AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! NO !

March 13, 2006 at 1:54 AM

So....I had the violin for about..oh.....3 or 4 months. I'm LOVIN it ! The pegs are really hard to move, but once it's in tune, that baby doesn't BUDGE !! I'm scratching my way through the scales, struggling with holding the bow (AND the violin) properly and loving every minute of it.

Sooooo, I'm sitting at my piano (my son's actually, he plays, I don't)...trying to learn how to tune this wonderful thing........when it happens !

I don't know how....I was trying to be careful turning the "A" peg just a bit..it's very tight...when the next thing I know...the violin is laying on the floor in two pieces !!!! *GAAAHHH !!!!!*

I just sat there staring at it.....with my mouth hanging open.....I have no idea how it happened...all I know is that the scroll just slightly tapped the edge of the piano on the way down....that's all it took....the neck was completely seperated from the body...with only the strings holding it together.........man.......
I cried.

I didn't make a phone call, I went to see my friend. She was incredibly gracious. "Eileen, it's a piece of wood", she says. Of course, I knew better...it wasn't just a piece of wood.....I went about trying to find someone to fix it.

What the heck did I know about violins, My friend didn't know much about them either. I found a fella nearby who fixes guitars..so I call and ask if he works on violins. "Sure, bring it over"...........and a week and 50$ later I had it back in one piece....(just wait, I know what your thinking..and....you're RIGHT !!)

Well, I went happily back to playing that violin for another year and a change in teachers. One day, my teacher looks at the neck and says.. "Something's not right here" She was right. I had felt something different about it for a while, but figured, what the heck do I know, it's fine. Well, It seems the gap between the fingerboard and the top of the body was.....shrinking.....it was still apparently firmly attached, but something...not good...was going on here... We took a good look at the neck...

The guy who fixed it....all he did was slap a bit of carpenter's glue on it and put it back together !! I never even looked ! I was just sooo happy to have it back in one piece by someone I thought knew what he was doing (yeah I know....NOW).......I never even looked (not that I would even KNOW what I was looking at) I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did !

Soooo, the violin is in a case, strings loosened....waiting for me to save up enough to get it PROPERLY fixed....by a LUTHIER !!!

Now I'm playing on an ebay 50$ special........trying to decide if I should use my meager savings to get something a little better, until I can get the saxon fixed.......man, I miss that violin !!

Happily, I'm a bit wiser for the experience....and Fran and I are still friends BTW...she's a lovely lady !

From Clarissa Ng
Posted on March 13, 2006 at 5:29 AM

Yeah I've had my violin almost in two pieces once. My old teacher, whom I repect a lot (back then!), thought the string holding the tail piece was a bit long so you know what he did - he cut it! It was a piece of gut-looking string and not too hard to cut. I can't remember why he did it. Then one day about a year later and I was already learning from another teacher, I took it out of the case one day and to my horror, the back was separated from the neck! There's this gap big enough for your index finger!! So I showed my dad that night and he did exactly what that guy did to yours - super guled it! And that rest was history...
So there, it's one heck of an experience - never trust anyone apart from a good luthier!
Cheers!

From Emily Grossman
Posted on March 13, 2006 at 8:10 AM

I love your story.

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AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! NO !

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