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This will come as quite a shock to all of you, (I can hear the gasping already, as I type).
I had been playing my German violin with Zyex strings and when Mr. Jim offered some strings he had tested for sale I casually looked over the list and spied some 'gut' strings. Well since my violin was actually made long before any steel or synthetic strings were ever made, I figured it might just sound the best with the type of string it was made to play with. So I bought them, They arrived and I eagerly and carefully changed them out one by one. As the tightened up over a couple of days tuning to proper pitch, I was playing on it from time to time and had several wonderful days of practice using it. About two days ago I went to tighten up the A string a touch and the entire peg and scroll just dropped into my hand!
Yes, without any massive explosion or anything out of the ordinary, just a slight wimper and poof, no A string tuner peg or way to tighten it up. Here's the pics. I will start repairs soon as I can hardly stand to think of it laying there in misery.
"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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Denny,
What a bummer makes my feel bad it happened but a couple of dowels in the right place and glue she will be stronger than new. Good luck on repairs.
Mark
Master the Frog and you have mastered the bow.
Albert Sammons
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Wow..
Talk about a shock to the system. Are you ok?
"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
Holy Cow, Dennis. That had to be overwhelming.
If they were real "gut" strings and not just, (gut core) I hope you bought several sets from, Mr. Jim, real gut strings and (gut core) strings have a shorter life span than do steel or synthetic core strings do, that is, if you want to continue using real gut strings.
Gut strings need to have the constant perfect temp and humidity for a longer life span.
Were those the gut strings in the photo's ?
Ken.
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Hey Denny ,
Old German Violin ? How old ? Pre WW 1 ? Looks like the pegs were changed and re tapered to 1: 30 ...used to be around 1:24 i'm guessing ...maybe had small cracks which have failed now ...i like to bush those puppys to avoid these things happening ...made weaker buy the peg job reaming ...
I'm sure you'll use the proper repair techniques to effect yer repairs ...
Here's an example of an old repair gone bad and a fake graft on my intact 1880-1890 Amati done to make it look older than it's years ...yep ...fake graft even back then to deceive ...
You'll find pics , articles and videos of this preffered repair method if yer interested ...use the glue ya like best but bear in mind that in addition to being reverseable , hide glue also has a less disscused quality of pulling parts in tighter together as it dries , making fer a better stronger repair when done ...use 400 strength or better for this type of repair if you go tradition hide glue is my unsolisited recomendation ...
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Yes, pre WW1, and yes, I changed the pegs to some more modern ones as the original ones were like carved with a pocket knife and none matched. Those were modern day gut strings on there I got from Mr. Jim, as he had only used them for some short-time testing on his violin. They're virtually brand new.
I'm fine, just another day in the neighborhood! It was a shock believe me! I'm still a little overwhelmed. You know, the feeling when you're a doctor and have to operate on one of your own...
That kind of feeling. I can make the repair, no big deal. It won't affect the sound any as the break was beyond the sound making portions of the violin. I could just super glue it back together (I won't, so calm down!) and as long as the peg held tension, it would be fine. That's the only good part about a break in that spot.
I was planning on exactly that kind of repair process Tucs...you read my mind! {all great minds think alike}
Anyway, just wanted to let the crew here see what kind of mental emotional catastrophe I'm dealing with when I play on SJ tomorrow! Ha, I'm using that as my excuse...
"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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Is that the fiddle you were planning on using Denny?
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Denny sorry to see your fiddle in such distress. From the pics it looks like it was going to happen. The discoloration of the top break makes it look like it been happening for awhile. Dont think that it had anything to do with the strings. I'm sure that you'll have it back up and playing in no time.
With violins there is no fretting over the music.
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Yes Pierre, I actually felt it is my best acoustic violin. I was planning on playing it on the StreetJelly thing on Saturday but obviously that didn't happen.
Repairs are in process as I type.
Thank you everyone for your words of comfort. 
"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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WOW Mate
Really sorry to see this. I hope it repairs well.
Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of 
..... What was I saying????
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Well, preliminary repairs are done. I'm going to wait and see if everything stays like I hope it does before finishing the cosmetic clean up on the slightly mis-matched edges. The crack or break was like a compound fracture, almost impossible to cleanly reassemble. 
So far the peg is holding without putting a wood plug in and redrilling and reaming and if it stays like it has so far for a day, I'll leave it alone. Since I had removed the strings, the sound post of course fell over while rolling it around with the clamp on it so I have to start over on that adjustment as well as the bridge location. I have it close but I think a day or two for the strings to re-settle and it should hold tune. 
I hate to mess with such an old fragile piece of wood any more than absolutely necessary. Thank goodness it wasn't in a sound producing area. Anyway, "Christmas" is back in operation on a limited playing schedule. LoL
"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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It looks a good repair Dennis. Doesn't look like it needs a lot of clean up.
I hope it all hangs in there. 
Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of ..... What was I saying????
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Thanks Ferret, I think it will, fingers crossed and all, and the damn crack actually fit best when both sides had a little mismatch! LoL, so I just let it settle into where it made the most contact and clamped it. When I released it a few hours later, that's what it looked like. I'll leave it for a few days, then perhaps de-string it and take out some OOOO steel wool and try to gently blend it a touch and then with a scraper try to level the edges, I think I can take some alcohol and 'pull' the varnish over the area and make it look pretty decent. At least it isn't in a spot you look at carefully! LoL 
"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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Glad to see that you got her back together. Though bushings would be great reinforcement, I understand your reluctance to mess with her too much unnecessarily. Chances are that she is already much stronger than she was before your repair.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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