I want to hear some good stories of things going wrong or breaking on instruments what sparked this was today while practicing some Fiddle my idiot brother comes in the room screams at me to stop playing the scream startled me and I dropped my fiddle if there were any chips/scratches I could not find them but one of my tuning pegs broke in half it was insane I used some "Gorilla Glue" to fix it you can see where it broke but it did not affect the ablity to play it and the peg works fine.
You should have seen if the remaining pieces fit down his throat ;o)
Seriously, I had my old fiddle in a case with a shoulder strap & the strap caught on the clasps. The case flew open & sent the fiddle down a set of concrete stairs & into the street. I broke the top, back & sides. That was no fun.
I live in a *very* dry climate, high desert Arizona. I was oiling my flute before a trip to California, & I thought I felt the cork move a bit inside the headjoint, but otherwise ignored it. Arrive in San Francisco, all excitied for the legendary session at the Plough & Stars on Sunday evening. Lovely rain, Bay area, after a few days of humidity, the flute is all plumped up, sounding lush... I'm warming up at my friend's house before the session, & I go into the C part of Seán Se Cheo, way high up there & it sounds really wrong. I'm obviously still in denial. At the session, I tune to somebody's A lower octave, & the next tune is Cliffs of Moher, opens on that high A, & my god, my flute was sooooo flat, so out of tune. I just couldn't believe it. It was like, how did I describe it, oh I forget, like the Exorcist or something. I immediately stopped playing & looked into fooling around with the cork, but the humidity had caused the cork to plump up so much it was wedged super tight, & absolutely unmovable. I was forced to pack up, & drink myself silly. It was a lovely session too, pipes, fiddle, banjo, box, I would have been the only flute. I wonder if Jack Gilder was there? I was absolutely devastated, but learned a very valuable lesson at least. Which was, um, I forget. Oh right, move to a more humid climate.
Way back when I was in high school I saved up money from odd jobs for quite a while and bought a nice 12-string guitar (back in the '70's, when 12-strings were the "in" thing). I took it to the lake one day for a picnic with a bunch of friends and left it in its case for most of the day while playing volleyball. Unfortunately, as the sun crossed the sky, the shady spot under the tree became a sunny spot and I didn't notice. Later, I went to get the instrument for a little jamming with the rest of the crowd. When I let loose the hasps on the case, the top of the case flew open and the guitar neck rose up out of the case like Dracula out of a coffin, only REALLY fast, under the tension of 12-strings, no longer reacted by the neck joint, which had given up the ghost in the hot case. The peghead whacked me across the bridge of the nose and sent me hopping and howling up and down the beach and speaking in tongues.
The gutar was a total loss, as the dovetail joint had broken.
If all instruments were made of polymer this would not happen but they aren't and that would be just plain stupid (a plastic Guitar come on) but they make for good stories and I should have tryed to fit the peices down his throat but I don't want to spend all of $1.50 + Shipping at Elderly (haha) I have really had it with him today. Scott that is a great guitar story these are all great stories that is my favorite though.
So I'm sitting in a dorm room in Strasbourg, France in 1983, drinking too much Kronenbourg with my friends. I had just bought a new guitar because the exchange rate was so low back then for Americans and I was thrilled that all I had to do to afford a new guitar was fly to France for 6 months. When I went out to pee, one of my "friends" who was at the U. Strasbourg with me picked up my brand new guitar and started drumming his finger nails just below the sound hole. click-click-click-click. click-click-click-click. click-click-click-click. When I came back in the room and was staring at him in disbelief, he kept on drumming and said something clever like, "What's up with you?" click-click-click-click. click-click-click-click. After the shock wore off, I grabbed the guitar away. I still have that guitar with the most amazing array of fingernail dents. It's now my campfire guitar and hasn't had a case since 1985.
If I were there you wouldn't have been the only flute player Emily. Your story reminds me of something that happened to me in Ireland though. I was at a session in Hughes' Pub with Paul McGratten and he asked if he could have a go at my Rudall & Rose. He began playing it when all of a sudden it seemed to burst into pieces. One of the blocks fell off and the key with it, one of the rings came loose, the screw at the top that adjusts the cork fell out. I was so embarrassed. I knew about these problems with the flute -- very old and delicate -- but I thought it was all under control at the moment. I remember him handing it back to me and saying, "urm… it seems there's something wrong yer flute."
I am getting used to the drones on my UP 1/2 set and over pressured the bag and the bass drone sound box came flying off!! Does that count?? At least no one saw me...
LOLOLOL! That sounds like a total Candid Camera moment!!!! That is hilarious!
Next time, Jack, next time. It was Tony the banjo player from Co. Fermanagh who came to enquire why I had packed up, he was very friendly, I wonder if he'd remember me?... This was back around Halloween, I had ventured down to the Castro with friends, totally fabulous! Anyway, I have to make amends at that pub.... Love the photos! What a great local.....
Oh sorry felinoba, we were posting at the same time, I was really laughing at Jack's story with Paul McGrattan, though yours sounds very entertaining as well.
I am in total denial with how much work I have to do.
I was sitting in my music room playing my harp one fine day, playing Brian Boru's March. Now lets keep in mind that my harp had came from Oregon, to Florida, then to Missouri. So I was playing and it sounds like a double barrel shotgun went off. It shook the windows and we have a Yamaha Grand Piano and it shook the piano violently. I thought someone had been shot. So I looked at my harp, and there was a HUGE crack in the neck. I was sick. So now, a year later, I have my harp back and its as good as new.
Mark, I had a similar story gave my guitar to this guy whom I knew to be playing classical music. He starts off with a flamenco piece and suddenly he taps his fingernal just below the soundhole with all his strength - just to exclaim a moment later -
"oh, it doesn't have the pad?". You could hear the cracking of polish. And my heart sank to my feet.
Not an ITM story but fits the topic: Two years ago we were performing in a village high in the mountains (something round 3000 m above sea level), cold and quite humid atmosphere. Our oboe player picks up his instrument to warm up, he starts playing and in a second the oboe splits right along into two long pieces of useless wood.
oh man, these stories make me feel physically ill. the thought of something happening to my baby is enough to bring tears to my eyes. stop!!! stop!!! i beg of thee!!!
My first mandolin was a factory made Ibanez model. For the first year or two, I could only really play chords but managed to work out the odd tune or two for myself. They didn't have "tune learning" sessions in those days and I couldn't read music back then so it was a slow process. However, just as I thought I was getting better, I went out for several pints of beer to celebrate before staggering home and flopping down on the sofa--the very sofa where I had left my mandolin before going out on the town that night. As a result, my mandolin was damaged beyond repair but the nice people in the music shop were able to wangle things so that it was still covered by the guarantee (which should only have been for a year) and were able to provide me with an identical replacement which I still posses and play from time to time. So, at least it was a happy ending.
my mum and dad bought a gorgeous brand new piano 4 weeks ago - it really is a lovely piece of work. It had been in the house 5mins. when my husband decided to be helpful and move the bookshelf back into it's position beside the piano, a vase filled with pens(?) fell off the top of the high bookshelf and made a dent in the top the piano - it had only been there 5mins! Luckily my mum is very forgiving and the piano still sounds beautiful. We have now placed the metronome over the offending dent!
Last summer I had just finished an outdoor gig and I was putting my flute (silver) in its case, when a small girl had engaged me in conversations about flutes and how she had just started. I spoke with her for a bit and noticed that the next act was starting to set up and I needed to be off the stage. I had a number of items to remove so in the rush and distraction I had failed to latch my flute case. I swung the case over my shoulder and my flute flew across the stage and bounced on the cobblestones. I think I went into shock.....everything ended up alright and my flute still bears scars from the ordeal and I am extra careful about latching the case now before I get into conversations.
My fiance is a guitar player and he went on a cross country trip in a camper with some friends years ago. On one particularly rainy and humid night the camper sprung a leak. Conveniently right near where his 1930's Gibson six and 1965 Guild twelve string were being stored. Well, the cases provided protection from the leak but not the humidity there was some pretty awful looking damage...both of the faces of the guitars had come unglued. Completely tramatized, he unwound the strings and put the guitars back in the sufficiently dry cases and was going to find a guitar shop the next day....Well during the night the guitars had settled down and the glue dried again and it was like it had never happened. He took both the guitars to a his normal repair person and he couldn't find a thing wrong....So I guess that's a horror story with a happy ending.
I'm in high school...played sax but doubled on flute...so I have the school's flute to practice on. Go outside after school, put the flute on the roof of my Chevette, pack my sax, all the while chatting to a friend. We get in the car, I go spinning out of the parking lot all cool and teenaged-like...we hear a loud "thump." My friend goes, "hey, isn't that your flute?" We both turn around just in time to see the case hit the road, fly open, the flute springing out like a jack-in-the-box, and then the following car running over the pieces. I take the flute back to school, to my band director, tears in my eyes, afraid he's going to yell at me for destroying school property....he picks up the flattened flute, smiles at me and says, "Hey, I think it'll make a nice lamp."
I was at a fleadh once where some of the younger children had started up a game of football. One kicked the ball high in the air and it came down in the sidelines, right on someone's fiddle, smashing it to pieces.
Long time ago, we used to set up for a session in a corner of the pub that was separated from the rest of the place by a low wall. The wall was actually quite convenient for putting drinks and stuff on, and one evening when I arrived I set my flute on the wall while I went to fetch a beer. It was extending out a few inches over the other side, and unbeknownst to me, it was extended over a lit candle (one of those little votive types that restaurants put on the tables for atmosphere). It was the smell that got my attention. By the time I grabbed the flute the candle had burned through the case cover (fleece-lined fabric) and charred the corner of the wooden case. The flute was fortunately undamaged, only a slightly darkened spot in the boxwood.
At another time we had a small hole burnt through a bodhran head (though admittedly, that might have been intentional), and later a fabric guitar case spectacularly burst into flames, big flames. After that last incident we started blowing out the candles immediately upon arriving.
Some years ago I heard about an early music ensemble who were giving a private concert at a stately home to an audience of the great and the good.
At the interval break one of the musicians put his priceless antique viola d'amore (a viola-sized viol with sympathetic strings) on his chair. A few minutes later, a large aristocratic lady (I know - you can see what's coming!), of the type who never look to see if a chair is there when they make to sit down because they know a chair always magically appears, plonked herself down on it, instantly reducing that very rare instrument to matchwood.
I don't know exactly what happened after that except that the second half of the concert did not take place.
Trevor
Some time ago at a Renaissance Faire my friend and bass player had propped his Guild accoustic bass against a wall and went to speak to some one. Well a loud noise and an ooops sorry later, my friend has discovered that the head stock of his bass had broken clean off. Another friend quickly took out a bottle of vodka and said "here, drink this". The bass was fixed by Curtis the miracle man and hasn't had a problem since. I think it's been about ten years now.
Not really a horror story, but one Christmas morning we sat down to have a few tunes and a beer, and my flute was not working. Turned out one of the key springs had got knocked off during the previous evening's festivities, and I was thinking, "Rats! I'm going to have to send away for a new one..." So here's me on Boxing day morning, down on my hands and knees in the pub searching for a one-inch long piece of brass. Found it in the vacuum cleaner bag though, after pawing through 10 pounds of dust and god knows what all.
Here's a horror story: once my brother was working in the Arctic, and the tent with his brand-new fiddle inside blew several kilometers across the tundra. It was a mess.
SCENE 1: I have a friend that was on a long driving trip across two states with her boyfriend. They stopped off along the way at a lovely roadside spot and decided to have a few tunes, and then returned to the car and resumed driving. When they arrived at their destination (7 hours later) they decided to have a few tunes with their friends. She opened the fiddle case to find it empty. SCENE 2: [A lovely spot along the highway with a lone fiddle resting against a tree... birds chirping... the sound of the breeze gently strumming the strings... a squirrel sniffing around nearby.]
A few years ago, a fellow ITM musician (fiddler) in town asked around whether someone could lend him a guitar since his girlfriend was coming to visit and he wanted to serenade her.
Well, who can resist such a romantic idea? So I lend him my no-fancy guitar, which I had bought second-hand for 120 bucks. I had no case for it, but I thought for a short trip in the car and back, that should be OK.
Well, a couple of weeks later (I had to remind him a couple of times) I got it back, all banged up and scratches all over. He had taken it - still without a case - on a camping trip! I can understand his urge to sing to his sweetheart underneath the starry sky, but I would never have imagined that a fellow musician could treat an instrument that badly, particularly one that's not his own. I was just really glad I was not too attached to the guitar or I had added a few more dents by hitting him over the head with it!
Not so much a horror story, but sort of animal-related...
As mentioned before, my flute endures extremes of humidity changes. When it plumps up, & after oiling, I have to unwind the thread on the tendon to the footjoint so it slips easily on & off, otherwise it jams & I fear for it cracking. It's been quite rainy here lately (amazingly), so I had unwound it almost down to the wood itself. Sometimes I pace while playing, as I was a few days ago, completely immersed in a tune, when I pivoted abruptly & felt the flute jerk out of my hands. It almost fell to the floor but I had caught it in time. I look behind me, there is my cat Holmes, he had been chasing the thread which had been trailing on the floor behind me as I paced & had got one good claw in it, so when I turned, well, there you go. Near miss.
My poor old beloved Rudall & Rose / Wylde flute (now retired because I got a Grinter) had a troublesome crack in the bell joint. I had been trying to keep it sealed with Crazy Glue and finally managed to fix it and had it playing well. I was sitting in my front room looking out the window in dim light and (like a total eejit) put it on the couch next to me while I played my concertina. Just then someone (who's identity I'm not at liberty to disclose but happens to be married to me) came gingerly into the room and sat squarely on the flute. The hideous sound that coincided with this event can best be described as bones breaking accompanied by blood curdling screams of anguish. I picked up the flute to find the bell joint was completely broken in not one, but three places. I held the three pieces in my hand staring at them in disbelief. I remember the faint sound of someone apologizing profusely, but I'm not sure really... that part's fuzzy.
Happy ending part:
After going on a long walk... I went by the hardware store to pick up some Crazy Glue only to find that the regular formula was sold out and all they had was this gel. I went home and carefully glued the pieces back together. This just happened to work better than any of my previous attempts and lasted easily for the next 9 months until my Grinter arrived.
NOTE: The flute I'm talking about happens to be the very model that Michael Grinter bases his reproductions on. I had always wished I could go back in time and buy my flute new from John Rose... and that wish ended up coming true... sort of.
During the last sleep-over of my teenage years, a friend's father dropped a folding bed onto my guitar leaving a large hole. Somehow my father managed to tidy up the hole and patch it with some kind of wood (whatever he had to hand) and the amazing thing was that it didn't effect the lovely tone at all. Nearly 30 years later I still have the guitar.
The shoulder of my 30 string folk harp has fallen off twice (once just before a gig ), due to the strain of the strings. (String strng and recommended by the maker). The first time the maker repaired it for me. When it happened the second time I took it to another builder who inserted a support rod and it has been fine ever since.
My most tramatic instrument experience was watching my harp (fortunately very well padded and packed) being unloaded from a large domestic airline. The baggage handler read all the labels (Fragile; musical insturment - please handle with care) before THROWING it onto the luggage cart, where it promptly bounced and landed on the tarmac. It was then forced through a too small hole onto the luggage conveyor belt and falling off. Somehow the harp somehow survived intact, although I had to be physically restrained by my friends so I didn't attack the baggage handler!
The moral of this strong is NEVER to fly with my harp again.
Here's another one: my friend had a very nice Glen Schultz wooden whistle, which she loved. She also had a Jack Russell Terrier. One day while she was practicing, someone came to the door, and she put the whistle in the middle of the dining room table and went to answer the door. Five minutes later, all that was left was the silver rings. In spite of this, she couldn't bear to get rid of the dog, which was later run over by a car. Karma, or just irony?
I've had a few near-nightmares. Last year I was playing on a Paddy's Day parade in SE London with Danny and Conan. Halfway along we were required to stop in the pedestrian precinct in Lewisham to play for a group of young dancers, following which we all (musicians and dancers) posed for a photographer from a local paper. I had my mandolin slung over my shoulder by a rather flimsy home-made strap. This strap functioned perfectly well as long as the instrument was in playing position, but as I was to discover, not when it was hanging vertically. Having invested all my trust in the strap, I suddenly noticed it slipping off my shoulder. Before I had time to react, there was a resonant clonk as my mandolin crashed, head down, to the brick pavement. Fortunately, having landed thus, the impact on the body, when it subsequently hit the ground, was much less than it might have been. I inspected the instrument and found nothing more than a slight scratch on a corner of the headstock. Later that day, however, I did discover that a considerable chunk of that corner had vanished, presumably having fallen off sometime afterwards. Still, it adds to the character.
More recently, I was at a house session with some friends. Much like Autumn's flute story, I had just put my mandolin away in its case, when one of the company started up a tune on the fiddle. Not wanting to be left out, I went over to the piano and did my best to accompany him. After the tune, I put my coat on and picked up the case, at which point, the lid fell open and the mandolin rolled out onto the floor and, not without some noise, landed on its back. I gave it a good going-over - not a scratch. This is obviously a testament to my own instrument making skills - or perhaps more accurately, a testament to the durability of an acrylic finish.
I had a near nightmare today with my Fiddle (it takes a lot of abuse but I bought it for $26 [its fine for a beginner like me] on Ebay so it's all good) I was playing and I often pace as I play anything so I hear my name called turn around fast and I stoped before I hit the neck into a wall it would have broken in half if I didn't stop in time.
The band with all the instruments but the bodhran was in the van.
We was ready to leave for a gig.
Five second later, the bodhran became a pizza under the van's wheel.
I was invited to another town with a bunch of misicians and singers to perform at someone's wedding. From the train to a taxi, which was to take us to the hotel. We got on the spot, took out our things and paid the driver, took out our things and the taxi departs - just at this moment the flute player says: "Janek, where's your guitar?". It was the only thing which was packed into the trunk. With an F-word on my lips, I turned around and ran after the cab through the middle of a traffic, waving my hands in the air, desperately trying to figure out his numbers in case he'd get away. Of course, the cab guy didn't feel the urge to look in the mirrors. Thankfully, traffic lights 400 m later were long and had just turned red. Suppose it must've been my personal long sprint record.
I have been playing for a dance on various occasions when old accordion straps have snapped. Its just a matter of wedging the box between chin and knee and carrying on until a coat hanger can be pressganged into service.
We were once playing in a little restaurant, and our bass player was having a friendly altercation with a heckler, who some of us knew fairly well. At one point the heckler started tossing sugar packets off the table, and the bass player made as if he was going to throw his (electric) bass at the guy. What a time for your strap to break! Anyway, the bass sort of slithered across the guy's table and onto the floor, where it went sproing. I don't know who was more surprised, but I do know that our next few nights in that place went to pay for the repairs.
I lost my first mandolin in a road accident.I am a keen motor cyclist and had the mandolin strapped to my back.The strap on the bag broke and the mandolin fell on to the road and under a truck.It was mangled.
Phil
i was playing my fiddle on stage one night in the distant past and was in the middle of a fast and furious tune right on a microphone when i got the bow hooked under the strings which caused the bridge to fall over with a resounding whack nicely amplified through the mic.there was an instant of complete silence followed by several gasps of horror. i took a break, loosened the strings and stood the bridge back up and finished out the night but i think my playing was a little subdued. the good news, no damage.
Before my foray into fiddling, I was a classically trained violinist. And classical trained violinists read music off big, heavy music stands with SHARP corners. I had just finished my piece, and as I turned to the pianist to thank him, I tripped over the music stand's leg and it fell onto my violin. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased that my violin had a large hole right above the right F-hole. After 2 weeks in the shop I got it back...with a large discoloured patch of wood where the whole was.
Let's see, there was once when I had just gotten out of a flute lesson and a friend stopped to ask me about it. So I put the case on the table, opened it, showed him the flute (pretty new rosewood, 4-key by Ralph Sweet,) closed the case, answered some questions about it, the difference between Baroque flutes and Irish flutes. Got up to leave, picked the case up, and -roll, roll, bang clank thudthudthud- all three pieces fall out, onto the table, and from there to the ground. Of course I'd forgotten to latch the case. (This seems a common problem.)
Another story isn't mine, but sufficiently painful that I'll recount it. An old teacher of mine had a mountain dulcimer back when he was in college. He was practising one day and one of his roommates was playing around with a hockey stick and puck in their room. Well, guess what happened. The hockey puck got smacked into the dulcimer. The instrument has a big crack down one side, but luckily it still plays just fine.
Such terrible stories. I can relate to almost all of them - My Martin guitar also boasts fingernail dents from a clueless friend, my first and second fiddle bows snapped in two, I once forgot my harp at a bar in Toronto after a gig and didn't think of it for two days (it was, miraculously, still backstage). My fiddle has a long scratch on the front from the day I decided I should clean off some of that sticky resin without clipping my fingernails... My first mandolin was knocked off it's wall rack by a yet-to-be-forgiven ex-boyfriend... I got to watch baggage handlers toss my guitar onto a conveyor belt with such force they actually knocked off a few of the hundreds of FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE stickers. I've been lucky though. All my toys have lived to tell the tale and none of their battle scars affect the tone. My deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones.
Last year at East Durham, Patrick Orceau's bow fell apart during a concert. The fluter (Mike McHale?) kept playing, Seamus Conneely appeared magically with another bow, and the tune was finished in style!
Just the other night I was upstairs in my room practicing on my Casey Burns flute when there was a knock on the
bedroom door. My daughter needed some help fixing one of her toys, so downstairs I go with flute in hand.
Sat the flute on the chair and proceded to fix the offending part of the my little girls toy.
It was taking longer then I thought so I decided to sit down. Wish someone had taken a picture of my
face when I heard the crack that changed a two piece flute into three.
Shaskeen, similar thing happened to Méabh O'Hare at Frankie Kennedy this past winter, one of her strings broke during her concert in medias res, so she got up to leave the stage, but another fiddle player (maybe Ciaran Mooney?) loaned his & she polished off in fantastic style to thunderous applause!
This whole sitting on flutes is horrendous! I should know, my mom does flute repair, mostly for band instruments & this is the most common cause for her services. should see some of these mangled instruments.... *shudder*
Some lessons to be learned from these accounts:
1 Don't leave your instrument on a chair or whatever, where members of the public can have access. Or where you yourself can inadvertently sit!
2 Don't let other people play or handle your instrument unless you know you can trust them.
3 All instrument cases should have locks that automatically engage when the case is closed. Even a couple of magnets are better than nothing. A strap round the case should also be considered.
4 Don't leave the instrument out in the hot sun (or in freezing cold temperatures, for that matter).
5 If you're performing on stage, make sure you have a spare bow and fiddle immediately available. True story: the leader of Bristol Chamber Orchestra broke his A-string two bars into the opening overture. He got up, went to the green room and returned about 20 seconds later with his spare violin which was already set up, tuned and ready against such an eventuality.
6 Stage personnel have an obligation to make sure cables etc aren't a hazard.
7 If you can possibly avoid it, don't let your instrument be subject to the tender mercies of airport baggage handlers.
8 Finally, let's be careful out there.
Trevor
last summer I was playing at a renfaire and loaned my mandolin to a friend in another band who had broken a string a didn't have a spare, in one of their songs he jumps off the stage, I'm in the back of the crowd and I see him slip and hear a loud wooden crunch. he stands up and I see the mandolin perfectly intact, it turns out that the crunch was from landing butt first on a wooden mug he had tied to his belt.
a few weeks ago my new copleland low D whistle decided it would jump out of my bag onto the pavement, got a nasty dent in the windway, it plays ok but it definately sounds a lot more breathy and the fipple block had a bit of a leak.
Instrument Horror Stories
Instrument Horror Stories
I want to hear some good stories of things going wrong or breaking on instruments what sparked this was today while practicing some Fiddle my idiot brother comes in the room screams at me to stop playing the scream startled me and I dropped my fiddle if there were any chips/scratches I could not find them but one of my tuning pegs broke in half it was insane I used some "Gorilla Glue" to fix it you can see where it broke but it did not affect the ablity to play it and the peg works fine.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Unseen122
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
You should have seen if the remaining pieces fit down his throat ;o)
Seriously, I had my old fiddle in a case with a shoulder strap & the strap caught on the clasps. The case flew open & sent the fiddle down a set of concrete stairs & into the street. I broke the top, back & sides. That was no fun.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Mad Baloney
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
PS I wonder how long it will take Will to pipe up about hide glue.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Mad Baloney
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I live in a *very* dry climate, high desert Arizona. I was oiling my flute before a trip to California, & I thought I felt the cork move a bit inside the headjoint, but otherwise ignored it. Arrive in San Francisco, all excitied for the legendary session at the Plough & Stars on Sunday evening. Lovely rain, Bay area, after a few days of humidity, the flute is all plumped up, sounding lush... I'm warming up at my friend's house before the session, & I go into the C part of Seán Se Cheo, way high up there & it sounds really wrong. I'm obviously still in denial. At the session, I tune to somebody's A lower octave, & the next tune is Cliffs of Moher, opens on that high A, & my god, my flute was sooooo flat, so out of tune. I just couldn't believe it. It was like, how did I describe it, oh I forget, like the Exorcist or something. I immediately stopped playing & looked into fooling around with the cork, but the humidity had caused the cork to plump up so much it was wedged super tight, & absolutely unmovable. I was forced to pack up, & drink myself silly. It was a lovely session too, pipes, fiddle, banjo, box, I would have been the only flute. I wonder if Jack Gilder was there? I was absolutely devastated, but learned a very valuable lesson at least. Which was, um, I forget. Oh right, move to a more humid climate.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by emily_bmore
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I don't remember about the hide glue...!
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by emily_bmore
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I was attacked by my guitar once.
Way back when I was in high school I saved up money from odd jobs for quite a while and bought a nice 12-string guitar (back in the '70's, when 12-strings were the "in" thing). I took it to the lake one day for a picnic with a bunch of friends and left it in its case for most of the day while playing volleyball. Unfortunately, as the sun crossed the sky, the shady spot under the tree became a sunny spot and I didn't notice. Later, I went to get the instrument for a little jamming with the rest of the crowd. When I let loose the hasps on the case, the top of the case flew open and the guitar neck rose up out of the case like Dracula out of a coffin, only REALLY fast, under the tension of 12-strings, no longer reacted by the neck joint, which had given up the ghost in the hot case. The peghead whacked me across the bridge of the nose and sent me hopping and howling up and down the beach and speaking in tongues.
The gutar was a total loss, as the dovetail joint had broken.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by ScottC
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
If all instruments were made of polymer this would not happen but they aren't and that would be just plain stupid (a plastic Guitar come on) but they make for good stories and I should have tryed to fit the peices down his throat but I don't want to spend all of $1.50 + Shipping at Elderly (haha) I have really had it with him today. Scott that is a great guitar story these are all great stories that is my favorite though.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Unseen122
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
So I'm sitting in a dorm room in Strasbourg, France in 1983, drinking too much Kronenbourg with my friends. I had just bought a new guitar because the exchange rate was so low back then for Americans and I was thrilled that all I had to do to afford a new guitar was fly to France for 6 months. When I went out to pee, one of my "friends" who was at the U. Strasbourg with me picked up my brand new guitar and started drumming his finger nails just below the sound hole. click-click-click-click. click-click-click-click. click-click-click-click. When I came back in the room and was staring at him in disbelief, he kept on drumming and said something clever like, "What's up with you?" click-click-click-click. click-click-click-click. After the shock wore off, I grabbed the guitar away. I still have that guitar with the most amazing array of fingernail dents. It's now my campfire guitar and hasn't had a case since 1985.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by markwilson
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
If I were there you wouldn't have been the only flute player Emily. Your story reminds me of something that happened to me in Ireland though. I was at a session in Hughes' Pub with Paul McGratten and he asked if he could have a go at my Rudall & Rose. He began playing it when all of a sudden it seemed to burst into pieces. One of the blocks fell off and the key with it, one of the rings came loose, the screw at the top that adjusts the cork fell out. I was so embarrassed. I knew about these problems with the flute -- very old and delicate -- but I thought it was all under control at the moment. I remember him handing it back to me and saying, "urm… it seems there's something wrong yer flute."
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I am getting used to the drones on my UP 1/2 set and over pressured the bag and the bass drone sound box came flying off!! Does that count?? At least no one saw me...
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by I_Fel
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
LOLOLOL! That sounds like a total Candid Camera moment!!!! That is hilarious!
Next time, Jack, next time. It was Tony the banjo player from Co. Fermanagh who came to enquire why I had packed up, he was very friendly, I wonder if he'd remember me?... This was back around Halloween, I had ventured down to the Castro with friends, totally fabulous! Anyway, I have to make amends at that pub.... Love the photos! What a great local.....
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by emily_bmore
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Oh sorry felinoba, we were posting at the same time, I was really laughing at Jack's story with Paul McGrattan, though yours sounds very entertaining as well.
I am in total denial with how much work I have to do.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by emily_bmore
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I was sitting in my music room playing my harp one fine day, playing Brian Boru's March. Now lets keep in mind that my harp had came from Oregon, to Florida, then to Missouri. So I was playing and it sounds like a double barrel shotgun went off. It shook the windows and we have a Yamaha Grand Piano and it shook the piano violently. I thought someone had been shot. So I looked at my harp, and there was a HUGE crack in the neck. I was sick. So now, a year later, I have my harp back and its as good as new.
Johnathan
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Harper_Lad
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Woah....I love Brian Boru's march! its so fun to play....
anyway, im glad you harp is better i would die if my harp had to go through that. you are very brave, lol.
Was that an actual gunshot or something? or did your harp just....break.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by an_all_irish_girl
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Mark, I had a similar story gave my guitar to this guy whom I knew to be playing classical music. He starts off with a flamenco piece and suddenly he taps his fingernal just below the soundhole with all his strength - just to exclaim a moment later -
"oh, it doesn't have the pad?". You could hear the cracking of polish. And my heart sank to my feet.
Not an ITM story but fits the topic: Two years ago we were performing in a village high in the mountains (something round 3000 m above sea level), cold and quite humid atmosphere. Our oboe player picks up his instrument to warm up, he starts playing and in a second the oboe splits right along into two long pieces of useless wood.
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by EastPole
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
oh man, these stories make me feel physically ill. the thought of something happening to my baby is enough to bring tears to my eyes. stop!!! stop!!! i beg of thee!!!
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by NickPhelan
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
My first mandolin was a factory made Ibanez model. For the first year or two, I could only really play chords but managed to work out the odd tune or two for myself. They didn't have "tune learning" sessions in those days and I couldn't read music back then so it was a slow process. However, just as I thought I was getting better, I went out for several pints of beer to celebrate before staggering home and flopping down on the sofa--the very sofa where I had left my mandolin before going out on the town that night.
As a result, my mandolin was damaged beyond repair but the nice people in the music shop were able to wangle things so that it was still covered by the guarantee (which should only have been for a year) and were able to provide me with an identical replacement which I still posses and play from time to time. So, at least it was a happy ending.
John
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Johannes J
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
my mum and dad bought a gorgeous brand new piano 4 weeks ago - it really is a lovely piece of work. It had been in the house 5mins. when my husband decided to be helpful and move the bookshelf back into it's position beside the piano, a vase filled with pens(?) fell off the top of the high bookshelf and made a dent in the top the piano - it had only been there 5mins! Luckily my mum is very forgiving and the piano still sounds beautiful. We have now placed the metronome over the offending dent!
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by katycollins
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
At a house party, a very un-guitarist picked up a nylon-strung Les Luck by the soundhole, and broke it even before it reached his lap.
The rest is hysterics.
Jim
# Posted on April 8th 2004 by Worldfiddler
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Last summer I had just finished an outdoor gig and I was putting my flute (silver) in its case, when a small girl had engaged me in conversations about flutes and how she had just started. I spoke with her for a bit and noticed that the next act was starting to set up and I needed to be off the stage. I had a number of items to remove so in the rush and distraction I had failed to latch my flute case. I swung the case over my shoulder and my flute flew across the stage and bounced on the cobblestones. I think I went into shock.....everything ended up alright and my flute still bears scars from the ordeal and I am extra careful about latching the case now before I get into conversations.
My fiance is a guitar player and he went on a cross country trip in a camper with some friends years ago. On one particularly rainy and humid night the camper sprung a leak. Conveniently right near where his 1930's Gibson six and 1965 Guild twelve string were being stored. Well, the cases provided protection from the leak but not the humidity there was some pretty awful looking damage...both of the faces of the guitars had come unglued. Completely tramatized, he unwound the strings and put the guitars back in the sufficiently dry cases and was going to find a guitar shop the next day....Well during the night the guitars had settled down and the glue dried again and it was like it had never happened. He took both the guitars to a his normal repair person and he couldn't find a thing wrong....So I guess that's a horror story with a happy ending.
~Autumn
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by autumn
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I'm in high school...played sax but doubled on flute...so I have the school's flute to practice on. Go outside after school, put the flute on the roof of my Chevette, pack my sax, all the while chatting to a friend. We get in the car, I go spinning out of the parking lot all cool and teenaged-like...we hear a loud "thump." My friend goes, "hey, isn't that your flute?" We both turn around just in time to see the case hit the road, fly open, the flute springing out like a jack-in-the-box, and then the following car running over the pieces. I take the flute back to school, to my band director, tears in my eyes, afraid he's going to yell at me for destroying school property....he picks up the flattened flute, smiles at me and says, "Hey, I think it'll make a nice lamp."
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by knockwool
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I was at a fleadh once where some of the younger children had started up a game of football. One kicked the ball high in the air and it came down in the sidelines, right on someone's fiddle, smashing it to pieces.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Urger
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Long time ago, we used to set up for a session in a corner of the pub that was separated from the rest of the place by a low wall. The wall was actually quite convenient for putting drinks and stuff on, and one evening when I arrived I set my flute on the wall while I went to fetch a beer. It was extending out a few inches over the other side, and unbeknownst to me, it was extended over a lit candle (one of those little votive types that restaurants put on the tables for atmosphere). It was the smell that got my attention. By the time I grabbed the flute the candle had burned through the case cover (fleece-lined fabric) and charred the corner of the wooden case. The flute was fortunately undamaged, only a slightly darkened spot in the boxwood.
At another time we had a small hole burnt through a bodhran head (though admittedly, that might have been intentional), and later a fabric guitar case spectacularly burst into flames, big flames. After that last incident we started blowing out the candles immediately upon arriving.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Susan Lawlor
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Some years ago I heard about an early music ensemble who were giving a private concert at a stately home to an audience of the great and the good.
At the interval break one of the musicians put his priceless antique viola d'amore (a viola-sized viol with sympathetic strings) on his chair. A few minutes later, a large aristocratic lady (I know - you can see what's coming!), of the type who never look to see if a chair is there when they make to sit down because they know a chair always magically appears, plonked herself down on it, instantly reducing that very rare instrument to matchwood.
I don't know exactly what happened after that except that the second half of the concert did not take place.
Trevor
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Some time ago at a Renaissance Faire my friend and bass player had propped his Guild accoustic bass against a wall and went to speak to some one. Well a loud noise and an ooops sorry later, my friend has discovered that the head stock of his bass had broken clean off. Another friend quickly took out a bottle of vodka and said "here, drink this". The bass was fixed by Curtis the miracle man and hasn't had a problem since. I think it's been about ten years now.
~Autumn
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by autumn
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Not really a horror story, but one Christmas morning we sat down to have a few tunes and a beer, and my flute was not working. Turned out one of the key springs had got knocked off during the previous evening's festivities, and I was thinking, "Rats! I'm going to have to send away for a new one..." So here's me on Boxing day morning, down on my hands and knees in the pub searching for a one-inch long piece of brass. Found it in the vacuum cleaner bag though, after pawing through 10 pounds of dust and god knows what all.
Here's a horror story: once my brother was working in the Arctic, and the tent with his brand-new fiddle inside blew several kilometers across the tundra. It was a mess.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Gzeg
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
SCENE 1: I have a friend that was on a long driving trip across two states with her boyfriend. They stopped off along the way at a lovely roadside spot and decided to have a few tunes, and then returned to the car and resumed driving. When they arrived at their destination (7 hours later) they decided to have a few tunes with their friends. She opened the fiddle case to find it empty. SCENE 2: [A lovely spot along the highway with a lone fiddle resting against a tree... birds chirping... the sound of the breeze gently strumming the strings... a squirrel sniffing around nearby.]
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Jack, that story must be worth a damn good tune title!
Trevor
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
These stories are terrific - keep 'em coming!
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Jeremy
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
A few years ago, a fellow ITM musician (fiddler) in town asked around whether someone could lend him a guitar since his girlfriend was coming to visit and he wanted to serenade her.
Well, who can resist such a romantic idea? So I lend him my no-fancy guitar, which I had bought second-hand for 120 bucks. I had no case for it, but I thought for a short trip in the car and back, that should be OK.
Well, a couple of weeks later (I had to remind him a couple of times) I got it back, all banged up and scratches all over. He had taken it - still without a case - on a camping trip! I can understand his urge to sing to his sweetheart underneath the starry sky, but I would never have imagined that a fellow musician could treat an instrument that badly, particularly one that's not his own. I was just really glad I was not too attached to the guitar or I had added a few more dents by hitting him over the head with it!
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by heike
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Not so much a horror story, but sort of animal-related...
As mentioned before, my flute endures extremes of humidity changes. When it plumps up, & after oiling, I have to unwind the thread on the tendon to the footjoint so it slips easily on & off, otherwise it jams & I fear for it cracking. It's been quite rainy here lately (amazingly), so I had unwound it almost down to the wood itself. Sometimes I pace while playing, as I was a few days ago, completely immersed in a tune, when I pivoted abruptly & felt the flute jerk out of my hands. It almost fell to the floor but I had caught it in time. I look behind me, there is my cat Holmes, he had been chasing the thread which had been trailing on the floor behind me as I paced & had got one good claw in it, so when I turned, well, there you go. Near miss.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by emily_bmore
Re: Instrument Horror Stories (happy ending included)
My poor old beloved Rudall & Rose / Wylde flute (now retired because I got a Grinter) had a troublesome crack in the bell joint. I had been trying to keep it sealed with Crazy Glue and finally managed to fix it and had it playing well. I was sitting in my front room looking out the window in dim light and (like a total eejit) put it on the couch next to me while I played my concertina. Just then someone (who's identity I'm not at liberty to disclose but happens to be married to me) came gingerly into the room and sat squarely on the flute. The hideous sound that coincided with this event can best be described as bones breaking accompanied by blood curdling screams of anguish. I picked up the flute to find the bell joint was completely broken in not one, but three places. I held the three pieces in my hand staring at them in disbelief. I remember the faint sound of someone apologizing profusely, but I'm not sure really... that part's fuzzy.
Happy ending part:
After going on a long walk... I went by the hardware store to pick up some Crazy Glue only to find that the regular formula was sold out and all they had was this gel. I went home and carefully glued the pieces back together. This just happened to work better than any of my previous attempts and lasted easily for the next 9 months until my Grinter arrived.
NOTE: The flute I'm talking about happens to be the very model that Michael Grinter bases his reproductions on. I had always wished I could go back in time and buy my flute new from John Rose... and that wish ended up coming true... sort of.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
During the last sleep-over of my teenage years, a friend's father dropped a folding bed onto my guitar leaving a large hole. Somehow my father managed to tidy up the hole and patch it with some kind of wood (whatever he had to hand) and the amazing thing was that it didn't effect the lovely tone at all. Nearly 30 years later I still have the guitar.
The shoulder of my 30 string folk harp has fallen off twice (once just before a gig ), due to the strain of the strings. (String strng and recommended by the maker). The first time the maker repaired it for me. When it happened the second time I took it to another builder who inserted a support rod and it has been fine ever since.
My most tramatic instrument experience was watching my harp (fortunately very well padded and packed) being unloaded from a large domestic airline. The baggage handler read all the labels (Fragile; musical insturment - please handle with care) before THROWING it onto the luggage cart, where it promptly bounced and landed on the tarmac. It was then forced through a too small hole onto the luggage conveyor belt and falling off. Somehow the harp somehow survived intact, although I had to be physically restrained by my friends so I didn't attack the baggage handler!
The moral of this strong is NEVER to fly with my harp again.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Ptollemy
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Here's another one: my friend had a very nice Glen Schultz wooden whistle, which she loved. She also had a Jack Russell Terrier. One day while she was practicing, someone came to the door, and she put the whistle in the middle of the dining room table and went to answer the door. Five minutes later, all that was left was the silver rings. In spite of this, she couldn't bear to get rid of the dog, which was later run over by a car. Karma, or just irony?
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Gzeg
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I've had a few near-nightmares. Last year I was playing on a Paddy's Day parade in SE London with Danny and Conan. Halfway along we were required to stop in the pedestrian precinct in Lewisham to play for a group of young dancers, following which we all (musicians and dancers) posed for a photographer from a local paper. I had my mandolin slung over my shoulder by a rather flimsy home-made strap. This strap functioned perfectly well as long as the instrument was in playing position, but as I was to discover, not when it was hanging vertically. Having invested all my trust in the strap, I suddenly noticed it slipping off my shoulder. Before I had time to react, there was a resonant clonk as my mandolin crashed, head down, to the brick pavement. Fortunately, having landed thus, the impact on the body, when it subsequently hit the ground, was much less than it might have been. I inspected the instrument and found nothing more than a slight scratch on a corner of the headstock. Later that day, however, I did discover that a considerable chunk of that corner had vanished, presumably having fallen off sometime afterwards. Still, it adds to the character.
More recently, I was at a house session with some friends. Much like Autumn's flute story, I had just put my mandolin away in its case, when one of the company started up a tune on the fiddle. Not wanting to be left out, I went over to the piano and did my best to accompany him. After the tune, I put my coat on and picked up the case, at which point, the lid fell open and the mandolin rolled out onto the floor and, not without some noise, landed on its back. I gave it a good going-over - not a scratch. This is obviously a testament to my own instrument making skills - or perhaps more accurately, a testament to the durability of an acrylic finish.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by ragaman
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I had a near nightmare today with my Fiddle (it takes a lot of abuse but I bought it for $26 [its fine for a beginner like me] on Ebay so it's all good) I was playing and I often pace as I play anything so I hear my name called turn around fast and I stoped before I hit the neck into a wall it would have broken in half if I didn't stop in time.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by Unseen122
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
There was a beaurtful girl in my bedroom...
...there was my silver flute on the bed...
and she sat on the flute ( the silver one ).
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by gian marco
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
The band with all the instruments but the bodhran was in the van.
We was ready to leave for a gig.
Five second later, the bodhran became a pizza under the van's wheel.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by gian marco
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Heh, just recalled another one.
I was invited to another town with a bunch of misicians and singers to perform at someone's wedding. From the train to a taxi, which was to take us to the hotel. We got on the spot, took out our things and paid the driver, took out our things and the taxi departs - just at this moment the flute player says: "Janek, where's your guitar?". It was the only thing which was packed into the trunk. With an F-word on my lips, I turned around and ran after the cab through the middle of a traffic, waving my hands in the air, desperately trying to figure out his numbers in case he'd get away. Of course, the cab guy didn't feel the urge to look in the mirrors. Thankfully, traffic lights 400 m later were long and had just turned red. Suppose it must've been my personal long sprint record.
# Posted on April 9th 2004 by EastPole
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I have been playing for a dance on various occasions when old accordion straps have snapped. Its just a matter of wedging the box between chin and knee and carrying on until a coat hanger can be pressganged into service.
# Posted on April 10th 2004 by geoffwright
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
We were once playing in a little restaurant, and our bass player was having a friendly altercation with a heckler, who some of us knew fairly well. At one point the heckler started tossing sugar packets off the table, and the bass player made as if he was going to throw his (electric) bass at the guy. What a time for your strap to break! Anyway, the bass sort of slithered across the guy's table and onto the floor, where it went sproing. I don't know who was more surprised, but I do know that our next few nights in that place went to pay for the repairs.
# Posted on April 10th 2004 by Gzeg
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
I lost my first mandolin in a road accident.I am a keen motor cyclist and had the mandolin strapped to my back.The strap on the bag broke and the mandolin fell on to the road and under a truck.It was mangled.
Phil
# Posted on April 10th 2004 by Dphil
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
i was playing my fiddle on stage one night in the distant past and was in the middle of a fast and furious tune right on a microphone when i got the bow hooked under the strings which caused the bridge to fall over with a resounding whack nicely amplified through the mic.there was an instant of complete silence followed by several gasps of horror. i took a break, loosened the strings and stood the bridge back up and finished out the night but i think my playing was a little subdued. the good news, no damage.
# Posted on April 10th 2004 by Dont
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Before my foray into fiddling, I was a classically trained violinist. And classical trained violinists read music off big, heavy music stands with SHARP corners. I had just finished my piece, and as I turned to the pianist to thank him, I tripped over the music stand's leg and it fell onto my violin. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased that my violin had a large hole right above the right F-hole. After 2 weeks in the shop I got it back...with a large discoloured patch of wood where the whole was.
MORAL: Never read music off music stands.
# Posted on April 11th 2004 by Winnowill
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Eek. Some of these are so painful to read.
Let's see, there was once when I had just gotten out of a flute lesson and a friend stopped to ask me about it. So I put the case on the table, opened it, showed him the flute (pretty new rosewood, 4-key by Ralph Sweet,) closed the case, answered some questions about it, the difference between Baroque flutes and Irish flutes. Got up to leave, picked the case up, and -roll, roll, bang clank thudthudthud- all three pieces fall out, onto the table, and from there to the ground. Of course I'd forgotten to latch the case. (This seems a common problem.)
Another story isn't mine, but sufficiently painful that I'll recount it. An old teacher of mine had a mountain dulcimer back when he was in college. He was practising one day and one of his roommates was playing around with a hockey stick and puck in their room. Well, guess what happened. The hockey puck got smacked into the dulcimer. The instrument has a big crack down one side, but luckily it still plays just fine.
# Posted on April 11th 2004 by Natasha_fawn
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Such terrible stories. I can relate to almost all of them - My Martin guitar also boasts fingernail dents from a clueless friend, my first and second fiddle bows snapped in two, I once forgot my harp at a bar in Toronto after a gig and didn't think of it for two days (it was, miraculously, still backstage). My fiddle has a long scratch on the front from the day I decided I should clean off some of that sticky resin without clipping my fingernails... My first mandolin was knocked off it's wall rack by a yet-to-be-forgiven ex-boyfriend... I got to watch baggage handlers toss my guitar onto a conveyor belt with such force they actually knocked off a few of the hundreds of FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE stickers. I've been lucky though. All my toys have lived to tell the tale and none of their battle scars affect the tone. My deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones.
# Posted on April 11th 2004 by Kerri Brown
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Last year at East Durham, Patrick Orceau's bow fell apart during a concert. The fluter (Mike McHale?) kept playing, Seamus Conneely appeared magically with another bow, and the tune was finished in style!
# Posted on April 11th 2004 by shaskeen
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Just the other night I was upstairs in my room practicing on my Casey Burns flute when there was a knock on the
bedroom door. My daughter needed some help fixing one of her toys, so downstairs I go with flute in hand.
Sat the flute on the chair and proceded to fix the offending part of the my little girls toy.
It was taking longer then I thought so I decided to sit down. Wish someone had taken a picture of my
face when I heard the crack that changed a two piece flute into three.
# Posted on April 11th 2004 by Ani Trec-Noc
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Shaskeen, similar thing happened to Méabh O'Hare at Frankie Kennedy this past winter, one of her strings broke during her concert in medias res, so she got up to leave the stage, but another fiddle player (maybe Ciaran Mooney?) loaned his & she polished off in fantastic style to thunderous applause!
This whole sitting on flutes is horrendous! I should know, my mom does flute repair, mostly for band instruments & this is the most common cause for her services. should see some of these mangled instruments.... *shudder*
# Posted on April 12th 2004 by emily_bmore
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
Some lessons to be learned from these accounts:
1 Don't leave your instrument on a chair or whatever, where members of the public can have access. Or where you yourself can inadvertently sit!
2 Don't let other people play or handle your instrument unless you know you can trust them.
3 All instrument cases should have locks that automatically engage when the case is closed. Even a couple of magnets are better than nothing. A strap round the case should also be considered.
4 Don't leave the instrument out in the hot sun (or in freezing cold temperatures, for that matter).
5 If you're performing on stage, make sure you have a spare bow and fiddle immediately available. True story: the leader of Bristol Chamber Orchestra broke his A-string two bars into the opening overture. He got up, went to the green room and returned about 20 seconds later with his spare violin which was already set up, tuned and ready against such an eventuality.
6 Stage personnel have an obligation to make sure cables etc aren't a hazard.
7 If you can possibly avoid it, don't let your instrument be subject to the tender mercies of airport baggage handlers.
8 Finally, let's be careful out there.
Trevor
# Posted on April 12th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
That is a great list Trevor. Igot another one don't play around *syblings* in the sybling (sp?) rivalry stage of your life.
# Posted on April 12th 2004 by Unseen122
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
LOL @ Hill Street Blues.....
# Posted on April 12th 2004 by emily_bmore
Re: Instrument Horror Stories
last summer I was playing at a renfaire and loaned my mandolin to a friend in another band who had broken a string a didn't have a spare, in one of their songs he jumps off the stage, I'm in the back of the crowd and I see him slip and hear a loud wooden crunch. he stands up and I see the mandolin perfectly intact, it turns out that the crunch was from landing butt first on a wooden mug he had tied to his belt.
a few weeks ago my new copleland low D whistle decided it would jump out of my bag onto the pavement, got a nasty dent in the windway, it plays ok but it definately sounds a lot more breathy and the fipple block had a bit of a leak.
# Posted on April 13th 2004 by Daffydd ap Llewellyn