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I have an opportunity to have a custom guitar cabinet built. I envision this cabinet to have framed glass doors to provide a view of the guitars. I have only seen pictures of these and hope that you can provide some guidance on what should be designed into this type of storage (attached is a picture of one type of this cabinet).
A few questions below, but I am sure there are many other things one should consider and additional thoughts would be welcome. Thanks.
-storage for 6 guitars: should the guitars be stored on hangers or between slotted and upholstered racks?
-humidity: passive humidity control? If so, how should it be designed?
-door seals?
-what type of glass?
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11-28-2012 03:22 PM
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This is actually a very interesting thread and I would like also to know, how to make this.
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I want to have one of these built as well. My preferences would be:
4 guitars
Racks with nitro safe felt padding
Passive humidity control with a good, visible hygrometer and decent door seals (I live in the high desert)
Simple Shaker design (more or less)
So were did you get the picture shown?
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Hey Chrome,
Sounds like a great project. I hope you are able to get good opinions and info on the materials used to build and finish the cabinet in order to avoid any outgassing damage, or other micro-environment damage to the guitars.
My opinion on your questions:
>>> - should the guitars be stored on hangers or between slotted and upholstered racks?
I hate the idea of guitars on headstock hangers. But I also see extremely fine guitars displayed this way for years with no ill effect - go figure. You can also find tell-tale damage from hangers in some dealers.
Tough call. For me I would hang light guitars, and seriously consider additional support for heavier ones.
>>> -humidity: passive humidity control? If so, how should it be designed?
For in-cabinet control I would check with cigar people for this sort of stuff.
But why not control the humidity in the whole room, then provide passive ventilation through the cabinet (with some dust control baffles or filters)?
>>> -door seals?
Sure, if you are using dust filters or in-cabinet humidity control. But I still like getting the room right instead of just the cabinet.
>>> -what type of glass?
Do you mean annealed vs. tempered? Tempered will be far more expensive, and has its own issues. I build-in a large china cabinet this spring with lots of tempered glass shelves and doors. The glass cost a fortune, but there were significant safety issues here, so tempered it was.
Tempered glass is far stronger in some ways, and staggeringly weak in one way. It also fails in ways that would likely do far less damage to the guitars than large shards from a broken annealed glass door. Tempered glass breaks into many very small pieces that tend to not have a great deal of mass or very sharp edges.
So in my opinion, annealed will be fine and far cheaper - but tempered will add a margin of safety in the very unlikely event of a broken door.
EDIT: Annealed just means plain old glass with normal cooling during manufacture. Tempered means a post-cutting heat treatment that results in compression on the outer surfaces, and tension on the inner core of the glass. You can certainly find many good (and some web-stupid) explanations of this process and the results. Anyway, "annealed" just means normal untreated glass.
ChrisLast edited by PTChristopher; 11-28-2012 at 06:04 PM.
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I got mine (i have two) from a guitar shop that went out of buisiness. They were built by Fender to showcase or safeguard customshop instruments. Very basic construction with sliding doors . If I ever build a better one I will go with normal opening doors also as the sliding doors make it difficult to take out the guitars in the middle. And I like to play them all. Will keep a close eye on this thread !
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The picture is from this website.
Originally Posted by Spook410
Guitar Display Case Cabinets | Access N Sight - Guitar Display Case Cabinets | Access N Sight
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Just plain "WOW",the thought has never entered my mind before....but it's in there now.
kuvash
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Thanks for your thoughts, Chris. I have embedded some comments below demarcated with *.
Thanks again, Chris. Originally Posted by PTChristopher
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Call the guitar museum. Originally Posted by Chrome
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FWS6,Ouch! And you have two of these cabinets? Beautiful guitars. But, even protected from the outside as they are,don't you worry each time you take one out about bumping the pieces around it? I would think either less guitars or some type of barrier between each of them to guide them out.
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yup thats exactly what I wrote - my cabinet was made for hanging 5 strats and I put 6 archtops in. That plus the sliding doors makes taking out guitars cumbersome and especially as I like to play them all. I will also try and build myself a new/better cabinet when I have the time. Less guitars would also be a good option and I am looking into professional help.
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When my collection was going full boil, I could have used three of those cabinets. Since I spent all my money on the guitars, I couldn't afford the good cabinets. Then I married my second wife and couldn't afford the guitars anymore either. It's funny how life gets in the way of guitars. So now, I have very few guitars, no cabinets and a great wife. I think I've done pretty well in the long run.
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HFC- I am still struggling to keep all the balls into the air
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This is one I made several years ago. It will hold 6 archtops (& a violin). Glass is just window glass ...2mm I think. Although I had some of the same concerns, it's fine. Humidity control is passive, although you can get into forced air systems. Hangers are homemade.
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I gave up a long time ago. They're all----- Oh foo, I'm going to let you guys finish this line. Originally Posted by fws6
Great looking cabinet, Dave. I'd need two of those for my instruments. I have 5 guitars and 5 electric basses and I've sold all that I could sell. With a little work, I could convert my basement into a nice music room.
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As you can tell by my post count (this is #1), I'm new here, but bought this cabinet from Access N Sight about a year ago (see below).
Expensive, but worth every penny. I think this cabinet design is close to perfect. Here's what I like about it. The dividers are on something like 1.5" centers and can be moved around. So you can have a mix of thin and thick guitars. It will hold 12 solid body guitars, and my one archtop fits in the space of two solid bodies. So you could probably fit 6 archtops in it.
The covering is the typical furry stuff in guitar cases. Most of my guitars have nitro finishes, and I've seen no sign of any problems.
The doors have seals, though not truly air tight. It came with four small dishes to hold water. These fit behind the guitars. You do have to pull a guitar or two out to access these. I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico (high desert), and I have to refill the dishes about every 4-6 weeks in the winter. I use evaporative cooling, so I need no additional humidity in the summer.
It came with a small digital humidity gauge. Nothing fancy, but works fine.
The glass is UV resistant, though certainly you don't want direct sunlight if possible. Any glass cabinet can still act like a greenhouse.
The double drawer unit is nice for accessory storage and raises the guitars up to a comfortable level for access.
I had considered having something built locally, but decided to buy something from someone who had done it before. It's not rocket science, but sometimes it's just easier to get something you know is going to work.
To anyone actually considering a case from Access N Sight. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Terms were very fair, half up front, half just prior to shipment. Shipped in crates with furniture blankets. In my case they even customized the standard 1 drawer to make a two drawer unit. Which is now a standard product for them.
About using a cabinet in general. It's great to have the humidity under control. Guitars stay in tune and don't need seasonal truss rod adjustments.
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Mine are mostly on the wall using oak guitar hangers, a lot less expensive and take a whole lot less room... in the room :-) Originally Posted by kuvash
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Hello and welcome Spitfire.. I'm in Tijeras.
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Thanks for the welcome, and local too! Originally Posted by Spook410
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I like the Guitar Coffee Table. I know I will never be able to settle my steaming mug of joe on it.
The prices of the cabinets make my toes curl. $5800 could buy you a really really nice archtop. You can't play a cabinet. And what are you gonna do with the hard cases? Store them in the attic where they become nests for mice and bugs, grow mould or are forgotten? Well......you could sell the hard cases, I suppose, for $200 each. Six archtop cases net you $1200. You still have to raise $4600 for the cabinet, a sum which by itself is enough to buy you a NICE ARCHTOP.
I would rather cover an entire wall with Gibson-Lifton-approved pink poodle plush, bang a few oak hangers into said wall, climate-control the room and call it my girly-guitar-man cave, tea and crumpets at 4, please hold the ketchup.
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Watch out there Jabberwocky I think I hear Alice coming. THE Alice.
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Cooper? Originally Posted by Archtop Guy
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Thanks for your thoughts. Nice to have some owner feedback. Originally Posted by spitfire
As you can tell by my post count (this is #1), I'm new here, but bought this cabinet from Access N Sight about a year ago (see below).
Expensive, but worth every penny. I think this cabinet design is close to perfect. Here's what I like about it. The dividers are on something like 1.5" centers and can be moved around. So you can have a mix of thin and thick guitars. It will hold 12 solid body guitars, and my one archtop fits in the space of two solid bodies. So you could probably fit 6 archtops in it.
The covering is the typical furry stuff in guitar cases. Most of my guitars have nitro finishes, and I've seen no sign of any problems.
The doors have seals, though not truly air tight. It came with four small dishes to hold water. These fit behind the guitars. You do have to pull a guitar or two out to access these. I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico (high desert), and I have to refill the dishes about every 4-6 weeks in the winter. I use evaporative cooling, so I need no additional humidity in the summer.
It came with a small digital humidity gauge. Nothing fancy, but works fine.
The glass is UV resistant, though certainly you don't want direct sunlight if possible. Any glass cabinet can still act like a greenhouse.
The double drawer unit is nice for accessory storage and raises the guitars up to a comfortable level for access.
I had considered having something built locally, but decided to buy something from someone who had done it before. It's not rocket science, but sometimes it's just easier to get something you know is going to work.
To anyone actually considering a case from Access N Sight. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Terms were very fair, half up front, half just prior to shipment. Shipped in crates with furniture blankets. In my case they even customized the standard 1 drawer to make a two drawer unit. Which is now a standard product for them.
About using a cabinet in general. It's great to have the humidity under control. Guitars stay in tune and don't need seasonal truss rod adjustments.
If I may ask, are the water pans altered in any way to increase surface area?
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How did you do your passive humidity control? Originally Posted by DaveS
Thanks.
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I live in an area that is not wildly wet or dry and use furnace humidification in my home. So RH is usually in reasonable control. In the cabinet, I have a hygrometer I can trust that I keep an eye on, and make any small passive changes with open container(s) of either water or desiccant. If in a dryer region, you may want to get more aggressive re humidity control or cabinet sealing
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