You need this: Timbre Cases creates the perfect home for your guitar
Peter McMath, founder of Timbre Cases
Traveling with musical instruments is a hassle: often airlines don’t allow you to bring your instrument on board the plane, but no matter how many “fragile” stickers you plaster on the case you can’t trust that it won’t be thrown like a bag of trash into the cargo hold. Even just living through the change of seasons can be hard on an acoustic instrument: wood expands and contracts depending on the humidity, and it’s not always possible to maintain optimum climate control in your home or home studio.
Whether you’re a professional musician constantly on the road, or you simply love your instrument and want to give it the best life possible, Timbre Cases has what you need.
I spoke with Peter McMath, the company’s founder, about their kickstarter campaign. Peter, himself a guitarist, worked for many years in guitar repair and tech work in New Brunswick. He got to know the musicians and the instruments, acquiring and falling in love with many of the latter (I didn’t ask about the former) along the way. He soon came to realize that there weren’t many, or really any, good options for housing, protecting, and transporting guitars; when his clients asked for a recommendation, he couldn’t honestly offer one.
Most products currently on the market are manufactured with outdated materials and outdated processes. Peter set about to redesign the guitar case and the way it’s constructed, looking to the auto and airline industries for innovations in materials and technologies. His cases are more efficiently made, stronger, lighter, and more reliable. Useful features are integrated into the design, such as molded handles and recessed hardware, so that if by accident your case hits a door or a wall the hardware doesn’t break. The cases are water resistant, so there’s no need to panic if it’s left sitting on the tarmac in the rain, and they contain built-in pockets for two-way humidification systems: if it’s a hot humid summer day, humidity is extracted from the wood, but if it’s a bone-dry day in January, humidity is supplied. All cases have handles and wheels that facilitate transporting an instrument through airports.
In short, most guitar cases are designed to keep the dust off. McMath’s priority is to make a case people can trust. His company plans to ship their revolutionary cases to outlets across North America beginning in May 2015.
McMath Is definitely planning to expand beyond guitar cases, beginning with other fretted acoustic instruments like banjo and mandolin, and continuing into the electric instrument market as well.
Cases will sell for $849. On Kickstarter musicians can get early pricing beginning at $699. Other perks come with different levels of donation, so check it out and donate HERE.
