I bought this soft guitar case along with my Harley Benton CST-24T Paradise Flame.
The cover is just what I though it would be - a good quality soft cover with streghtened inner cushioning. The guitar fits into it perfectly.
This cover, of course, was not made to fully substitute my (any) hard cover, in terms of overall protection of the guitar from fallout, accidental front and rear bumps, and so on...
However, for a softcover, this one is well-made.
And good looking. The colors are lively but not too much, there is some inherit style to the cover design that makes it stand out and be immediately recognized by anybody who sees your gear - fellow musicians, bandmates, fans, competition, admirerers of your music of the opposite sex, etc.etc.
The material used is a classic material you would see with most of the soft covers out there. The really nice thing about this one, however, is that its edges are strengthened for extra protection and durability.
So, if you happen to accidentally crash your guitar covered with this Thomann E-Guitar Elite Gigbag into an amp, a drummer, or a sound engineer - or into all of these at once - chances are edges of the softcover will take (and withstand) most of the impact.
If this is the case, you practically do not have to worry about damaging your guitar at all. It will, safe and without a wrinkle, wait for you when you anxiously open the cover to find out what's wrong after the crash :)
If the cover is so good, why am I giving it 4 stars only , then?
Here's the answer.
Because inside the cover, there is some sort of inner cushioning designed to surround the neck of your guitar (at the top of it, close to the head), and to fix it to the cover for more stability while carrying the whole thing around.
This inner cover neck cushioning is the only thing I do NOT like about the product.
First, it is not made big enough to actually surround my guitar neck, so a part of it is still uncovered even when fixed tight.
Second - and most important - is that the velcro pads used for tightening and fixing the cushioning around my guitar neck are too long - so long, actually, that the velcroed area of one stripe does NOT - and can NOT - match its velcroed area of the opposite side where the whole thing is to be fixed.
As a result, the guitar neck is not fastened properly, but just maybe with 1-2 mm length of the velcroed stripe. It still appears to do the job and somehow hold the guitar within - but you do not have the peace of mind your guitar is fixed well inside your cover.
There is a chance it will get loose when carrying it over longer distances and time periods, exposed to repeated shakes and moves e.g. inside a truck or car. The guitar inside of the cover, or its parts sticking out e.g. the toggle switch, tuners, pickups, etc., can easily get damaged by the repeated small moves and shakes during transportation, even if there is no apparent outside accident or crash occuring to the cover itself from a third object.
None of this happened to me so far, the velcro seems to be stable enough even with just 2mm of the stripes length velcroed against each other.
Having said that, I also need to say here I only took my guitar to 3-4 gigs so far, over very short distances, in my car. Had I took it to, let's say, a 14-day tour with my band to other part of the country or continent, the 2mm will certainly not be enough.
Hey, I know - this little problem can be easily fixed, e.g. by shortening the stripe manually, etc. I guess I am just too lazy to do it, since as I buy something these days, I expect it just work without with no manual "fixtures" of this kind...
That is why I am not entirely satisfied with this product. In any case, still, I am not returning it to Thomann, since other than this small flaw, I really like it. And I can recommend the cover to all of you out there looking for a quality softcover with good optics.
And that is, dear music friend, the reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 in this review.
World peace! And incredibly beautiful guitar harmonies + melodies to all of you !!
