Hey everyone,
I'm a longtime lurker here on the cafe. I've bought and sold a few things in the classified section but now I've finally gotten up the gumption to post here on the forum. Baby steps!
Recently I've been trying to get a couple of good cases while trying to avoid the big-$ names. The options are pretty wide for an F-5 but my F-4 has the traditional shorter neck so it's more of a search to get a case to fit.
After trying quite a few I've come down to the Ameritage ones and now finally my two mandolins have homes - the contoured case for the F-5 and the rectangular one for the F-4. I would have been happy with two of the contoured cases but the F-4 doesn't fit in there since the neck support in that case is too long. Either F-4 or F-5 fits in the rectangular case though since that has a much shorter neck support.
These Ameritage cases seem very good - the best of the traditional wooden construction I've seen so far with high quality construction and hardware, good suspension and padding, arching, etc. A downside is they're quite heavy. 10 lbs for the contoured one with the F-5 in it and 15 lbs (!) for the rectangular one with the F-4 in it. I don't carry them around much so it's not too big of a problem - but of course if you do carry them around a lot they are heavy so that could be a downer.
Anyway, I don't have any financial interest in the company, just a happy customer and glad their cases have worked out for my F-4 and F-5 mandolins. I'll attach a few photos so you can see some of the details.
Enjoy!
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