An Unexpected Turn....

Sigh... one moment, you are playing an instrument... and the next, there is a creak and suddenly the whole thing has unraveled in your hands! Thankfully, it looks much worse than it actually is... the Viola (and Violin) is all held in place by the tension of the strings, going over the bridge (the little flat piece of wood lying next to the instrument on the right) and connecting to the tailpiece (the flat wooden piece attached to the strings). This tailpiece is then tied to the tailgut (the red broken string on the right) which is then held in place by friction knot at the peg at the bottom of the instrument.

Now, the problem is that the tailgut (the thick red string) is only made out of sheep/cow guts that have been twisted together in a sort of high twist of rope.... this means that it will eventually decay and fray... then snap! Which means that the whole thing will come apart as the entire string and top section was only held in place by this tension.

What makes it more likely that it will snap is the fact that it sits right up against the player's neck... which in warm weather can be a slightly humid place... and then the sweat and oil from the player's skin can be a little bit of an accelerate to this sort of decay.

So... I was playing happily along this morning in a group rehearsal... and then I heard this sharp creak from my instrument. Never a great sign as it means that something has suddenly shifted, hopefully not the wood... most likely a string is about to break in the next minute or two. However, other than the fact that my instrument was a bit out of tune, I didn't see anything wrong... so I tuned it up and started playing again... and then creak... snap... splat... Everyone stops playing... and as usual, this is the moment of shock where you say something really stupid... in my case, it as something like "Hmmmm... I guess I get to finish work early..."... at least it wasn't quite the massive understatement like "Houston, we have a problem...".

So, unfortunately, it isn't the sort of repair that a lowly user of an instrument can fix... we can do minor repairs and maintenance... but this is the sort of thing that you need a luthier for. Unfortunately, these tend to be in short supply... especially when you need an emergency repair! Eventually, a colleague was able to find one that was close-by... except he was away filling out Customs paperwork for a cello that he was importing!

I did make it to his place for the appointment... but in the end, the paperwork took much much much longer than he expected... and I was sitting on his workshop steps for nearly two hours!

Still, he did do a great job putting in a new tail-gut and the Baroque Viola is ready to make noise again! I had a quick play in his workshop to make sure that it was all ready to go.... and he was incredibly generous and accepted no charge for the emergency repair (It is a really easy repair for a luthier... impossible for a player!).

The new tail-gut is seated, and the length is a little shorter to allow the gut some space to stretch a bit. I had been meaning to take my Viola to my luthier in The Netherlands to check it over, and to fix some cosmetic damage... probably should do that sooner than later... they probably would have told me that it was long overdue to change the tail-gut! Maintenance is always not very glamorous... except when it comes and bites you in the arse!

Still, that last tail-gut lasted about 10 years... I probably have a bit of time before it gets urgent! I'll do it next week... or the week after... trouble is finding time when I'm not PLAYING the instrument! I really should have done it when the lock-downs were in effect and concerts were completely banned!

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