GEIB CASE REVIEW
sauce,” he says.“ You can buy the case and cut it up and try to figure it out.” The wood itself is selected to a standard that surprises visitors to the shop.“ Some of the wood is so beautifully figured,” he says,“ it’ s almost a sin to cover it.” Guitar builders who pass through occasionally suggest using the veneer for instruments instead. Dougherty never lets them.
Guitar bodies are measured with a digitizing arm that traces each instrument in three dimensions and transfers the data into CAD software. From there, TKL creates its tooling in-house, CNC-cutting the forms from large sheets of thirteen-ply birch plywood. After the tooling pieces are removed, Dougherty saves the remaining plywood skeletons: 4x8 panels filled with the outlines of guitar cases. He talks about shellacking them and bringing them to trade shows as conversation pieces. He describes the idea as“ probably dumb,” though he clearly still likes it.
Years ago, TKL built naturally finished cases in the tradition of the old Martin coffin case: sanded, stained, and polished with seven coats of hand-applied enamel until they looked like furniture. They used period-correct hardware and finishes that gleamed like something meant for a parlor rather than an airport.
Then customers started complaining about scratches.
“ Would you take your guitar out without something to protect it? You wouldn’ t,” Dougherty says.“ And here’ s a case. You’ re taking it out and it bumps up against something.”
He still sounds slightly incredulous telling the story. TKL offered padded covers and embroidered protective sacks for some of the more elaborate builds. Cases for cases.
Eventually they stopped producing naturally finished models for regular sale. Dougherty realized that people admired them more than they wanted to live with them.“ You’ re basically giving them something that has to be viewed almost as a piece of collectible history that you take care of the way you do your guitar.”
The Sweet Smell of Success
The adhesives inside the Geib cases are 99 % natural, water-based, with no solvents. But natural adhesives have their own faint smell, and Dougherty wanted to soften it. TKL infuses the interiors with food-grade, specially blended scent. They tried lemon first, but it didn’ t work. Then came chocolate, which everyone loved right up until they didn’ t, and which some of Martin’ s people thought was wonderful while others were less sure. People started calling it the Hershey case. They then developed a special blend, which immediately gained acceptance
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