Gig Bag Advice

mad dog

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Hey All: I have two new solid bodies in the house, one the DeArmond M75T, the other a Godin LG signature (solid body). More or less the same size instruments. I need a couple good gig bags. Have two reunion blues from long ago. My preference would be to go that way again, except they want 200 bucks now for a soft gigbag such as I already have.

Are there any equally-well made gig bags out there that would fit the M75T type (LP like dimensions but a bit bigger all around.)?

Thanks
 

Mr. Chet

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I'm not a fan of gig bags. IMO a good guitar deserves a rugged, well built hard case. A moderately priced molded SKB, Gator or TKL will offer way more protection than any gigbag, I believe. YMMV. Regards.
 

california

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Mr. Chet said:
I'm not a fan of gig bags. IMO a good guitar deserves a rugged, well built hard case. A moderately priced molded SKB, Gator or TKL will offer way more protection than any gigbag, I believe. YMMV. Regards.

Ditto. I was taking one of my good guitars to a lesson a couple of weeks ago, thought I'd use a gigi bag so I didn't havet to lug a case. The moment I set it in the back of the car I realized there was virtually no support for the neck if I it a hard bump or had to make a sudden stop. When I got to my lesson, my teacher just rolled his eyes when he saw the gig big, basically told me I was nuts for using it.
 

capnjuan

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Lack of case puts it at higher risk with UPS / USPS FedEx should you ever need to ship it. Gig bag offers sooo little real protection.
 

mad dog

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You guys make a good point. I mostly play bolt-on neck guitars, which don't have that "snapping off the headstock" tendency. Have used gig bags for years with strats and teles, no worries.

So you are right on the M75T. I should get a hard case for that. The Godin is a bolt-on; that one I'll see if I can find a good gig bag.
 

Squawk

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Funny you mention Godin - I like their TRIC cases - a nice hybrid offering the light weight of a gig bag with the protection of a hard case.
 

guildzilla

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I priced gig bags recently, looking for a cheap one. Tried Sam Ash and Guitar Center and found next to nothing under $30. So I bailed out of the search.

Seems like 10 years ago you could get the cheap ones for $8 or so.
 

mad dog

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Guildzilla: Right you are. 10 years ago, Reunion blues were affordable. Now they're 200 bucks. That's ridiculous. The irony of this is that Godin supplies really nice gig bags with many of their instruments. Mine came via Ebay in a way lesser quality one. I got a good price, so no complaints there. I should just contact Godin and be done with it.
 

coastie99

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guildzilla said:
I priced gig bags recently, looking for a cheap one. Tried Sam Ash and Guitar Center and found next to nothing under $30. So I bailed out of the search.

Seems like 10 years ago you could get the cheap ones for $8 or so.

Ya cheap sod !!
 

mad dog

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I finally bit the bullet and got a proper case for the M75T. Cruised by the local GC. None of the obvious candidates from the case wall would do. So I looked around to find something shaped close the the Dearmond. One Gretsch, domething vaguely Duo Jet looking, seemed pretty close. And it turns out they had a high-end case in the back extra. Some guy had bought the high end Gretsch, but drew the line at a 190 dolloar case. I got them down to 160 and said let's do it.

Very nice case, two latches on the bottom, instead of one. The main thing is, now I don't have to worry about abusing this quitar. Which is turning into a reall tone favorite in my house. Might be the best slide guitar I've ever had, a unique and beautiful range of sound out of these 2k pickups. It's even heavier with this substantial case.
 

mad dog

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Coastie: Since I'm already causing GAS distress ... I thought the M75Tsounded quite good right from the start. Something about it P90 like in a way, but smoother. A little too smooth on the neck only, kept reaching down to turn the tone up when it already was. Then I noticed how little range there was in the pots. Took if off for a setup, new pots, and a treble bleed mod for the neck volume. Big difference. So much clearer.

Anyway, after the change, I tried it in open E out of curiosity ... very surprised at the sound, especially with slide. Rather lap steel like, but not quite like anything I've heard. A soaring, rich tone, pushes over into a real howl at higher volumes. Now it stays in open E, and is giving my so-far favorite slide guitar choice (G&L ASAT Classic) some tough competition.

If you can run one of these down in NZ, it'd be worth a try.
 

coastie99

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Hhhhmmm; now let me see.

What should I get first; one of these ? A Blues 90 ? Another SF4 (sunburst) ? Another Bluesbird (black) ? An S-100 ? Or my once-in-a-lifetime acoustic ?

And how should I go about trying to convince Dragon-Lady that, in spite of already having three guitars to slide on, with a fourth on the way, I really do need another !!!

Looked up "expired listings" on our Ebay equivalent, but found nothing.
I have seen de Armond M-75 auctions, and remember some fancy prices being fetched, but don't recall specific prices.
The Korean-made de Armonds certainly do attract very favourable comment.
 
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