The cases are made by two different manufacturers, and I'd argue that the New Hartford era TKL premium case is a better case.
Yup.
TKL is my go-to brand most of the time.
I think that a humidifier isn't really needed in a case if the top fits very tightly and securely. The guitar doesn't lose very much moisture in such a case, and a stable humidity level is, to me, better than shocking a guitar with too much humidity then allowing it to dry out to suddenly when it's played a lot after being stored for a long time.
A humidifier isn't the most important part of any case. The hardshell cases are built to protect the guitar, and to buffer all the shocks and bumps the guitar gets whenever it's being transported. That's TKL- their cases always fit a guitar very well, don't allow water to creep inside, and all the latches are always top quality and latch accurately. They're tough and can take a lot of abuse.
There are more expensive cases, and more protective cases, but TKL is more than adequate in their protection, and are a good value.
The company began at a time when a lot of the American case makers were going out of the business, and their early cases weren't as good as they are now, but they were still good enough that Gibson used them as their standard as did Guild and Martin.
The company actually listened and learned from those maker's input, and soon began building much better cases for the same price.
The weakest part of the old line were the handles. Everything else was always pretty good right from the first.
