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Well have you ever dropped a violin? I can honestly say that I am so careful with my instruments they rarely ever have been in danger. The worst thing that could happen... so I thought was that the Dog will wap his tail when my violin is hanging.. and the bow hangs in front of my violin.... so I usually freak out when that happens. Also my house is carpets and rugs... so even so... I have never dropped or dinged.
One time while playing I misjudged the glass door and the scroll banged into the sliding patio door while letting the dog out.
So here is what happened Yesterday... (so you won't worry.. everything is FINE).. because I know I couldn't read this without panic if someone else were writing it.
I wanted to get a last minute submission for Talk Like a Pirate Day. I really had nothing to play unless I played a section from last years ...and I have no pirate clothes... but I got my knitted triangle and it worked well enough for a pirate head covering.
I got out the violin and I placed my phone on the shelf and hit record... it was just take one and I had not even practiced violin... so it was kind of a warm up.. I played for a minute or so... then I had to let the dog out...
Then I started messing with my appearance while holding the violin in position with my shoulder and chin.... I raised both arms to fix my head rag..... and the violin dropped.... FELL to the kitchen floor.... not the carpet...
I can't tell you exactly what happened... I was saying...."oh no... oh my god.. No no.. omg .. omg.. oh no... " I gathered up the violin all in one piece except the shoulder rest flew off... and sat on the sofa inspecting the violin for a ding or a scratch .. I shook it gently to see if I would hear the sound post rolling around.... it was then I noticed... all the strings went slack... But the bridge was intact...
So I sat and tuned the violin. The e String was not the same.. I had to take it off.. I am not sure about that string.. (Larsen E string and me are 2 for 2 right now.. grumble)....
So then I took the gold estring off my Soloist (because that was a larsen string that popped while I was at work so I had to replace it)... That was not the best because it is loop end and my MJZ is a ball end... or maybe its dual..?? Not sure about that... but I got it changed.. and then put a zyex E string on my Soloist.... however that is a ball in and the soloist is a loop end... so that was interesting.. I might have to get a pic.
I will be ordering some strings soon..
Anyway... NOTHING was going to stop me from playing for the Party thread... 30 minutes later .. I picked up the violin played for 30 seconds and that is what I posted on the FM site. I didn't even look at it.. I hit up load to youtube and shared on the site.
I swear I was still in shock from the whole event.
Well that was my Sunday and the story of the time I dropped my violin on the floor. I certainly hope that is the last time that ever happens... It was the first time anything remotely close to hurting my violin happened. I am so lucky... and to be quite honest.. I feel sick even writing about it...
But it gave me perspective... I was able to just play one more take and say.. Screw it.. here is what y'all get... I have no fear of playing or recording.... ha ha.. so now I know what it takes.
Cheers... whew.....
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
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I dropped a wooden student bow my first year playing, snapped the tip off..was able to repair it but of course it was never the same, glad it was a cheapy
There is no shame in playing twinkle, youre playing Mozart
My daughter swung her violin off of her shoulder when she first started to learn, the violin was intact but a peg broke. A child in her orchestra dropped his violin on the floor (concrete?) we heard everyone gasp and oh nos, but the violin was okay.
your pegs might have been knocked and loosen up when the violin hit the ground.
OMG...what a story @coolpinkone!!! Glad to hear that your Ming is fine. I haven't really had enough time with the violin to drop it. I picked my Ming up a week ago today. So far so good. 
I had my first experience with a loose peg, but that's it so far.
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When I was a kid I dropped my violin and the sound post came loose. I shook it around and it fell out but back then i didn't know how important it was. My music teacher was wondering why my violin sounded so tinny and flat until he noticed there was no sound post,
More recently, I was practicing and I was extremely tired so I was resting and dozed off and the violin slipped from my hands. Fortunately it fell onto my foot which cushioned the fall annd there was no damage. Sound post was intact and all okay.
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Glad your violin is ok. I've bonked mine against stuff, but nothing major.
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I've only dropped one... Then again I only started playing the first of March.
My Fiddlerman Concert has never been dropped, neither has my cheapo Cecilio Electric... But not long after I started playing, my parents said they had something for me.
Turned out to be a violin made in the late 1800's to early 1900 vintage. Been in a box, in a crate in a closet for over fifty years... After looking at it, and determining that it needed a ton of work and had several really bad depression era repairs on it, I put it back into it's unlined wooden box that it was in. As I'm opening the back door to my vehicle... the bottom fell out of the box, along with the violin. The fingerboard separated from the violin.
The fingerboard had previously been shimmed up, as the neck was being held on by a screw and a little wood wedge. The top was showing gaps in several places as well...
I'm almost ready to glue it back together after several months. Top had a crack in it, so took some time to research violin repairs, and it is now cleated back together, and the top, back and sides have had a little cleaner and a lot of elbow grease applied. Took forever to clean up the neck block fitting, but I think I can reglue it now so that the fingerboard will be at the right angle.
So in my case dropping it might have been a good thing. As there was no way to really make it playable without spending tons of money... yet once I saw it almost apart (it only took running a thin metal shim around the glue line for the top to finish removing it) I have been slowly attempting to restore it. So now I know what every part on a violin is, from the sound bar to the sound post, the scroll to the button or the end pin. Might still be learning to play... but it's interesting to have dissected a violin.
Hoping to find time to put it back together in October.
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Taper123 said
I've only dropped one... Then again I only started playing the first of March.My Fiddlerman Concert has never been dropped, neither has my cheapo Cecilio Electric... But not long after I started playing, my parents said they had something for me.
Turned out to be a violin made in the late 1800's to early 1900 vintage. Been in a box, in a crate in a closet for over fifty years... After looking at it, and determining that it needed a ton of work and had several really bad depression era repairs on it, I put it back into it's unlined wooden box that it was in. As I'm opening the back door to my vehicle... the bottom fell out of the box, along with the violin. The fingerboard separated from the violin.
The fingerboard had previously been shimmed up, as the neck was being held on by a screw and a little wood wedge. The top was showing gaps in several places as well...
I'm almost ready to glue it back together after several months. Top had a crack in it, so took some time to research violin repairs, and it is now cleated back together, and the top, back and sides have had a little cleaner and a lot of elbow grease applied. Took forever to clean up the neck block fitting, but I think I can reglue it now so that the fingerboard will be at the right angle.
So in my case dropping it might have been a good thing. As there was no way to really make it playable without spending tons of money... yet once I saw it almost apart (it only took running a thin metal shim around the glue line for the top to finish removing it) I have been slowly attempting to restore it. So now I know what every part on a violin is, from the sound bar to the sound post, the scroll to the button or the end pin. Might still be learning to play... but it's interesting to have dissected a violin.
Hoping to find time to put it back together in October.
I reattached a fingerboard on my childhood violin. Be sure to use "violin glue" (i.e. hide glue) and know how to prepare it properly.
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My electric has taken a few tumbles off the kitchen table, where it usually resides when not in use. I haven't kept count, but "several" will do for number of times. No harm done. It also has gotten tipped over a few times when it was leaning up against the speaker cab, but that isn't much of a "fall", no altitude involved.
My acoustic violin.. "Not yet" is how I will put it. I know it will happen sooner or later, and I'm not going to jinx it by talking about how careful I have been to keep it pretty so far. Because sooner or later.. It WILL happen. I know me.
"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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I think I've told the story before, but here goes again.
I used to spin my violin in my hands, (still do), and make a challenge out of it. I would spin it one time, then two spins and catch it while always holding the neck of course, and so on......
My stand partner asked me if I could spin it in the other direction, all this during a rehearsal by the way. Without a thought I gave it a quick twist in the other direction and it flew out of my fingers and went flying in the air in front of my stand partner. I could literally see it flying in slow motion. I couldn't reach it to catch it because he was in my way. The violin hit the stage floor and was bouncing for a few seconds before it laid still and I could reach down to pick it up. The whole orchestra (at least 90 people) was quiet and focused on what had just happened. Our chief conductor, Vassily Sinaisky, looked at me and said, "Oiiii!!!"
Unfortunately, I couldn't hide, I was sitting in the first row. I put the violin under my chin and proceeded to tune it while the whole orchestra waited. Then I looked up at the maestro and said, "OK".
Needless to say, my face was probably pure red. My heart was racing for many reasons — embarrassment and that I had not taken time to evaluate the damage to the instrument.
Later, the only damage I could find was that one pegs ornament had broken, the E string fine tuner screw broke and quite possibly there were some dents. But I can't see them now lol.
It's actually a miracle that the instrument made it through that crash. It was SOOOO loud. I guess the spinning motion gave it a soft landing.
Funny enough, I haven't heard anyone talking about that incident. My guess is that they tell the story but never so that I can hear it. LOL
Wonder if Sinaisky remembers.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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LOL @Fiddlerman see..showing off 
There is no shame in playing twinkle, youre playing Mozart
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lol, sounds like something my brother would do... and why he isn't allowed near my violin
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As fragile as the violin feels, I'm really surprised that the damage was that minimal!
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Last night during rehearsal while we were going on midway break I accidentally bumped the scroll of my violin against the violinists music stand to my right. Luckily no damage, not even a dent. But it did knock my A string out of tune and I just had to retune quickly before the second half of rehearsal began.
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I've never dropped mine. I'm sure once I upgrade to a more expensive one that'll be the first thing I do with it though. 
Last April, I dropped mine, and I was shocked.
Not only I had never dropped a violin for the last nineteen years, but also the damage was unbelievable.
And it was at the same time weird, funny and absurd. Just doing the same motion, holding the violin with the left hand, lowering it down and preparing to rest it in the case for a moment. The case was sitting in the bed (as usual). A really soft carpet lying on the floor....
I did not realise how the violin ended up in the floor in the small gap between me and the bed. All I heard was a mighty squanky sound, even more horrible than what you hear when an animated cartoon character smashes a guitar or something.
The violin landed in the carpet, its top facing down. Just from the height of my bed to the floor.
It appears that the chinrest and the bridge touched the floor first, and caused a mighty crack, begining somewhere near the neck joint, crossing the whole top just outside the bass bar, to end in a fractured lower rib.
Couldn't be worse I guess.
But I don't consider it being bad luck or so. It was of course repairable but I decided towards an upgrade
There's always the bright side
@coolpinkone glad everything is alright
@Fiddlerman Wow, Pierre! That sounded like a miracle. For the record, do you recall how it landed?
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When I was in high school I was walking from the bus stop with my bags and my violin case; the case sprang open, violin flew out and bounced along the concrete pavement and into the road. It's a miracle it wasn't hit by a car. As far as I rememebr it was completely fine, probably out of tune and a bit scratched but hey it was already scratched.
Glad your Ming is okay @coolpinkone.
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I remember the old cheap violin cases we used when I was a kid. They were hard cases made of a thin plywood covered with a thin skin of leatherette on the outside and a thin layer of a "velvet-like" substance on the inside. There were no velcro straps to hold the violin in place inside the case nor any extra padding or shock adsorbing material or violin blanket. The violin would just rattle along inside the case as you carried it and the case afforded almost no protection to the violin if it were dropped of struck. To make matters words top of the case was only secured by a couple of latches that could easily come open allowing the violin to fall free from the case. I remember several kids who ended up with broken violins because the case fell or was dropped or came open accidentally.
These days it seems like even the cheapest violin cases are like 1000 times better than the cases of old. Extra padding inside to cushion the instrument and reduce the impact of sudden shocks, extra straps to secure the violin within the case, more room inside the case, sturdier and stronger construction in general, better materials, and far better latches, locks, and zippers to keep the case lid secured and prevent accidents. If you travel often with your violin (i.e. to concerts, rehearsals, jam sessions, vacations, etc...) I recommend getting the best violin case you can afford. Yeah, they can be pricey but the added protection is well worth it and can save the cost of expensive repairs or possibly even having to replace an expensive instrument.
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Crazymotive said
I remember the old cheap violin cases we used when I was a kid. They were hard cases made of a thin plywood covered with a thin skin of leatherette on the outside and a thin layer of a "velvet-like" substance on the inside. There were no velcro straps to hold the violin in place inside the case nor any extra padding or shock adsorbing material or violin blanket. The violin would just rattle along inside the case as you carried it and the case afforded almost no protection to the violin if it were dropped of struck. To make matters words top of the case was only secured by a couple of latches that could easily come open allowing the violin to fall free from the case. I remember several kids who ended up with broken violins because the case fell or was dropped or came open accidentally.
These days it seems like even the cheapest violin cases are like 1000 times better than the cases of old. Extra padding inside to cushion the instrument and reduce the impact of sudden shocks, extra straps to secure the violin within the case, more room inside the case, sturdier and stronger construction in general, better materials, and far better latches, locks, and zippers to keep the case lid secured and prevent accidents. If you travel often with your violin (i.e. to concerts, rehearsals, jam sessions, vacations, etc...) I recommend getting the best violin case you can afford. Yeah, they can be pricey but the added protection is well worth it and can save the cost of expensive repairs or possibly even having to replace an expensive instrument.
Mine was in a case like you describe and yes, that's why it took a trip along the pavement and into the street, the latches were terrible.
Wasn't it David Garrett who fell down the stairs with his violin case on his back and the case was flimsy and the really expensive violin was destroyed?
Coolpinkone,
When you worried (I would too), you may think your violin sound different because you value it. If after close examination and you didn't find major flaws (e.g., loose pegs, open seams, cracks, broken neck, sound post fell over) then you don't have to worry about it. The strings came loose because the pegs got knock loose, which is a good thing since the pressure on the violin is released then it is less likely to crack the violin (it's just like when you fall and if you rolled or slapped the ground with your palms, it took away the impact away from your body). If you still think it sounds different, take a closer look at the sound post, a tiny shift could make a big difference in sound.
Talking about dropping a violin, this is the first time ever for me. Yesterday morning I put my violin (in its case) on piano bench and turned around to turn on the light; I accidentally pulled the loose strap that were dangling (they ripped off from the case after many uses) and the whole case fell off. I thought the violin should be fine in its case and it didn't fall too far from the bench because I didn't have time to check until just now. The violin seems to be okay. That is why it is advice to keep your violin in its case and get a good case with suspension.
http://www.independent.co.uk/a.....81531.html
http://www.theguardian.com/lif.....in-garrett
http://www.allthingsstrings.co.....iola-Cases
http://www.allthingsstrings.co.....iolin-Case
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