Picked up my fiddle and checked the tuning on it which was pretty good just needed the A and the E string tweaked, then I started to play.

After about 6 notes I started a down bow on the A string and heard a cracking sound and the A string went flat, I thought well now the peg has slipped so I tuned it up to pitch and then discovered the other 3 strings were flat? 

While tuning the pegs seemed tight so I retuned and as soon as I started playing I heard the crack again and all 4 strings went flat?

Though my bridge was failing but upon inspection I could see no issues, I then checked all over and could see nothing amiss, with it, so I took out my spare bridge and put it on the fiddle. as I was about to retune I found the sound post was not perfectly set in place, so I thought ok could it have slipped but why?

Readjusted the sound post and retuned but before I was done completely tuning I head a pop again and all the strings went flat.

Took a good look at the neck, neck joint and the tail piece since it was a common link to all 4 strings, still could see nothing.

Ok try this again, as I was tuning one of nuts on the tail string finished striping off the tail gut threads, ah ha I found the issue.

I had a spare Titanium tail string in my bag of goodies and was able to replace the broken one, had to open up the tail string holes in the tail piece to get the crimped ends to go through but all stayed stable after tuning twice.

The tail titanium string did seen to change the clarity and tone a little and it seems to respond ever so slightly quicker to the bow.

Guess time will tell, this was the first time I have had a tail string break, hopefully it will be the last one.

Mark