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Hello everybody,
I am currently looking for a new violin case. I want a shaped case again and found the Gewa Maestro shaped Violin Case. I really like this case except for one thing: It has no neck strap which made me wonder how important and how usefull they are. I myself thought that a neck-strap prevents the violin from falling but one the other hand I read that the strap increases the risk of neckdamages when the case falls down or one forgets to open it before pulling out the violin..
So what do you think? Should a violin case have a neck-strap?
I am really interested to read your opinion about this!
Regulars
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Hi Niklas,
I have a GEWA shaped violin case... (Air 1.7) and it has a neck restraint. Although my case has 2 combination locks, I'm sometimes in a hurry to pack up and don't always use them.
Whelp... it happened. Just before the pandemic, I was carrying my case by just one shoulder strap, my arms were full of groceries ... and the case did indeed pop open!
Fortunately, the case has a neck restraint and so my violin pretty much didn't budge as the case hung completely open from one shoulder strap.
The GEWA Airs are kinda pricy but there are good alternatives with neck restraints. I also liked the look and feel of this one. In the end, I spent the extra $$ because I felt I also needed a combination lock (bad on me since I don't always use it):
Regulars
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I don't trust latches that can't be locked, so for those I'd make a neckstrap compulsory.
My violin case has two long zips, so in theory a neck-strap is not necessary, but sometimes one can absent-mindedly pick a case up, forgetting to zip it up first.
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
I use garters. Those make finding my case easy and gives people something to say to me besides, gawd you're terrible. I can't forget it and the case can not open.
Regulars
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@Niklas and others. An ideal (at least to me) D ring arrangement would be to have one end on the upper half of the case, and the other on the lower half. In that manner, the pivot of the hinge would tend to keep the case closed during transit with the shoulder strap in use. I do not see most case examples with this arrangement. One case manufacturer (from Korea) was willing to accommodate my request. I have not asked other case manufacturers.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
Regulars
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Irv said
@Niklas and others. An ideal (at least to me) D ring arrangement would be to have one end on the upper half of the case, and the other on the lower half. In that manner, the pivot of the hinge would tend to keep the case closed during transit with the shoulder strap in use. I do not see most case examples with this arrangement. One case manufacturer (from Korea) was willing to accommodate my request. I have not asked other case manufacturers.
The two disadvantages I see with this arrangement:
1) In order to open the case fully and have easy access to the contents, the shoulder strap would have to be unhooked every time. In my experience, it is more dangerous to have obstructions in front of an open case because one is actually handling the instrument and bow in open air.
2) Properly mounting a D-ring can make the case top-heavy when open, which is a huge pain.
I would definitely not want this type of case.
Regulars
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For me the features that are absolutely necessary in a case, as far as securing the instrument in place, are: well-padded neck strap (the thin plastic ones can catch the strings, and I actually had one in my first violin case damage a string), some kind of latch (lock not necessary), and water-resistant zipper.
Regarding possible neck damage, I don't think it's that important a concern. The kind of impact that would cause neck damage with a neck strap is rare and would damage other parts as well.
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Niklas said
Hello everybody, I am currently looking for a new violin case. I want a shaped case again and found the Gewa Maestro shaped Violin Case. I really like this case except for one thing: It has no neck strap which made me wonder how important and how usefull they are. I myself thought that a neck-strap prevents the violin from falling but one the other hand I read that the strap increases the risk of neckdamages when the case falls down or one forgets to open it before pulling out the violin..So what do you think? Should a violin case have a neck-strap?
I am really interested to read your opinion about this!
Niklas, if you are interested in this case don't let the neck strap thing deter you.
The case has two soft suspension pads on the lid that gently push the violin downwards. One of them makes contact with the lower part of the tailpiece, by the end button, and the other one is on top of the strings and fingerboard so that the neck lays perfectly on the round padded neck suspension block.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Hello everybody,
I am sorry that it took me some days to answer. I am currently doing some exams in my studies and have a lot of learning to do for that..
Thank you all for your replies.
Up until now I did not notice those little suspension pads fiddlerman mentioned. I decided to give the case a try just because I somehow really like it, allthough I will have to be very careful never to lift the violin case when it is not closed because in that case the violin might drop out. On the other hand one should allways be sure that the case is properly closed anyway..
Also I allready saw that one can purchase those leather-nack-straps from Gewa as a spare piece. Maybe I will get myself one and sew it on the case myself. The Gewa Jeager Prestige, which is essentially a better maestro case, has this strap as well so I guess it should be possible to add one to the maestro as well if needed.
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Hope that you like it.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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In the meantime the case arrived and I thought I might give you my impression of it in case somebody else is interested in it.
I have to admit that I am somewhat disappointed. The buildquality of mine is not that great, I found several bubbles in the varnish of the metallic pieces and also found a (only aesthetical) material defect at the fabric used for covering the the zippers.. Furthermore the Interior of the case smelt really chemical which surprised me because my cheaper Gewa Bio Case did not have this problem..
Long story short I will send the case back and continue looking for another one but I think I might now consider an oblong case because the longer I think about it the more sense it makes to me to get an oblong case over a shaped case. Also I think I will spent some more money to get myself a decent quality case. There are allready several cases I found interesting.
One of them is the Gewa Strato Deluxe which seems to be the one of the few Gewa cases that is actually made in germany. But I read some very mixed reviews about Gewa cases in some forums and my own experience with the maestro does not make me that keen to try another Gewa case again.
Also I found the Jakob Winter JW 3024 to be an interesting case yet I have to admit that I dont have experiences with Jakob Winter except for the cheaper ABS-case they offer..
At the moment I am mostly leaning towards one of the smaller case manufacturers like Negri as for example the Firenze seems to be a nice case too..
I will keep you updated once I decided for a case. If anyone has any experiences with those cases, feel free to comment!
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