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Sitting watching TV, when there was an almighty CRACK and the sound of a bridge being hurtled around my wooden floor!
I have a violin on its stand ready to play, and 3 more on the dining table, lying flat, 2 with tuned strings and a very old piece which I am trying to recover to possible former glor that has no strings attached.
One of the tuned instruments broke the cable that holds the tailpiece to the button, without warning!
Is this a common experience?
Should strings be loosened? 
(all 3 violins get regular daily usage, so it hasn't been sitting around idly!)
I am amazed at how old people of my age are.....
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The endpin snapped on my old inherited fiddle in June or so. Kind of distracting, you might say. An edge of one of the toes of the bridge got chipped off and the fiddle picked up a kind of scratch on the belly during the mishap.
So I had to get a new endpin and fit it to the fiddle, and there was some downtime.
Now if you leave all those fiddles lying around out in the open, you risk a chain reaction! Maybe better put something like barricades between them, eh?
The question of loosening strings between playing came up in chat yesterday, and most agreed that it wasn't done much.
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the currently available strings are actually nylon loops with tiny threads on each end and usually a collet style brass sleeve that grips the nylong and a brass nut holds things in place. If it wasn't nylon (usually black) the chances are good it was gut. That in itself means it dried out sufficiently and failed. No big deal, get a nylon replacement and change it out.
Simple thing to do, there's another thread here that Daniel goes into great detail (like when does he NOT go into great detail on anything right?) about the length of the strings between the bridge and tailpiece.
The biggest thing is hopoing the soundpost didnt fall. If it's still standing up tight then you're home free, or almost free. Now you need to place the bridge where it goes, so loosen the strings, attach the tailpiece and start tuning up the tension. You will find that over the next few days that tailpiece nylon will settle and stretch and eventually stop and be tight.
NEVER LOOSEN YOUR STRINGS... the instrument needs to always be in tension to establish a final settle of the wood and all things flexible.
Good luck.
it's easy to put on and get back in the play of things.
"If you practice with your hands you must practice all day. Practice with your mind and you can accomplish the same amount in minutes." Nathan Milstein
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RosinedUp said
Now if you leave all those fiddles lying around out in the open, you risk a chain reaction! Maybe better put something like barricades between them, eh?
Hah! That thought fleetingly crossed my mind too while reading Terry's post... Just goes to show how much we humanise our instruments, huh? 
~ Once you've ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true. ~
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I should point out they are just lying on the dining table. They arent at a place setting banging knives and forks waiting for food to arrive!
Just saying!
I am amazed at how old people of my age are.....
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I don't know if the tailgut breaking is common, but I have noticed that one of the materials they are sometimes made of is kevlar. I am guessing that those are for folks that def don't want a repeat performance of the dang thing breaking?
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
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TerryT said
I should point out they are just lying on the dining table. They arent at a place setting banging knives and forks waiting for food to arrive!
Just saying!
~ Once you've ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true. ~
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The tail-piece adjusters are real simple to change and very inexpensive.
fiddlershop.com/Violin-Tailpiece-Adjuster
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Thanks FM . It appears on closer inspection in the daylight (ish!) that the threaded section that screws into the brass ferrule has come adrift from the plastic.
I also need a complete tailpiece for my restoration violin so I think a trip to Fiddlershop is in order.
I am amazed at how old people of my age are.....
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Thanks for the order Terry 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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speaking of violin fittings, this fittings looked awesome, it has the same design as the fittings of the messiah and the lady blunt Stradivarius:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Excell.....337d1b0168
this is the picture of the lady blunt:
i am totally gonna be saving some money for that fittings! and hope one day for my parents to allow me to buy online 
cheers! - ⁰ℨ
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