A couple of years ago, I acquired my beautiful, factory refurbished Distillate Exploiter. The original case, though, was not beautiful or refurbished. One of the corners was coming apart, and the wood is so worn, I couldn't even glue/staple it back together. Having been in the case biz for 28 years, I made a plan to build one. I spent a lot of time on the design, and got as far as creating templates for the CNC. Then I thought I'd do some math, and seeing that although I shaved off some real estate, it was still going to be heavier than the stock case. This defeated the purpose and I scrapped the idea.
Plan B - I knew Epiphone made an Explorer bass case. I briefly owned one and sold it to a friend, so I was able to do a quick test fit and it worked. It's got a pretty open interior, but at $129 with free shipping, I went for it, knowing that I could customize the interior myself. I just got around to it last Friday and I'm very happy with the results. Took me 2 hours, which was a little longer than expected, but I haven't worked in the shop since 25 years ago.
Anyway, here are some pics.
The Epi case is SLIGHTLY smaller all around, and the more rounded corners actually improve maneuverability (I gig with this bass pretty regularly). It's also 3 pounds lighter and brand new, so it's an all around win!
