Gator GC-LPS Deluxe Moulded Single-Cutaway Guitar Case

A single-cutaway electric is a heavy guitar hung on a thin neck, and the headstock angle that gives it its character is also the thing that snaps first. The Gator GC-LPS is built around that weak point. The shell is moulded ABS with a plush-lined EPS foam bed underneath, shaped so a Les Paul-style body sits down into it and stops moving — no rattle in the boot of the car, no load on the neck when the case goes down flat.

A shell that takes the knock so the guitar doesn't

ABS is the reason this case weighs 3.8 kg instead of the 6 or 7 kg a plywood case of the same size would. It flexes on impact and springs back rather than splitting, so the corner that clips a doorway on the way out of a gig is a scuff on the case rather than a crack in the finish. Aluminium valances run the full length of the seam, holding the lid and base in line so the case still shuts square after a year of being thrown in and out of a car. Four chrome-plated latches pull the lid down evenly and the pair either side of the handle are keyed, which matters the moment the case is out of your sight — in a green room, a share house, the back of a ute.

Fitted inside, not just padded

The interior is cut to a single-cutaway outline — 47 cm of body length, a 33.5 cm lower bout and 8.9 cm of depth — with a neck rest under the heel and a block that supports the headstock. Dense EPS foam under black plush does the work: the guitar is held at the body and the neck, not resting on its strings or its tuners. There is a full-width storage compartment in the upper bout for leads, capos, spare strings and picks, and the reinforced moulded handle sits at the balance point so the case carries level with a guitar in it.

Which guitars fit

Anything built to the single-cutaway pattern: Gibson Les Paul Standard, Studio, Custom and Traditional, Epiphone Les Paul Standard and Custom, and the many single-cut solidbodies cut to the same outline. It is not shaped for a double-cutaway SG, a Strat or Tele outline, or a semi-hollow 335 — those need their own moulding. If your guitar is a single-cut with a carved or flat top and a standard-depth body, it will drop straight in.