Hey, "Mighty Putty" can fix anything! I know, because Billy Mays says so!
;o)
Posted on 02/14/2008 4:30:36 PM PST by RDTF
LONDON (AP) -- Can his fractured fiddle - a million dollar Guadagnini - be fixed? It's too early to tell.
David Garrett, a former model who has been called the David Beckham of the classical scene, said he tripped while carrying his 18th century violin as he was leaving London's Barbican Hall after a performance, smashing it to bits.
"I had it over my shoulder in its case and I fell down a concrete flight of stairs backward," Garrett said Thursday. "When I opened the case, much of my G.B. Guadagnini had been crushed."
Garrett said he bought the 1772 violin for $1 million in 2003, and he is now hoping to get it repaired in New York, where he is based.
"I hope and pray that it can be fixed, but if it can't, I hope my insurance policy will let me buy another great violin," the 26-year-old musician said. He told The Associated Press that other published accounts saying the violin was a Stradivarius were incorrect. Guadagnini is believed by some to have been a student of Antonio Stradivari.
The accident occurred Dec. 27 but only came to light this week when he returned to London for another concert at the Barbican and told British reporters what had happened.
For his Valentine's Day concert there, he is playing a Stradivarius that's been loaned to him.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at dispatch.com ...
Quite a repair to be undertaken, it seems.
pingaling
Oh my. I bet he’s a good fiddle tickler.
A real Master will be able to do the job but it will never sound the same again.
The Barbican is a very easy place to fall. When wet (i.e. most of the time in the UK), the stairs pool water and are very slippery. But fortunately the walls of the outside stairwells are made of a very rough aggregate so that you can scrape significant parts of your skin from your body as you fall.
God I hate the Barbican.
jas3
*snicker*
...having perfected all details of the insurance scam & resolving to retire from active violin playing...
Sorry, wrong century for that stuff. I recently bought a lifetime supply (one pound) of genuine hide glue, made in New Jersey USA, to install a new neck on my banjo. That's what the old boys in the 1700s probably used to stick fiddles together.
yep!
Hey, "Mighty Putty" can fix anything! I know, because Billy Mays says so!
;o)
uh huh
My stringbass, not in the $1 million range, has had a few repairs and sounds better all the time. My set of 18” C-clamps is fairly substantial now.
Fiddler Off the Roof
He needs to get one of these cool blue violins. Just like the guy from E.L.O.
And quite gay from what I hear as well....
when was the last time you fell down a flight of stairs backward, with or without a $1m violin on your back?
now don’t go and start that rumor!
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