Balancing a violin case

I have a "crescent" violin case, identical to the Regency Signature Super-Light sold by Southwest Strings. It's easy to carry, it's attractive, and it provides good protection for my instrument. But it has some serious problems.

The problems

First, the lid of the case tends to fall closed—a serious problem if it falls while the violin is being lifted out of the case. Second, once the violin is lifted out of the case, the case tends to roll backward.

If you look at the case from the end, it's easier to visualize the forces involved. The lid balances almost vertically on the hinges. Since the lid is about as heavy as the bottom of the case, it's also pulling up and back.

A solution

In discussions in the rec.music.makers.bowed-strings newsgroup, several general approaches emerged: add weights to rebalance the case, insert a wedge to keep the case open, or apply elastic to keep the case open.

Weights

I found some angle brackets which I secured to the front of the case, on either side of the handle. They are heavy enough to keep the case from rocking back (total weight is approximately 0.8 pounds), and they are thick enough that they lift the front edge of the case just enough to keep the lid from crashing down.

Here is what the angle brackets look like:

I removed four screws from the front of the case:

Then I inserted the brackets between the blanket and the body of the case:

When the blanket is in place, it holds the brackets securely in place.

Elastic

Although promising in theory, my experiments with elastic proved fruitless. Because of the great amount of leverage exerted by the lid of the case, one would need an elastic with a VERY strong pull (a high modulus of elasticity). This, in turn, would place a great deal of strain on whatever is used to fasten the elastic to the case, and that strain would be at its greatest when the case is closed (i.e., most of the time).