A Discovery in a Case

It has to be difficult for case makers to design a ukulele case because no two are exactly the same size. Some of mine are tight fits, and some are looser.

I was always concerned about putting a uke with a strap button into a tight case. The other day I discovered that many of my cases have a little indentation at the wide end for that button. That's a good feature, and it should be featured in the advertising.

My biggest concern with soprano cases is that it seems hard to buy one thats a good fit. Most are too big leaving the instrument moving about, mostly the body of the case is too long, often too wide as well but a case with a hard neck- block that is too high is a disaster waiting to happen. Strap buttons aren't usually a concern of mine. I did have a concert Uke with a strap button that eventually poked through a seam in the case padding and got horribly tangled in thread and bits of foam with nary a pair of scissors or pen knife in sight!

My ideal case design doesn't exist for ukes, as far as I know. It would be dart or arrow shaped - narrow at head end, broad at body end, with straight sides (not instrument-shaped), rounded corners. Plus a movable, adjustable interior bracket to accommodate size differences with a perfect fit, and it would be made of actual plywood or fiberglass. (A true hard case, IOW.)

A pity, because it's quite common in the viola world.

bratsche

I was told not to worry about the strap button. Just make sure to angle in the lower bout first so the button pushes into the padding and then lower the rest of the ukulele.

I would rather the button just dent in the padding as it goes in. The reason being that I like the extra padding there at the button side. If you sit the case down hard on the floor by accident (or drop it that way), with the button facing down, it can cause damage when the strap button jars into the bottom of the instrument.