Case for vintage Martin/ken timms

kerneltime · Oct 30, 2019

I was blown away by how snug the Collings cases are for the ukuleles.
The tenor case is closed to a soprano case in terms of external size.

I have been wondering if any one makes similar snug fitting cases for Martin sopranos.

EDW · Oct 30, 2019

I have a couple of Gator hardshell cases, both the black and the Journeyman and they work great for Martins

Jerryc41 · Oct 30, 2019

It's easy enough to wrap a piece of foam with fabric and put that between the uke and the case. I received one of more from HMS that had an insert like that. Of course finding a case that fits perfectly is ideal. There is a company that will make a custom case for you. You fill out a form with all the dimensions of the uke, and then they take a generic case about that size and make the interior padding to fit it perfectly. A friend had one like that made for his Collings. Plan on spending over $1,000.

WOW! Look at this! I'm going to do a separate post about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWRfFB3Pz3o

Ukecaster · Oct 30, 2019

The Guardian black tolex case, archtop with cushy green interior, was real nice, and fit my vintage Martin soprano perfectly. Also did not have too much excess space above the headstock, so very compact too.

Dohle · Oct 30, 2019

EDW said:
I have a couple of Gator hardshell cases, both the black and the Journeyman and they work great for Martins

I second this. I have a Gator soprano case and both my Martin S1 and Kiwaya KTS-7 fit perfectly and snuggly in it. Not completely sure about vintage Martins or the Timms but I would think they're of similar standard soprano size.

The case in question should be this one. That looks to be an S1 in the pictures, even.

kerneltime · Oct 30, 2019

Will checkout gator.
posting a reply from thread here:https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?142079-Custom-Case-DIY

The Collings case I have for the Collings uke is not just the foam that is made to fit but the entire outline of the frame. The frame is no more than a inch or 2 more than the uke and it is a pretty solid case. Collings ukes are great but the one thing no other uke is even close to it is the quality of the case. There is a podcast with fretboard journal where he talks about the case. He talks about it at the 3:00 min mark https://www.fretboardjournal.com/pod...lings-guitars/

ksiegel · Oct 30, 2019

EDW said:
I have a couple of Gator hardshell cases, both the black and the Journeyman and they work great for Martins

I have a Gator soprano case for my Timms, and it fits as though it was made for it.

kerneltime · Oct 30, 2019

Bill1 said:
Type "Custom roadcase California" into Google and you will find some businesses near where you live who will make you a custom road case. Probably with a perfect fit and what ever features you want.
This will work for anyone looking for a travel case for their ukulele, just change the place name.

Interesting!! Many of them seem to use essentially a rectangular shape and add custom foaming. Might need more digging to find one that does a custom carbon fiber shape.

ookooleilei · Sep 22, 2021

Dohle said:
I second this. I have a Gator soprano case and both my Martin S1 and Kiwaya KTS-7 fit perfectly and snuggly in it. Not completely sure about vintage Martins or the Timms but I would think they're of similar standard soprano size.

The case in question should be this one. That looks to be an S1 in the pictures, even.

This was really helpful, particularly when so much of our shopping is done online, with some guesswork -- the Gator soprano case fits my Timms Soprano perfectly - no more banging around in the too-large case I originally had it in. Thanks!

Blank Williams · Sep 22, 2021

Martin sopranos are a little more narrow compared to Hawaiian builds and similar but they seem to fit in most cases that I’ve tried with the exception being the Oahu cases. They are excellent cases but the one I had for my S1 was slightly too wide for it so it moved around a bit. Nothing too bad but worth mentioning.

Dohle · Sep 22, 2021

JMAP said:
This was really helpful, particularly when so much of our shopping is done online, with some guesswork -- the Gator soprano case fits my Timms Soprano perfectly - no more banging around in the too-large case I originally had it in. Thanks!

No worries, glad to help. As mentioned above, some cases accommodate the larger Hawaiian style ukes better but are often too big for Martin style narrower ukes. Another case I've found that suits those Martin style sopranos really well is Kinsman. I found them to be cheaper that the Gator with fairly similar quality except maybe for the latches. They seem to be fairly commonly available in Europe at least but not sure availability in the States though.

Case for vintage Martin/ken timms

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