Dear Musicians...

The photo above is probably enough by itself - it's difficult to add much to the value of this image. But when that concert artist smashed his Guadagnini a few months ago because he simply fell on the famous-make case containing it, causing $120,000 worth of damage, he claimed that, in his opinion no case would have protected his precious violin in those circumstances.

Perhaps no, perhaps yes.

Protecting a violin sufficiently when someone falls upon the case is difficult, but not impossible. The case has to resist to an impact which is equivalent to his body weight (say, 80 kg. /175 lbs.) multiplied by a factor which represents the speed of the impact.

A Musafia Luxury Ultralight supporting the weight of an automobile, now that's an achievement. The reason we didn't choose for this test an Enigma or a Master Series was just to prove that safety doesn't have to come at the expense of weight... or even expense in it's own right.

For years I've heard horror stories of cases being flattened by automobiles, and thought that this was the new frontier. After all, accidents can happen, why not try to prevent them, or reduce the damage they can cause? So we started with our lightest-weight oblong case, made of precision-milled wood laminate (no techno-plastics), and tweaked a few design features to maximum effect. That's right, this is an ordinary Musafia case with the addition of what is basically a high-protection option anyone can order. The designed resistance in this configuration is increased from the normal 130 kg. to 200 kg. (440 lbs.), but as you can see it is easily surpassed. 

Once the automobile was removed from atop the case, the case was opened and inspected, resulting completely undamaged - click on the photo for a larger image and see for yourself!

For the record: we have on file all the photos preceding, during, and following this test as well as the signed affidavit of the third party who assisted us. Photos are guaranteed authentic and not retouched or "Photoshopped". In fact, we will probably put this case up for sale, complete with the tiremark, as a ...demo!

Now, I am not advocating that everyone try running over their Musafia cases with their cars to see what will happen. The test we undertook was done in controlled conditions in order to have scientific value, the case had new design features, and while representing a certifiable result this does not mean that all other Musafia cases offer this extreme protection. Yet.

I wonder if that concert artist realizes he could have saved over $119,000 had he been using this case..?

Dimitri Musafia