All over the place, or in a case...

[veinbuster]

My wife wants to know who makes Steve's cases.

 

[11top]

My wife wants to know who makes Steve's cases.

Well........all the cases except the plastic ones (which I found long ago on EBay) were made by local craftsmen in my town from wood that I supplied. Oh, except for the last guitar stand which was made by Dodge.

The built-in case in my office (Birdseye maple and quilted sepele) was built by Rich Stephens, a local contractor, who is also the bassist in my band.

 

[Mike Duncan]

Some in string swings and some in Fender stands.

 

[slowro]

I keep mine in a rack nice and safe, apart from when the cat wants to be nosey and walks between them to see whats behind them haha

 

[Aldwyn]

All of the above.

I have two hanging from the wall on String Swings(tm), three in a Rockstand(tm) below, and the rest in their cases in the closet.

 

[rugerpc]

I used to display everything on wall hangers and stands, both at home and in the office. but a few things convinced me that I should change my ways.

Even minor changes in temperature and humidity can play havoc with any guitar - even solid bodies. I have had necks and fretboards warp, necks dry out and crack, acoustic tops crack and have even had intonation changes and of course, de-tuning.

On top of that is another concern - dust. I found that just keeping the dust off was becoming a full time job. And you know that dust is acidic and will pit ANY finish - no matter how modern or whiz-bang it is.

So, with more than a little trepidation, everything got stored back in its original case. The cases are neatly stacked so that even they don't collect much dust. I'm working on name tags with pics for each case handle so I can find the one I'm looking for more easily as I rotate through them.

The only guitars still out of cases are ones I use as decorations in the office. At home, only one or two solid bodies ever sit out at a time and the acoustics NEVER leave their cases unless they are being played (or fondled) .

 

[prsrocker1988]

Mine are all hanging on the wall - every guitar I own in fact.

 

[south89]

I don't know but but I just developed some serious guitar envy for 11 top's collection. Very Nice !!! Me myself I have to agree with somebody on this post earlier stating that I keep them all hanging out which makes me want to play more.

 

[Blackbird]

I used to display everything on wall hangers and stands, both at home and in the office. but a few things convinced me that I should change my ways.

Even minor changes in temperature and humidity can play havoc with any guitar - even solid bodies. I have had necks and fretboards warp, necks dry out and crack...

I'm curious about the details of those outcomes. What kind of guitar, and how old were they? What kind of neck and fretboard? How long were they hanging for that type of damage to occur? Direct sunlight? Surely you have pics. That would serve as a good deterrent for myself and perhaps others.

 

[rugerpc]

I'm curious about the details of those outcomes. What kind of guitar, and how old were they? What kind of neck and fretboard? How long were they hanging for that type of damage to occur? Direct sunlight? Surely you have pics. That would serve as a good deterrent for myself and perhaps others.

I live in Maryland. The environment here is brutal for guitars because of the humidity and heat mostly. In the summer, the humidity is off the hook, and even well insulated and tight houses and offices have a hard time maintaining a good balance. We also suffer horrible low humidity in the Winter.

My office in particular receives traffic. Good for business, bad for the HVAC system.

Every time someone comes or goes, a whole new crop of outside air is added to the current mix. With only1568 square feet, small changes make a difference. The AC is the tool for the summer doing both cooling and a bit of de-humidifying. In the winter, I run THREE humidifiers in the office alone.

Still - minute changes take their toll

The cracked top was on a Taylor 655ce-12 Man, you can't know the heartbreak unless you have had it happen to you1 I did manage to get it rehydrated and am working on reglueing the cracks, but it will never be the same. Amazingly, I can't tell any real difference in the volume or tone. My biggest fear is all that 12 string strain on the bridge. I expect to have it explode one night in it's case... Interestingly enough, a 614ce hanging right next to the 655 for the same time period suffered no ill effects.

The warped neck was on another Taylor, a T5 standard. It got enough movement in the neck that the truss rod almost bottomed out adjusting it back. It has been in it's case since and is slowly recovering with copious hydration. Intonation was affected a little too, with the neck bending a bit towards string 6, the last 3 strings went a bit off especially in the upper frets. That too is returning to normal...

Any time I store a guitar in it's case, especially for PRS, they stay dead nuts in tune. I have taken guitars out after a year in storage and they are still in tune. Anything that sits our, no matter the brand, requires tuning after sitting. some of the cheaper guitars like Samick will go for a week or two (unplayed) before they need tuning. A PRS will go a couple of months (unplayed) before it needs tuning.

So, everything is cased unless being played. I will leave at most 2 solid bodies out at a tie, but only if I am going back and forth between them.

Oh, no direct sunlight or anything like that. But if you have the kind of climate where there are days that you can open the windows, your interior environment is as changeable as the outside. Cases and in case humidifiers are a necessary protection on top of your HVAC, humidifiers and de-humidifiers in your building.

 

[László]

I'm curious about the details of those outcomes. What kind of guitar, and how old were they? What kind of neck and fretboard? How long were they hanging for that type of damage to occur? Direct sunlight? Surely you have pics. That would serve as a good deterrent for myself and perhaps others.

I'm in Michigan. Humid summers, extremely cold and dry winters.

The older the guitar, I've found the fewer problems if it's left out of the case. F'rinstance my '65 SG Special was out for years, because by the time I did that it was over 20 years old and the wood was well-settled.

I've always had a whole-house humidifier, but in winter that maybe gets me to 25-30% RH. Not enough. The RH of the Sahara Desert is often in that range!

So a one year old Taylor W-14 I usually left out in my studio had the finish crack off the entire perimeter of the top due to wood shrinkage one winter. And I mean, a100% gap between the top and the edge binding. I had the back of a Martin crack. The fingerboards shrunk on a couple of Andersons (I mean, the fret ends were so far out they were unplayable), but that was fixed at the luthier's shop. I've had slightly poky fret ends on a PRS, though far less than on the Andersons, and the guitars were playable. Fenders have had problems as bad as the Andersons if left out, including some unexplainable neck warpage. I had the finish crack and literally flake off a new Rickenbacker Tom Petty model in the 90s. All of my guitars that were kept out needed quarterly neck adjustments. Then I read something Bob Taylor wrote about keeping the guitars cased and properly humidified, and I figured since I'm really not into the constant neck adjustments and other issues, I'd try that for a few months.

So about 10-12 years ago, I started keeping them cased, and using a room humidifier to augment my whole-house system. Gosh did that solve problems!

Since then, I've NEVER had a problem, and most importantly (just in terms of convenience because Jack Gretz sets up my guitars and he's far from me), none of my guitars has needed neck adjustments. None has had finish problems. None has had poky fret ends. No finish fading. And I've had lots o' guitars here.

So, for those who aren't into keeping them cased, no worries, do what you do and enjoy them! Whatever works for you is great. Not saying anyone else needs a deterrent, I'm just into having my guitars stay really, really nice.

I've decided that I really like what happens when I keep the guitars cased, and in a humidified room in winter. I do think it's the best way to care for the guitars, and I'm all about maintaining the guitars as best I can. I don't consider them easily replaceable or inexpensive! Wood seems to age best in a constant humidity environment.

What Taylor says is that it's not just the humidity issue; evidently the cases also buffer the temperature fluctuations that take place during a 24 hour period. So the wood and finish are expanding and contracting more slowly. This seems to also be a good thing, though I have nothing but anecdotal evidence of this via my own instruments.

I can say that another benefit of casing them is that they don't get dusty, therefore the pots and switches work without being scratchy and with fewer repairs. Remember that kept out in a house where cooking takes place, the circulation of air via doorways and cold air returns will also put cooking greases into the environment, even with kitchen fans, and this makes the dust kind of sticky, and of course the combination of goo and dust also affects the functioning of the controls. And of course, a cased guitar isn't going to get accidentally dinged, or knocked off its stand by the vacuum cleaner, pets, or little kids. Or dinged by the well meaning guest who takes it off the wall but hits another guitar in the process.

I don't have pics. The bad stuff happened for me in the 90s. Long time ago.