The Mystical 1966 Jetstar, Does a Hard Shell Case for it exist?

the answer my friends is YES! hit the hot hard case lotto on ebay when I rolled the dice on this TKL badboy. it fits basically perfect. I may look for a couple more of these as it was not easy to find. Thanks very much to our leader Hans Moust for the vital information on the Guild cases of the 60s and 70s. I was ice cold before I reached out to him a few months ago. very happy camper right now. I still have the original soft case for the guitar but it was time to preserve that while its in one piece, as it is in good shape but well worn.




here are 2 original Jetstar soft cases:




the TKL is a solid upgrade for travel and storage.



I only take the guitars out the case if I am going to play.

Nice. But explain a little por favor. I would call the second picture a picture of two chipboard cases. I'll make a distinction between a gig bag a.k.a. soft case which maybe you are not. But when I look at the third picture I see what superficially looks like a hard shell case although the lining and hardware suggest '70's. But the 'edge" looks thicker than I would expect for a chipboard case.

So what you call a soft case, I call a chipboard case and both pictures are of the same (chipboard or soft) cases. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the second picture could be mistaken for a HSC. That about right?

Just for discussion, I always though a Soft case and a Chipboard case were the same thing. A Gig Bag is a Gig Bag.

Now there are different levels of a Soft/Chipboard case. To me, the two basic distinctions are: "Lined" and "Un-Lined".

But since we're talkin' Guilds here, let's go to the October 1, 1968 Catalog.



As you can see, Guild only offered a "Lined" Soft/Chipboard case. (Mine are yellow.)

(By the way, why do they call them "Chip Board" when they are made of Paperboard? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipboard )


They also had three different Hard cases. It looks like there were two levels for most guitars and the "3 ply" for the larger bodied guitars.



And last, but not least, here is the Hard case that my S-200 Thunderbird came in.




My S-100 Polara, and S-50 Jet Star also came in the exact same type of case! They are all 1965's.






So does that close the "case" on this subject?

The Guilds of Grot said:

So does that close the "case" on this subject?

Click to expand...

not exactly...the Jetstar with the 6 in-line headstock will not fit in that Thunderbird/Polara case, as is obvious in your picture and the ones Hans sent me. Also none of the 60s Jetstars would fit in a 70s Guild case.

and yes the original "soft case" for the Jetstars is bascially "chipboard." They are in decent shape, I wouldnt just grab it like a suitcase and go, especially the one, even 50 years ago they seem to offer false security after a certain extent. they are cool though and both did the job to this point. just dont want to push it.

The Guilds of Grot said:

Just for discussion, I always though a Soft case and a Chipboard case were the same thing. A Gig Bag is a Gig Bag.

Click to expand...

I suspect the difference comes from where we learned vocabulary. For brass instruments in the 1970's there were two kinds of cases - hard and soft. A soft case and a gig bag were exactly the same thing and only pretentious idiots or working musicians called them gig bags. So when I first ecnountered the chipboard case (and that is what they were called) they were neither a soft case nor a hard case because they looked like one but had the protection, or lack thereof, of the other.

As I think about it guitars may be the only instruments that have chipboard cases which may be why the terminology used in the catalog is slightly different from what the masses use.

Next time it comes up I think I'll use the term "economy" rather than "soft" when talking about the chipboard cases.

Thank you. Interesting stuff.

The 1966 Guild catalog mentions two case options for the S-50: 'No 15 S Economy case, deluxe covering, crushed plush lined' and 'Padded Professional gig bag'.
Interestingly both Starfire bass and Jetstar Bass only have one case option ('Padded Professional gig bag')

http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfiles/file/pdfs/historical-data/Guild/Guild 1966 Catalog.pdf