Hey Adam here from Tested with another One-Day build, this one inspired by a new friendship I made on Twitter I know we live in a complicated time where social media has not necessarily turned out to be the unalloyed boon to mankind that it once Promised but there are still a lot of reasons to love Twitter most of all for me because of the friendships that I have made by being on Twitter a couple of weeks ago Eric Idle of Spamalot and Monty Python Fame Tweeted out to the world that he had a guitar case that was not fulfilling his needs for this very precious guitar to him and was there a maker he asked that could help him solve this problem and I did that Twitter equivalent of raising my hand I tweeted back and said I could help and this led to me flying down to Los Angeles Meeting Eric having a lovely cup of tea in his house and finding out what problems he needed to solve And so that is what we are doing in the cave today We are solving Eric Idle's problem by building him a guitar case. Now, When you start to watch this cut you'll notice my hair changes and it's because I was an idiot went and got a haircut in The middle of this shoot continuity error. Don't worry about it And by the way, YouTube tip cut your intro last: it always works better that way. Here we go! Alright, I have literally just arrived back on the plane from Los Angeles what a lovely, Lovely visit they say don't meet your heroes But I'm living proof that occasionally it can be awesome; Wow! We had tea and conversation and heard lots of amazing stories and saw many many beautiful guitars of which this is just one.. uhm, and I thought about this a lot on the plane and despite Eric's desire to maybe modify this case, I don't think it's modifiable. I Think I'm gonna have to build one from scratch Maybe you already knew that I was gonna do that, but I certainly didn't but I have a plan I worked up a plan in notebook on the plane And get this I'm gonna do it out of sail cloth since I've got a lot of sail cloths from making sail cloth bags It'll be indestructible... [sighs].. But I leave for New Zealand like tomorrow, so In order to get this done before Eric leaves for Australia I..this is genuinely a one-day build: it may happen over two days But this is.. I got to finish this in less than eight hours of building. So.. here we go! [strumming notes] There's me butchering a guitar, all right first things first I'm going to design the inside of this first, which means I'm gonna build the foam that surrounds this and protects it before I build the case that Goes around it. So luckily because I may have a whole crap ton of foam upstairs and this looks like.. I guess, I guess I don't I don't need that. Alright so let's see here.. That is just about the right amount of foam look at that. 13 inches--that's what we'll do Now I'm gonna bring out a tool which I love Which is my foam carving tool with a foot so that it cuts nice and square. This is Literally the perfect tool for this job. I'm about to do which is to cut foam that I want to cut square [vibrating machine noise] Dude how about that? What Eric wants to do is not to check this guitar- This is a case for putting it in the overhead bin. So it needs to remain compact it needs to remain Lightweight, but when people shove their crap in on top it needs to not harm the guitar so between some foam and some Aircraft plywood. I think I can achieve both of those things I'm going to glue these two pieces of foam to each other using foam fast 74 specifically made for doing exactly this Then I'm going to trace the guitar shape out of here and cut it out. And then this will be my foam liner for the case Should provide some really good side protection For this bad boy, and it's only going to be about it an inch Inch and 3/4 wider than the original small guitar case Oh, yeah, this is good this is sticky Ohh! Oddly satisfying Nothing that can harm our baby Oh yeah, that's the trick right there that is the shizzle Look at this. It's like a pin screen guitar guitar shape Boop I Like it I like it like that, all right, oh, right, right, right Look at that Grab the guitar right out like that Okay We're we're in the room. I'm getting pleased with how this is going I think I could even Drop that down just the tiniest bit You need to do some gluing I need to already put fur Into this I'm gonna line it with fur. I'm gonna line it with fur that I bought for Totoro. Ha! How's that for throughput I'm pretty psyched about that This fur it turned out not to be great for Totoro I wish you could feel how soft it is-- it's so soft. It doesn't work for Totoro, but it's perfect for this. I don't have to be too exacting on this because I can trim after the fact. I just have to get close All right, well, let's try it let's give it a shot I'm not sure if this is gonna work the way I hope it's gonna work [blows] Because I haven't worked with fur like this and it's not about getting it to adhere to the foam; that's easy. It's actually getting it to line up correctly That's the tricky part like edges that meet. Are they gonna peel up what's gonna happen there? That's problematic, right? That's where I'm nervous That's where I kind of want to go to felt instead of this. Wait a minute I might have some felt I did have some felt and I prefer the felt. It's got more body to it It's gonna be easier to glue Plus This came from an old pool table of mine Okay, so I'm very pleased about that Let's see What we can do here. All right- we use the underside. One that wasn't fondled by dozens of pool players. I forgot I had this- I thought I had used up all my pool table felt. All right The trick with lining something in cloth is often it can hide a lot of your building crimes But when you're working with something like fur, it can *add* a whole bunch and that's not okay. I want this to look really nice. I want it to look like a happy home for this guitar It's gonna travel around the world That's a lovely, lovely piece, isn't it? [hums] That's the prettier side Don't stick yet. Oh Come on Contact cement is one of those things when you get it the correct amount of dry and then it sticks to itself well, what's so great about it is Nothing will tear it apart. What's so terrible about it is Nothing will tear it apart! Yeah, so you got to be really really careful. I am they use the backside of Yeah, very pleased very pleased cautiously optimistic The real trick with this kind of stuff is making sure the adhesive does not wrinkle But also that you've hidden, again, hidden your crimes this will sit down inside this So I'm wrapping over the edge so I don't have any exposed edges of felt and I also don't have any places where I can see glue that is really important to me to maintain the illusion that There's no glue going on You can't let two sides of contact cement get too dry that is really bad [pounds] There we go I'm hoping to do I guess by the end of today is to get all my fabric mostly cut out And then tomorrow it's all about the sewing of it together Good all right. I'm happy with that.That is nice [guitar strums] [montage guitar solo] We are bearing down upon this. Here's what's happening now, that's the top of where the guitar goes That's the bottom of where they get tar. Goes. I now need to line the sides and that's where No.. I have a couple pieces of fabric somewhere really nearby that I will line the sides with but first I have to mask off A bunch of this in order to be able to get access to it because I want to be able to spray my glue right up to this edge and that means It's going to get sticky Those of you who are looking at this thinking, "You should have worn a respirator for this!" You're totally right Give me a second. I want to put on a respirator. I don't mean to set a bad example, I'm just impatient It's really important that I've gotten the detail of that top lip Really tight because if I haven't it's gonna be harder to fix and later. There we go. There's a part that's missing Yeah, that's good - good. Good good. A little more there.. All the way around -good good good, good good good. Doing an inspection of the edge you're about to join the glue, I can't overstate how smart it is. All right, so there you go This is definitely the most complicated part of the whole operation because once I finish this the outer case is literally a perimeter which is like a fence of a constant width and A top and a bottom and the top of the bottom of the same shape So I'm gonna cut the outside of the top and bottom at a sailcloth in the perimeter Then there's going to be some broad cloth for padding. Then there is going to be Perhaps a piece of aircraft ply in the lid to sit and protect on top of the guitar And then underneath that Well, I think it actually might be a little more felt right on the lid on the underside It's actually probably going to be glued to this. Right so this will go in and it'll get glued all the way around Yeah, so the sewing the sewing parts gonna be technically complex because there's a lot of things to do like I put a handle in Before I sew it together I gotta get the zipper right and all that but it's a really straightforward shape and it'll be pretty comfortable for him to Carry around the airport and not much heavier than this one. I think this is the phrase that is etched on Eric's guitar [reads in Latin] Futuaris -- Futuaris nisi irrisus ridebis. radius, which means *Bleep* them if they can't take a joke. Are we gonna bleep that? I have no idea. All right. Come on over here Freddy So let's give more space over here [Adam:] But I'm going to want to rivet this onto the case. [Freddie:] All right. So would you and you may have to make this just a little bit bigger? what I'd like to do is I'd like to each a hole in each corner like that and And then etch a line That does that [Freddie:] Okay- I see what you're going for [Adam:] You see what I'm--you got me? [Freddie:] You want a fancy looking plaque. [Adam:] Yes, fancy pants! All yes [Freddie:] All right, I'll get that for you Thank you, sir. Perfect. I'm going to start attaching and This is a very fraught operation because everything I'm dealing with is sticky In order to keep stuff away. I'm going to are pinning it away with some skewers Little wooden things like popsicle sticks tongue depressors and wooden skewers are Invaluable in a shop if you have any kind of makerspace at all I almost have no I don't care what you do you have a utility for a supply of some sticks because You can stick stuff on them to paint you can hold stuff away. You can pick it stuff I use this for masking you just there's so many uses. Get thee some skewers! Okay Now Wow this working out better than I had any right to believe that it would Oh my god if this looks satisfying to you, you have no idea how good it feels to me! [laughs] You know, I've lined a lot of cases in felt, and it feels like all that practice is paying off right now. Oh Yeah! Right, I just heard Gunther exhale right like he films a lot of this crap and he just went [exhale/grunt] It is weird to think that Two hours ago, I was in LA talking to one of my heroes and Now I'm working on his guitar case that is Awesome. ..Goes down here Sits like that, and then this goes over here Socks down into here. It's not gonna be perfect just yet, but it'll close. *whispers* Oh baby! *laughter* Oh that is awesome! ---Guitar! There we go ladies and gentlemen That That is I'm really I'm really pleased with that I Should have included a space here For the base. I may end up gluing a piece of felt over here and Here along this leading edge just to so that as Eric takes this out and puts it back He doesn't have to worry about it peeling this back. But that is a small matter the big matter is that This guitar now has a home and we've done all the interior design it's now time to build the outside of the house Yep, yep, excellent Can you cut some dramatic theme music here? Here we go: *dramatic theme music* Awesome! I don't want to leave those little tabs. I was talking about for later. I'm gonna do them right now Yep, that's it. See that that just now slides right in Yep, and so does that just slides right past not gonna peel it up or anything? Okay To start measuring and cutting some fabric. I am very pleased with this thus far. I think this is a suitable, a suitable interior for such an important object. I'm just gonna enjoy doing this a little bit here. --I need Two pieces of cloth for the outside Should I use the number I think I'm gonna stick with white. I'm gonna stick with straight white *guitar montage solo* All of my cloth is cut out for the outer shell of this guitar case. It is ready to se--*chord strums* It is ready to sew together However, it is late in the day that started very early this morning So I'm gonna clean up here go to sleep and come back tomorrow fresh as a daisy It's a brand new day I've been thinking all night and I'm ready to sew the outer covering but the outer covering has Some features to it that have to be installed before I sew it together Right on in one sense. The outer covering is simply atop a bottom and a side sewn together But there's a zipper in the side. So I have to install the zipper first Then there's a handle on the opposite side of the zipper. I have to install that as well I'm gonna put a little bit of a pocket on the top So all those three things have to be installed before I start to assemble the outside of this bag. That's what I'm doing now zipper Itself will go from here All the way around to there so I think the zippers gonna be a 54 inch Deal but let's say 56 inches so I can bury it that means the handle side It's 29 and a half Equals 29.5 finished That means it's got --you know, folded over edges and the handle, the handle itself wait Let me make sure I measured that correctly 29 and a half I did. Okay. So the handles Center itself is 18 and a half Boy I hope that's close to twenty nine and a half, let's see here.. It is! Glory be. Okay That's the one... from there to there Alright, so this is the handle center and that's right, that's what I want out of that . i kind of almost want to just sew that just like that You know, yep, all right Time to do some actual assembly. Assembly! Great very happy with that. I'm also gonna finish this seam while I'm here Good Alright that's the handle and I'm pleased with that The zipper side .. Sail, Eric has already spent ten years Surfing the oceans of the world I often say this, but you know sewing involves an interesting Mode of thinking like you have to think upside down and backwards and funnily enough mold-making is the same thing both of them involve Thinking of your project upside down and backwards the whole time you're working with the process of sewing and with the process of mold making I wonder if mold makers make good sewists or tailors. I don't know By the way, I don't have an innate sense of how to do all this stuff all the time I actually called up my Bag collaborator Marcos to come over this morning and walk me through how to attach a zipper again I needed a little bit of a primer I'm pretty optimistic About it. That looks great Wow, that looks like I knew what I'm doing amazing Okay, I'm super psyched about that That is awesome Right and this is the backside that's exactly how that goes so That's where the zipper will end. And then Right, I'm gonna do that and then fold it over and do a second stitch Okay And then I'll trim this down to that width. Yes All right This is asking a lot of it --Here we go This is here comes around like this and comes around to Mr. Marth well the mark doesn't matter. What matters is the actual Yeah, so that's what I'm talking about oh Yeah, look at that see, I'm kind of kind of close alright Yep, that's gonna be. Yeah, that's great After all of this sewing I've been doing this year I'm starting to notice. I'm actually getting better Good okay, so if this is a ba-- if this is a dimensional pocket that has That business going on This is gonna sew down like that, I think yeah, I think I'm gonna actually do it like that, right? Here and comes down here it crushes the top to hold it tight that keeps things from falling out. That's the goal It's the goal of a thing that holds things: keep them from falling out Yeah, all right so that that and get into your bags so now we need to mount this to the top That's why that wasn't square- cuz it wasn't the same measurement I made a pocket that hold stuff. Whoo That feels like an accomplishment, okay We're barreling down on this Now that I've got the pocket attached to this it's time to Sew this puppy around its perimeter so that I can then get around to the business of sewing it to the edge I've also included in here. I In order to protect the top of Eric's guitar, I have sailcloth broadcloth a beautiful piece of aircraft Plywood this is like seven ply and it's less than 1/8 of an inch thick a second piece of broadcloth And then the pool felt that is suitable protection To deal with Aussie flights I'm saying nothing disparaging about Aussies whatsoever ¡ʎɹʇunoɔ ɹnoʎ ǝʌol I ʍouʞ no⅄ Has to be starting from here I like there and then coming all the way Yeah, coming all the way around following that stitch Yep This is the hardest engineering of the whole thing this last little bit here And it might not look perfect on the inside but it'll still be good enough oh right now I need the zipper tongue again *whispers* I'm right about this, right? All right, help me obi-wan Kenobi here we go We're doing really well we're doing really really well. I'm very pleased with how this is going. The zipper is in and The question is right. I want to get this all the way around to this, and.. Ohp! And I'm gonna need to jump it. I am gonna need to jump it. Okay. I'm glad I checked It's a classic move by me that the-- That I just didn't allow enough seam It all comes down to this little stitch here and I got to get some pins in so that Actually Oh! This sail cloth is so hard to drive pins through, it's crazy! This is the very definition of what they call rou--*laughs* 'Rough around the edges,' but I am Confident in its mechanical properties such that I'm not taking that on the chin It's a testament to my lack of sewing ability to be able to think through finishing all these little tiny seams but Like I said to think I'm getting better Now I'm in the homestretch I really want to take care with each of these little last operations so that I Don't end up putting a hole through something that takes me another couple of hours to finish Might have been part of it I know that if you're like a genuine Tailor/sewer/seamster you're watching me being like, "Oh Adam! if you only knew the one little bagity bank step to take!" ..And I know, I know I just Haven't learned to think through that stuff just like that just yet, but I'm close Okay You know, it's hard to overstate how important Monty Python was to me when I was a kid It came to the US on PBS and aside from the fact that all of a sudden occasionally there were boobs on PBS Which blew my freaking mind Was the first time I shared like an open belly laugh with my parents About the same thing, right? That's like not we weren't we weren't sharing that laugh on two levels We were enjoying that laugh together and that made me feel connected to my parents and like adult-like in a really specific way and There's a way in which The absurdity of Python was so equalizing it's so incredible I've been lucky enough to meet and interview John Cleese I had dinner once with Terry Jones a few years ago and also The inimitable Ken Plume once arranged a breakfast with me and Terry Gilliam So I've been lucky enough to tell most of the Pythons how much they meant to me This bag is just another way I'm doing the same thing Are you ready to stop making that mistake? Yes, I am. That's it. I didn't make that mistake again. Here we go All right I might pop a rivet in there later. Okay. So now Now now this is Well, this is where it gets complicated Right, okay, so this is the bottom and First I want to yeah first I am just going to sew it up its edges. So I Don't have to worry about bunching. Here we go All right, we're just gonna button this all the way around and hope it stays together when I Start manhandling this on the sewing machine This type of engineering this this marriage between hard parts and soft parts between Stiff and flexible it is It's really intense It is a very very Interesting and difficult kind of engineering But I am I'm really fascinated by it See I'm sewing this bag inside out and then later I will open the zipper and like a magic trick Hopefully I say hopefully because boy it sucks to pull a dead rabbit out of a hat I'm sure there's a punk-rock magician around who does that? But that's not really my gag All right now how to sew this Your guess is as good as mine, but I think it involves something like this. I mean It's not this is it Wow, actually that's not so bad that's that's better than lifting this thing. All right. Let's try that Okay, that should be within my seam allowance, let's let's set this You know what -- There we go. Ooh! ...okay. Let's double-check this again. Alright I'm just gunna crack it open and just feel around All right, this is the moment of truth where we turn this puppy inside out and see if it Conforms to our expectations *laughs* see what I did there? All right Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please fit; please work. *whispers* I'm gunna get the guitar. You can color me one Relieved Irishman right now that Wait, Oh, yep handles a little farther forward than I wanted it to be but that's okay. That's a that's a it's lightweight It's protected that's aircraft ply there You can put your stuff on top of it. It's not gonna mess up Eric's guitar. Go ahead try The pocket hold stuff. That's a strong velcro. I'm asking a lot of an old man All right There are a few finishing touches to put on Like a back strap, but that's just gonna take me a couple minutes but the fit the fit The fit works I'm very pleased I'll try and do some cleanup of that. I know I know it's ugly I'm very happy Now this attachment for the backstraps There's other ways of doing this but I am copying Eric's Guitar case exactly because he said he really liked wearing it around On his back in the arrangement that it was so I am holding to that for the most part And those can't stretch, okay, do I have one Right, right right I have this thing Actually, that's kind of great that's that I like, okay So let's do that it rigidify zit and legitimizes it okay, so here we go This is the hardest tape there is to pull the backing up but it's worth it because it's the Most tenacious tape there is in the world All right That's good Hmm Much nicer I mean, you know a little crunchy but nicer Right, and I wanted to add one rivet not there but here Where I couldn't get the sewing machine to cooperate Great yep, that's not gonna go anywhere. Okay All right, it's time for the final assembly All right, Eric the next time you see this guitar it'll be in person it's been such a pleasure to work on this Some of the best seven hours I've spent in the last couple of weeks. I really appreciate it. Oh yeah, and so we can try this out All right Now the guitar case heads back to its home in LA Thank you Adam! And partners This is fantastic [from off-camera] Thank you to Kristen for organizing all of this and to Ronan for bringing it down. [Eric:] Yes, thank you! [Ronan:] You're very welcome that is one-of-a-kind. There's no other one like that. [Eric:] This *is* one of a kind. I'm very very excited and very happy. Am I'm gonna walk you to my car. I'm gonna take this. I'm gonna try it out tonight with Weird Al and Tom Kenny and a few other people At Bobcat Goldthwait's Charity, for Mr. Crimmins -- his wife, widow.. So that's gonna work tonight and thank you and There you are.
This case really needs some neck support at the ~3rd and ~9th fret. Because of the geometry of a guitar, what you want to do is immobilize the neck as much as possible, so that any shock can't cause a heel or headstock crack.
It's for this very reason that when people ship expensive guitars, they will stuff wadded up newspaper all around the neck and headstock to stabilize it.