and needs to be looked after properly. The rest of this site is going to look at your options for protecting your musical equipment.

Electric Guitar Straps

When you do into a guitar store like Guitar Center or look online at Musicians Friend, or even at Amazon.com you will be faced with a huge choice of guitar straps that can be used with electric guitars, they are probably the most common straps sold. This means that you will have a harder choice choosing the right strap. There are loads of different materials to choose from, lengths and widths and designs. A lot of guitars will come with a strap when you buy them, but normally they are quite boring so you will no doubt want to change it up for something that is a little more interesting, or that matches the person that you are.

Bass Guitar Straps

Because bass guitars a normally quite a bit heavier than the average electric guitar bass players need a different type of guitar strap. Many bass players will go for a much wider strap, so that the weight of the guitar is spread out over a larger area on the shoulder, if you use a thin strap you will feel the pain after an hour or two playing.

Acoustic Guitar Straps

With most acoustic guitars there will only be one end pin on the bottom of the guitar for a guitar strap, for this reason there are guitar straps that are made specifically for acoustic guitars. These straps have got string, lace or a strap at one end which wraps around the headstock/neck. If you are using a strap that has string or lace at the end make sure you tie a good knot, you don’t want it coming undone while you play and your guitar falling to the ground.

There are some people who don’t like the feel of guitar when using the type of strap so the other option is to buy a guitar that have a pin for the strap when the neck meets the body, or install one yourself. Personally I would never try to drill holes in my guitar, especially if I had spent quite a lot of money on it, so if you already have a guitar and want to use a regular strap then take the guitar to a professional to have the end pin installed.

Materials And Other styles

Nylon Guitar Straps

Nylon guitar straps are some of the cheapest that you can buy. If you just need any type of strap then you should consider these. Nylon is really durable too but it can dig into your shoulders after you have been playing for a while, so might not be the best choice if you will be playing long shows. Right now at Amazon.com the Ernie Ball Nylon strap shown on the left is only $2.94, it is an absolute bargain.

Leather Guitar Straps

Leather is the first choice for many more serious guitar players, these straps cost a little bit more than nylon straps but they are well worth the extra cost. They last longer as leather is very durable, they look great and once they soften up they are really comfortable. You will find a massive selection of leather straps in any guitar store and they span from relatively cheap to the silly prices of custom guitar straps.

Padded Guitar Straps

If you play your guitar for hours at a time, either at home or playing shows then a padded guitar might be ideal for you. There is a extra thick, soft layer of padding on the shoulder giving you some much needed extra comfort. I use a padded Levys strap on my bass guitar, as mentioned before they can be quite heavy, so that padding gives my shoulder a bit less trouble when playing shows compared to an unpadded strap.

Guitar Strap Locks

When you buy a new guitar strap you will find that they stay attached to your guitar without any trouble, but after you take it off and put it back on a few times you will see that the material gets softer and it comes off really easily. This is why I would recommend using guitar strap locks. Strap locks, as the name suggests, will keep the strap locked on to your guitar, they don’t come free unless you want it to. Schaller strap locks are perhaps the most popular ones on the market, but Dunlop do a good range as well.

Or you could opt for the Planet Waves – Planet Lock Strap, this is basically a regular guitar strap that comes in a number of designs and materials but they lock directly right on to the guitar end pins, you don’t need to replace the end pins to suit the strap lock.

Wearing Your Guitar

When it comes to how you wear your guitar, the height that it sits on you body, it is totally based on your tastes, though many people will copy what their favorite guitars do. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you play the same style of music, some guitar positions suit some types of music better than others. If you will be playing punk music or something like that then a low slung guitar is the thing to do. This position is OK if you are not playing complex parts, after a while some people will find that their wrists get sore. If you are going to be playing more technical pieces then a higher position will be better suited to you. It will be easier to play and it is also going to be less sore on your wrists. Many people see this position as being geeky, but I wont worry about what other people think, I don’t anyway, this is how I play my guitar.

As you can see there is actually quite a bit to think about when you are choosing a guitar strap, but I hope what you have read will help you make the right choice. If you are looking to buy online then check out Musicians Friend or Amazon.com, they both have a great choice and unbeatable prices.

Eric Patrick Clapton

 
An ordinary man with an incredible gift. Eric Clapton is not only a gifted songwriter and composer but also one of the best guitarists the world has ever known. Known as a blues-rock guitarist he has created some very personal pieces on acoustic and electric guitar. Before going solo he was in the two rock bands, Cream and Yardbirds.
 
One of his most moving hits is “tears in heaven” which is basically a lament to his late son. This moving song features some low tones and a simple acoustic guitar strumming chords that touched peoples hearts. Some more up tempo rock songs include “Layla” and “I’ve Got A Rock N Roll Heart”. 
 
Clapton got ranked at number 4 in Rolling Stone Magazines list of 100 greatest guitarists. Fans, critics and fellow musicians have always praised his skills and continue to do so.
 

Jimmy Page

 
James Patrick Page, just like Clapton he was a member of the Yardbirds but most recognizable as the lead guitarist in Led Zeppelin. Despite his well known, strange behaviour off stage, Page has worked his way into many lists of greatest guitarist and there is a reason for that. Just listen to the sounds his guitar makes on tracks like ” Whole Lotta Love” “Kashmir” and “All Of My Love”. Fans and critics love his work and with Led Zeppelin considered one of the best rock bands ever, his amazing history of skilled guitar playing is something to inspire.
 

Jimi Hendrix

 
No name stands out in musicians minds quite like Jimi Hendrix. Guitar players everywhere inspire to be like him and yet there has never be any comparison since his untimely death back in 1970. With hits like ” Purple Haze” and “Hey Joe” he can take his listeners on an unforgettable journey.

His guitar certainly does talk back to the audience, like his memorable performance of the American National Anthem, where he famously played his guitar with his teeth. Then there was his performance at Woodstock which is still considered the greatest rock concert of all time. His legacy will live on despite his death at such a young age. He accomplished more in his short life than most people do in a life time. That is one incredible legacy.
 
Now, I am sure learning guitar is not an easy task and it needs a good determination and perseverance. If you have someone who likes guitars then you can even give guitar gifts, like a new guitar case, or even CD compilations of the above three famous guitar players as gifts

If you own a lot of guitars, or even just a few – but valuable ones – you could do worse than storing them in flight cases. Why? Anything truly valuable deserves to have the best protection, so instead of stowing your much loved guitars away in gig bags or rickety old hard cases, put them in a good quality guitar flight case strong enough to take being driven over by a car, and that has a built in hygrometer. That way you will know the exact humidity inside the closed case, and can take action before your instrument is damaged by moisture.

Good flight cases also have enough space for various compartments – lots of room for extra strings, picks, cables and a tuner. Don’t know about you, but things I don’t use regularly tend to become buried under a lot of other things, and yes – that might even accidentally happen to a valuable guitar! With your guitars in flight cases, you can put whatever you want on top of them – no harm done!

What about your other gear? Amps, effects and such? Yes, those too can benefit from some place safe to live. With rack gear it goes without saying: Put it in a rack! But why not give your head or combo amp a nice flight case too? There are several advantages to doing so:

• Protect the controls and finish of your expensive amp – and everything inside it too. Put some dense foam in the bottom of the case for extra shock absorption – hot tubes hate getting bumped around.
• Make room in the case for multi effectss units, a rack tray with your favorite pedals, and plug everything into a singlepower strip.. That way you only need one wall outlet at your gigs.
• Good for storage. I’ve heard stories about entire families of mice living in amps that hadn’t been used for a long time! Well, they won’t be getting through a good flight case, that is for sure.

You could even make your home audio recording studio portable – just plop it all into a solid rack case and take it to gigs for live recordings.

Yep, there are plenty of good uses for flight cases – even if you don’t tour the world!

This was a guest post by Christian Coriolis – for Internet Business – And Life Too

Let’s take a look at some of the greatest blues guitars out there today. When you own one of these beautiful instruments, you can be sure that you are going to want it to be kept in top condition, so make sure that you get a good case to keep it protected, especially when traveling about, maybe even to lessons.

The Fender Stratocaster is perhaps the most iconic blues guitar out there. This is the instrument that redefined guitar music and truly put electronic amplification on the map. Jimi Hendrix is perhaps best known for using this guitar, and Eric Clapton’s favorite Strat is called Blackie. In fact, he composed Layla on it and when he put it up for sale in a charity auction he ended up buying it back as he couldn’t stand to let ‘Blackie’ go.

When you look at pictures of some of the original bluesmen, they tend to have larger acoustic, or semi-acoustic guitars as this was before the times when amplification was common. To get this look and feel today, I would highly recommend the Gibson ES-335. The thinline archtop with “f” holes gives it that semi acoustic tone, and if you put thick strings on it you get a really rustic sound perfect for the blues.

So we’ve looked at a full-blown electric and a semi-acoustic/electric guitar so far. Each of these would be a fantastic buy to learn the blues guitar. There is a final guitar I would like to investigate and that is the Dobro Resonator guitar. Resonator guitars are favored by slide guitarists and feature the metal fronted resonator which gives it a distinctly bluegrass sound when played. This guitar was also featured on the famous Dire Straits’, Brothers in Arms album sleeve, and was used extensively on that album. If you are going to take an acoustic blues guitar lesson course, then this could well be the guitar for you.

Of course you don’t need a specialist guitar to learn the blues, but one of the above ones, well protected with a good quality guitar case, will last a lifetime and give you a lot of playing pleasure.

If you have ever been to play a gig with your band and you have all your effects pedals and cables all stuffed into a bag or back pack you will have, at some point, went a bit mad at the fact that matter how much time you spend putting everything in the bag in a tidy manor, it very rarely comes out that way after the bag has been moved around for a while. Be that while you walk or while its been in your car or van.

An effects pedal case will go some way to solving your problems here. After you purchase your case, you can take it home and either bolt or Velcro all your pedals into place, exactly where you want them and they will stay there no matter what. Everything will be in your case, connected up with patch cables, all you need to do is plug one side into your guitar and the other side into your amplifier. There’s no messing around for half an hour undoing all the mess that’s been happening in your backpack in the short journey from your house to the venue or practice room. Plug in and your ready to go.

As well as saving you an age in untangling everything, effects cases are really handy to carry around and move from place to place. Simply zip up or attach the lid and you are ready to go, in only a matter of seconds. Depending on what model you buy it will have either a comfortable handle or a strap to go over your should, ideal for when your hands are tied up carrying the dozen other things that you have to take to a show. Or more than likely it will have both handles.

Effects pedal cases come in various sizes, big and small. If you only have a few pedals there’s going to one just for you. Of course they can only go so big before it becomes silly. If you have every pedal under the sun you are going to need more than one large case, probably several.

As with your guitar case, pedal cases come in both hard and soft varietys. Depending on what you are going to be using it for. Hard cases are ideal for you if you want your pedals to be protected from the unexpected. Or a soft case if you need something lighter to carry around with you.

It might be overlooked in favour of a normal backpack, but putting all your pedals in a case is something you should really look into. For saving time setting up and ease of moving your collection of pedals around, you really cant beat one.

Being on the road for months at a time not only takes its toll on the artists involved but also on the gear. With sometimes dozens of crew members carrying all the gear to and from the transport, setting it up and stripping it down, gear can take serious beating. Also once everything is packed into its box to be put back on the transportation, its gets thrown around like the boxes empty not full of expensive equipment.

This is why we need flight cases for our guitars. These are no ordinary guitar cases. While a hard guitar case is strong and tough, flight cases take these attributes to a new level. They are super strong to withstand the beating they take on several month long tours around the world. Unlike a hard guitar case these are made from the very strongest materials, aluminium, polypropylene, astraboard. These are not joking, they mean business!

As well as being as strong as possible, they are safe. Locks on the outside prevent any one of the hundreds of people who handle the boxes from getting inside. Only those you need to get it, do so. Not only are they safe from being opened up and the contents stolen or sabotaged, they are all totally padded internally, with shock absorbing foam custom cut to fit your precious guitar.

Sadly all this strength and security means there has to be some sort of draw back. The materials used to construct these cases are not always light and the internal fittings add to the weight too. If you are playing at your local pub, do you really need to be carrying all this extra weight with you?

Not only are they heavy, they are very bulky. You are going to need some room to store these, so unless you have it you might be better checking out an alternative case.

Another negative point is that flight cases are pretty damn expensive compared with a regular hard or soft guitar cases. Unless you have top of the range gear and really move it around a lot, is a flight case really needed? Maybe you would be better off with a soft case, or if you do gig regularly a normal hard guitar case might be a better option for you.

As you can see flight cases do have a job to do, though generally its not with the average Joe. If you are heading out for a long stint on the road or have a really expensive guitar then flight cases might be just what you need, otherwise, check out your other options before splashing out.

Soft cases are the starting point for guitar storage. They are not the best solution for keeping your instrument safe, but they do a better job than no case in fending off some of the harm that will come your way, in some instances they have advantages over hard cases.

A soft case is going to be much lighter than its harder cousin. This makes for easy transportation. If you have to walk around with your guitar, you really want something that isn’t going to pull your arm off after a short walk to a gig or your practice room. Coupled with the rest of the stuff you have to carry, effects pedals, maybe even an amplifier, every few pounds you can shave off of your gear is going to be a great relief to you.

When you aren’t using your case, with it being soft its really easy to store away. Fold it up into something one tenth its original size and you can put it in a drawer out of the way.

As well as being really light, a soft case costs far less than its hard equivalent. If its your first guitar and you need something to get you going, then a soft case is ideal. You don’t want to be spending a fortune on your first guitar then find out a few months down the line that its not the instrument for you, that’s money wasted. Or if you are already an established player, maybe you have a new guitar but your local store doesn’t stock the hard case you want, a soft one will get you home and dry perfectly.

Sadly its not all good news for soft cases, they do have their weaknesses. Being soft they offer pretty much no protection against any sort of direct impact. If anything hits the bag the force will go right through onto the guitar, not an ideal situation. If you take it to a gig and there are many people around your gear, moving it, lifting it, whatever, if they drop it or knock it over there maybe trouble ahead, damage or even a repair bill.

Being relatively cheap, soft cases are not anywhere near as durable as a hard equivalent. It may last quite some time if you really look after it and don’t abuse it. But if its given a hard life your case isn’t going to last anywhere near as long as a high quality hard case.

As you can see there are pros and cons to buying a softer type case for your “axe”. If you want more information on hard cases follow this link, Hard Guitar Case. Hopefully these two articles will help you decide which option is better for you.

Before you buy you need to consider how your going to be using your guitar, or where exactly you are going to be taking it? Are you in a band with loads of gigs coming up, or are you just a hobby player who jams with their friends every now and then? If you are the latter then a hard case might be a bit overkill for you and you might be better buying a soft guitar case, but read on and see what there has to be said about hard cases.

If you are in a band and are a touring or even just playing a few local gigs, then you really are going to need something more heavy duty than a simple soft or padded guitar case. Think of the time your guitar spends in the band of a car or van. Its going to be getting bashed around, there might be things falling on top of it. A soft case isn’t going to handle this and your guitar is going to get smashed up pretty quick. A hard case is going to offer you some serious protection against the unexpected. They tend to be made from pretty durable materials, wood or even aluminium. These materials are going to save you from receiving a mountainous repair bills after your bands shows.

There is also the chance that while you are loading all your gear into the venue or while people are moving things around during the show other people will be handling your guitar. Not everyone is going to take as much care as your are, so having the hard case is going to give you some peace of mind. No matter who touches it, your guitar will be safe.

There are of course downsides to hard cases. Because of how and what they are made of they can be pretty heavy. If you already have a load of other gear to carry like effects boxes, cables and your amplifier then you might want something that’s a little lighter and save your arms and legs some work.

Maybe you don’t have use of your own transport and have to catch buses and trains or walk to wherever your gig is or where you practice. Carrying the weight of your guitar and case a long distance may leave you too tired to even play when you arrive. Coupled with the rest of your gear, again you might want to take the lighter option of the soft case.

You have to take into account the cost as well, a good hard guitar case is going to cost you a fair amount of money, money which you might not have. If you can’t afford the outlay then you might be better off with a cheaper alternative. Saying that, if you have spent a small fortune on your guitar, do you really want to cut corners and save on something that could potentially save your new pride and joy from an unpredictable disaster?

On the whole hard cases really are worth it, they’re going to save your investment from any damage that might occur, though the downside is weight and expense. Hopefully this will have helped you make your decision a little easier.