......wasn't a Strad at all, it was a 1772 Guadagnini. Still very collectable however and still very valuable, but it is surprising how the media automatically think that if a violin is valuable it can only be a Strad.

He fell down the steps at the Barbican Hall in London. His explanation of events were:

"It had been raining that day and I still had my concert shoes on as I went down some stairs. My violin was on my back, and I just slipped and landed on it with my whole body weight. It was devastating".

He thinks he was very unlucky in that all the weight must have landed directly on the violin bridge.

Estimates for cost are £20,000 to £30,000 and the instrument is currently at J & A Beares New York branch.

The accident happened back in December, but was only reported in the papers on Feb 13th, the day befor Garrett was due to give a Valentines Day concert at the Barbican.

Perhaps from this come a few words of caution to those who carry their musical instruments on their back (using rucksack type straps), particularly if you have a lightweight styrofoam case. While this was something of a freak accident, always be mindful that falls on stairs are fairly common and therefore it might be prudent to remove your instrument case from your back before descending. Better safe than sorry?

I'd been questioning my decision to buy a heavy case a couple of years back - I went for the strongest one they had and was starting to regret it because of the weight of it, lugging it around all the time, but perhaps it was a good idea after all...

I can't imagine the devastation that poor man must have felt.

I keep my good guitars in these cases.

http://www.hiscoxcases.com/

Having had the odd bump and instrument flying across a train station incident (don't ask) I would fully recommend them.

I think I'll be adding a Violin case from them to my collection soonest.

I fully agree with AmandaL, better safe than sorry and Violinia, I also felt for the bloke. It must be mind numbing to have that happen.

Matt.

Devastating accident - that's for sure, but I think I'd rather a priceless fiddle got smashed than my spine...

quitte à choisir, as they say.

Ah man, I couldn't imagine how heartbroken he would have felt! I have a fibreglass Bam case, which is pretty damn strong

He was on tv this morning and said that it was a Strad =/
But no matter what it was, he must have been so devastated. I'd have been completely devastated if my £600 violin broke, let alone one worth like 20 times that amount

He did have use of a Strad some years ago, but that was only on loan to him and returned to its owner when he acquired the Guadagnini. After the accident he was loaned another Strad by J & A Beares in London, but they now want the instrument back, which leaves Garrett without any violin at all, unless someone else loans him one. .....I'd imagine they'll only do that on the grounds that he carrys it in an armour-plated case

Well, he'd probably have ended up with a few more physical bruises than he got, but I doubt he'd have 'smashed' his spine. The human body is tougher than you think.

A styrofoam case? now that WOULD be silly
How did he land on his back walking down the stairs? Did he fall backwards?

You'd be surprised how popular styrofoam cases are!

He slipped off a step while descending some stairs and fell onto his back.

Wearing my physics hat now: very possibly the reason the case split and the violin got so badly damaged, was because of the uneven bearing pressure the edges of the stairs gave. All the pressure focussed onto two or three places on the case lid, as opposed to an even distribution of impact across the entire lid.

Actually, in one of the interviews, he mentions that the fiddle case probably saved his back from permanent damage from the concrete steps. It's easy to be overly romantic about a fiddle because it's old, but at least a violin is replaceable.

Isn't the moral of the story wear sensible shoes?

quote name='AmandaL' date='Mar 24 2008, 04:08 PM' post='680547']
[quote name='Scurra' post='680520' date='Mar 24 2008, 03:17 PM']A styrofoam case? now that WOULD be silly How did he land on his back walking down the stairs? Did he fall backwards?[/quote]You'd be surprised how popular styrofoam cases are!
[/quote]


Sorry - I had a vision of a 100% styrofoam case...

Haha, no lie. I feel really bad for him though. I'd be devastated even if my cheap viola was smashed! I hope he finds a new instrument soon...

All I can say is that if I had a violin that godawful expensive and was lugging it around on tour, there is no way I would keep it in anything but a crush-proof case. I don't care how much it weighs. That's why they make heavy-duty cases--for the rigors of the road.

I read in the paper that was a strad? And that it was worth like 200k?

Or am i just compeltely mistaken?

For his concert he was loaned a £2 million strad though, apparently at least.

and on a side note, the boy he played with on Dueling Banjos, is a good friend of mine! amazing guitarist and pianist!

You read correctly, but the newspapers got it wrong. They probably think (like so many people) that if a violin is valuable, it just has to be a Strad. Wrong! Truth is, the media circus had probably never heard of Gaudagnini, or worse still thought Guadagnini was a 'type' of violin made by Stradivari . The result was that they simply printed the most well known name instead.

Oh dear. And that's a pretty big factor of the story to get wrong too :S
Didn't he have a Strad at some point though? I'm sure i saw him on tv with it, talking about it. Well it was in German but i heard the word 'Stradivari' come up several times as the presenter looked at his violin

Yes, he did have a Strad at one time, but, it wasn't his own, it was on loan to him. Maybe the press thought he'd still got the Strad on loan??

Who knows, but i didn't realise the press got things so wrong o_O I always thought they HAD to research all the exact details correctly before printing it. How naive !

It's also unlikely that 200K would buy you even a bit of a strad...