New guitar display case

I wanted a display cabinet for my acoustics that would also somewhat control the humidity in the dry winters here in the Northeast.

I started with a cabinet grade mahogany plywood case

Attachment 337189

The top is mahogany trimmed with shedua. Shedua is an African hardwood that is golden brown with chocolate brown grain.

Attachment 337190

The finished cabinet. The doors are made out of shedua and use the grain to accent the detail.

Attachment 337191

With the doors open you can really see the ribbon stripe figure in the mahogany

Attachment 337192

I installed black hangers so they would all but disappear. There are recessed lights on both sides of the cabinet and in the top.

Attachment 337193

Each guitar has a brace built for it to hold it out at the correct angle. The front of the braces are covered with cork to protect the finish on the guitars

Attachment 337194

I made custom grates to go over humidification devices built into the bottom of the case. They will ensure that the humidity inside the case stays stable through the winter.

Attachment 337195

The humidity will be supplied by sponges kept damp in these trays

Attachment 337198

The handles are oil rubbed bronze

Attachment 337199

This picture shows off the grain of the shedua and the contrast with the mahogany

Attachment 337200

A closer look at the mahogany side

Attachment 337201

I didn't want to have to manually turn the lights on and off so I designed a circuit that turns the lights on whenever there is light in the room. This little sensor hidden down by the right front leg senses the light in the room and triggers the circuit.

Attachment 337202

Really nice, Chuck!


I have two suggestions you might consider:

Make a low base cabinet for it, so the gee-tars are higher up. They'd be easier to see, and then you could store various musical goodies underneath. You could even make it "curio cabinet" high, then mount hangers on the back, instead of using the floor stand. This would give a "neater" look, IMO, and really puts the guitars when you want them.

2: I love the cabinet, and you obviously are very proud of that ribbon grain on the inside-back, but I'm not crazy about how the instruments look against the mahogany internals. IMO, the focus should be on the instruments, not the back wall of the cabinet. (sacrilege to say that on these forums, I know, but still true. :o)
It might look really sweet if you lined just the insides with felt, or whatever. I dunno what color, though.


Super nice as is, of course.

It has been built for a very specific location and it is sized and configured appropriately. The pictures were shot against an open wall in another room. It DOES use hangers on the back. See the picture. The braces give it the angle of display. As to the rest, I built it for me so it meets my specs. There in lies the beauty of custom furniture.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Very nice.

In midst of a build right now for a single case, wall-hung, narrow at top, wide at bottom. I'll put in silicone weatherstripping between door and case, hold it tight with a pair of draw-latches, and humidify inside with those Humi pacs that are sold for the purpose.

Please describe and show details of your lighting. Does it go on just by touching the glass of the case?

That looks great Chuck. I like how you integrated the humidifier trays. What kind of lighting does it use (LEDs?), and does it change the temperature inside by much?

The lights are LED strips from IKEA:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00302677/

They come with a transformer that converts 120v down to 12v for the lights. I built a little device that goes in line between the transformer and the light strips that monitors the ambient light in the room (see the sensor in the last picture above). When the circuit senses a high enough ambient light level in the room (someone turned the lights on) the lights in the cabinet turn on. When the lights in the room go off, so do the LEDs in the cabinet. Obviously this would not work in a room that has windows. The lights would be on all day due to the sunlight. My office is in the basement so this works great for me.

There is a strip on each side behind the hinges

Attachment 337342

And two across the top

Attachment 337343

I haven't noticed any appreciable increase in temperature from the lights. I have a temperature and humidity sensor in the cabinet and the temp stays pretty much the same as the rest of the room.