By Laurie Niles: A few weeks ago my fiddle suffered a minor (thank goodness) injury while I was teaching a lesson - in a clutsy moment I knocked over a metal music stand, which fell sideways onto my violin.![scratched fiddle]()
Much to my relief, the damage was mostly cosmetic, requiring just a little bit of fill, varnish, etc. and a week-long stay with the luthier. I'm so grateful it wasn't worse, but wow, I sure miss my fiddle.
It is actually pretty amazing how well a violin can be repaired, in the right hands. I have a friend who had placed his fine fiddle on the car and forgot about it - until he accidentally backed over it. You would think that would be a fatal blow - but it wasn't. The violin was restored, and it sounded pretty much the same as it had. However, it had lost its considerable monetary value, which was dependent on it being in pristine, never-damaged condition.
A similarly horrendous thing happened to the famous German violinist David Garrett in 2008, when he tripped and fell down a set of steps with his 1772 Guadagnini violin on his back. He was okay, but his violin - a $1+ million instrument which he had just paid off - was not.
Have you ever had an accident that damaged your violin? How serious was it? Did you get your violin repaired? Have you known anyone who has gone through this? What was the story? Please participate in the vote and then share your stories.
* * *
Enjoying Violinist.com? Click here to sign up for our free, bi-weekly email newsletter. And if you've already signed up, please invite your friends! Thank you.