What's "On' Your Case

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

I mean, a guitar case is for one thing only, which, if it's a good one, it does well: protect your guitar. Do stickers add more protection? Nope. Pointless, useless.

You have glossed over the point many have made. When sitting in a sea of black tolex, which one is yours is easily identifiable.

[rllink]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

Don't know that there's anything low-class or trashy about stickers on cases, but I don't see any advantage, either. It's like tattoos and bumperstickers: What are they for?

I mean, a guitar case is for one thing only, which, if it's a good one, it does well: protect your guitar. Do stickers add more protection? Nope. Pointless, useless.

Of course, stickers and whatnot are also a way of expressing yourself. But I've never had any problems in that department. A sticker (or a tattoo) would just be redundant.

And the other of-course: They're decorative. I like decorating my house. And Christmas trees. But for me, the urge just doesn't often go far beyond that — though I do confess I have one sticker on one guitar: Sabo, the IWW anarchist cat is on my black Strat.

But that's on a guitar, not a case. I care about how my guitars look. Cases are just to keep them looking good.

You got me thinking this morning Charlie. I have a tattoo, I got it in the Navy, a screaming eagle with USN on a banner in its talons. I guess it just says I've been somewhere and done something. That was a long time ago. I think with my guitar case, I haul that GS Mini all over the place. Check it as baggage when I fly, I took it to Albuquerque on the train, I threw it in the back of the SUV and it rode back there for a month one time when I we road tripped to LA the long way. I guess the stickers are just a reminder of where it has been and what it has done. But if you don't see a purpose, then by all means, keep it clean, but I'm just saying, there's a purpose.

[Earl49]

After many festivals and a guitar camp where for lunch there was a lineup of about 40 nearly identical guitar cases, I grabbed a Gwennies Restaurant of Anchorage bumper sticker next time I ate there (mmmm.... reindeer sausage omelet). Their bumper stickers are fluorescent pink and make a case really stand out. If your case won't take a sticker due to texture, there is always a length of orange or pink surveyor's tape or ribbon, used to mark stakes. Tie that around the handle and you are good to go.

[Talk2Me]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

Don't know that there's anything low-class or trashy about stickers on cases, but I don't see any advantage, either. It's like tattoos and bumperstickers: What are they for?

I mean, a guitar case is for one thing only, which, if it's a good one, it does well: protect your guitar. Do stickers add more protection? Nope. Pointless, useless.

Of course, stickers and whatnot are also a way of expressing yourself. But I've never had any problems in that department. A sticker (or a tattoo) would just be redundant.

And the other of-course: They're decorative. I like decorating my house. And Christmas trees. But for me, the urge just doesn't often go far beyond that — though I do confess I have one sticker on one guitar: Sabo, the IWW anarchist cat is on my black Strat.

But that's on a guitar, not a case. I care about how my guitars look. Cases are just to keep them looking good.

Of course it's a way of "expressing yourself". But there's good looking tats and some really awful ones (http://tinyurl.com/2b3wazte) and when someone just stickers up their case it simply reminds me of the latter.

[mercy]

Whatever, its your case. But a sticker should be a badge of where you went or what you did. Just a random collection seems meaningless and sloppy.

[SalFromChatham]

The case for my 15yr old Martin is the only one with stickers… I like all your pictures fellas.

[Jeffreykip]

Originally Posted by SalFromChatham

The case for my 15yr old Martin is the only one with stickers… I like all your pictures fellas.

Love it. My old (1976) case is ugly and beat to hell and I love the idea of making it a bit mire interesting this way. Are the Rolling Stone covers done with a special adhesive or in any particular way?

[lowrider]

Two of the old guys I play with have cases covered with stickers. I think they look cool, but I never did it. I also think it looks good when construction guys put stickers all over their hardhats, but that's also something I never did even though I spent over 40 years wearing a hard hat.

Someone mentioned early in this thread that they didn't thing they could put stickers on an old Martin plastic case. My '79 D-35 has this sticker on the plastic case for and old NJ Folk Club. It's probably been on there since the guitar was new;

[EZYPIKINS]

Don't do stickers on cases. Don't do stickers on guitars. Don't do stickers on cars.

Don't do stickers.

Take that back. I do have an NRA sticker on the back window of my truck.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by mercy

Whatever, its your case. But a sticker should be a badge of where you went or what you did. Just a random collection seems meaningless and sloppy.

They are probably not random to the people who put them on.

[TomB'sox]

Originally Posted by mercy

Whatever, its your case. But a sticker should be a badge of where you went or what you did. Just a random collection seems meaningless and sloppy.

Didn't know there were rules for this, maybe some people have fun doing it for whatever reason they wish. Your meaningless and sloppy is someone else's fun and adventure.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

I started adding stickers when I started attending jams several years ago. All black cases, all brown cases and all tweed cases kinda look alike, so I added stickers to mine to let everyone else know "this is not your case (and the instrument inside isn't either)."

Then I started making stickers out of labels (Tabasco, craft beer) and added them too.

Exactly. I never had any stickers on my cases until the night I came home from a Jam and I had mistakenly taken the wrong one home. (20 miles) Very luckily this was at a persons house and I had left early and was able to call before it broke up and drove back to get it sussed out ..
Since then put one sticker for quick ID

Like this

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Didn't know there were rules for this, maybe some people have fun doing it for whatever reason they wish. Your meaningless and sloppy is someone else's fun and adventure.

AH Yes the quagmire of assigning ones own personal aesthetic to everybody else

Wonder what the Yoda would say

[WonderMonkey]

As I start to go out with this jam group, I am going to put some sort of identifying sticker or "something" on my case near the handle, so I or someone else picking it up can tell if it's mine or not theirs. Otherwise if you want to put stickers on your case and it means something to your and/or your guitar, have at it. If you are doing it to artificially cool yourself up, then I think that's the wrong reason, but that's up to you personally. I have no insight into it at all.

[Dave Hicks]

I looked at my black case in a line with a lot of other black cases at a jam and realized I wanted to make it easier to find in a crowd. So I went for fun, sloppy, adventurous, meaningless, whimsical and silly.

D.H.