Fiddlerman’s Violin Horror Stories

Fiddlerman’s Violin Horror Stories

Sure, it’s a delight to play the violin. But after 40 years of playing professionally and for fun, Pierre Holstein, aka Fiddlerman, has been through both sunshine and rain. We sat down with him to talk about those not-so-fun moments when things went wrong.

—I’ll never forget the time when my friend’s mom was picking us up from a rehearsal. We were around 12 years old and sat down in the back seat, not knowing that the mother had leaned the violin up against the car. As she was backing up, we heard a crunch.

—What was that? she wondered.

—Probably a beer can, my friend said.

—Even though the violin was in a case, it was totally destroyed. It was a horrible feeling and there were some tears shed that day, for sure.

Another story is about Fiddlerman’s rare Nurnberger violin bow. He had left it for a rehair at a well-known workshop in Copenhagen, Denmark. When he came to pick it up, the luthier told him that the tip had broken during the rehair.

—The bow had suddenly lost its value. Sure, I could still use it but the bow was now worth several thousand dollars less.

—The sad part was that the luthier refused to take responsibility, even though he admitted to breaking my bow.

Another time it was Fiddlerman himself that screwed up, while on tour in Sweden with famous pianist Robert Wells. It was early in the morning, the musicians were on the tour bus on their way to the next town, when Robert Wells suddenly received a phone call.

—Is Pierre Holstein on the bus? We found his violin in the hotel lobby!

—It was the hotel concierge that called, Fiddlerman remembers. My instrument was luckily put in a taxi, that met up with the bus at the next lunch stop!

Everyone who knows Fiddlerman is aware of his youthful spirit. Years ago, he used to have a habit of spinning his violin in the air. But once, during an orchestra rehearsal, the violin spun out of his hands by mistake.

—My violin ended up by the conductor's feet, after having bounced on the floor a few times. The whole orchestra was dead quiet in shock, and my face turned bright red from embarrassment. To everyone's surprise, the violin was intact.

—Needless to say, I haven’t thrown the violin up in the air since that time, Fiddlerman laughs.

One of Fiddlerman’s big interests is to renovate houses and woodworking. This has resulted in a few scars and minor accidents.

Once he got a deep cut on his thumb and the bleeding wouldn’t stop. The timing was poor since Fiddlerman was the section leader in a symphony orchestra and had a difficult solo.

He asked some colleagues if they could play the solo part. Since they didn’t have time to prepare, they said no.

—To prevent the thumb from bleeding through the bandaid, I put lots of bandage with several layers of thick silver tape on top. My left thumb had the size of a chicken drumstick and was sticking straight up in the air.

—Unfortunately, the silver tape didn’t do the trick. During the concert, blood started running down to my underarm, underneath my tux shirt. I tried to patch it up during the break, with no luck.

—At least my colleagues had something to talk about for the next week!

7 comments

Fiddlershop

Hi Gene!
Yes, you are right. It’s very hard to hear about a violin being destroyed in this manner. It actually hurts!
Thanks for shopping with us! The case would need to be very heavy to be able to endure a car driving over it though. I guess it’s easier to be more careful and not rest your instrument up against a car lol.

Hi Gene!
Yes, you are right. It’s very hard to hear about a violin being destroyed in this manner. It actually hurts!
Thanks for shopping with us! The case would need to be very heavy to be able to endure a car driving over it though. I guess it’s easier to be more careful and not rest your instrument up against a car lol.

Gene D

That a hard to hear story about a violin being driven over and ruined. This is the second time I’ve read a story like that in the past week (while case shopping, on a forum someone posted that they had driven over their violin with a Ford Explorer and the violin was OK because the (now discontinued) case was built like a tank.) The price of cases today is more than a beginner instrument – you’d like to hope that they could handle a lot (although maybe not quite driving over them – that’s extraordinary; we actually have the same case but it’s decades old and all the hardware is falling apart, but I could probably still stand on it and not have it break). BTW thank you for your prompt shipment of my new “upgraded” case. Let’s hope I never have to find out if it will hold up to that kind of trauma!

That a hard to hear story about a violin being driven over and ruined. This is the second time I’ve read a story like that in the past week (while case shopping, on a forum someone posted that they had driven over their violin with a Ford Explorer and the violin was OK because the (now discontinued) case was built like a tank.) The price of cases today is more than a beginner instrument – you’d like to hope that they could handle a lot (although maybe not quite driving over them – that’s extraordinary; we actually have the same case but it’s decades old and all the hardware is falling apart, but I could probably still stand on it and not have it break). BTW thank you for your prompt shipment of my new “upgraded” case. Let’s hope I never have to find out if it will hold up to that kind of trauma!

Asa Holstein

Hi Charles!
How fun! Fiddlerman started repairing instruments late in life too and he enjoys it very much. When he lived in Sweden he was a close friend of master violin maker Jan Larsson, who taught him a lot of things. Especially the importance of the placement of the sound post. Today there are a lot of useful Youtube videos online, which is invaluable. Thanks for sharing and have fun with your violin repairs!

Hi Charles!
How fun! Fiddlerman started repairing instruments late in life too and he enjoys it very much. When he lived in Sweden he was a close friend of master violin maker Jan Larsson, who taught him a lot of things. Especially the importance of the placement of the sound post. Today there are a lot of useful Youtube videos online, which is invaluable. Thanks for sharing and have fun with your violin repairs!

charles Mike Covington

enjoyed reading the mishaps. I have been planning to do violin repairs for 20 years, now that I am retired I have started learning and practicing on some old cheap broken violin tops and bottoms that I bought years ago and have had it storage. I need a few more tools and a lot of practice, but have managed to fix a few so far.

enjoyed reading the mishaps. I have been planning to do violin repairs for 20 years, now that I am retired I have started learning and practicing on some old cheap broken violin tops and bottoms that I bought years ago and have had it storage. I need a few more tools and a lot of practice, but have managed to fix a few so far.

Asa Holstein

Hi Gary!
We actually don’t sell the Mendini MV-400, we have chosen not to. Instead we are focusing on our Tower Strings instrument, that are set up at our workshop. We put a lot of emphasis on the setup and are also choosing the correct strings for each instrument, that is a part of our 10 point check list.
Thanks for writing!

Hi Gary!
We actually don’t sell the Mendini MV-400, we have chosen not to. Instead we are focusing on our Tower Strings instrument, that are set up at our workshop. We put a lot of emphasis on the setup and are also choosing the correct strings for each instrument, that is a part of our 10 point check list.
Thanks for writing!

gary L

on the mendini mv 400 its a good first time student fiddle I suggest you change strings right off the fiddle is almost impossible to keep in tune with those strings also the case where you see how the bows are locked in put something around the head of the bow before inserting it there is a rough area under the flap it goes in that breaks your bow strings, I would not suggest buying expensive strings for this violin its not going to flavor it at all as with everything you get what you pay for, like I said for a student its a good deal at least for their first year , I use the one I have for a beater even though the sound is generic I work out a lot of songs on it then i’ll put the flavor to it on my other fiddles

on the mendini mv 400 its a good first time student fiddle I suggest you change strings right off the fiddle is almost impossible to keep in tune with those strings also the case where you see how the bows are locked in put something around the head of the bow before inserting it there is a rough area under the flap it goes in that breaks your bow strings, I would not suggest buying expensive strings for this violin its not going to flavor it at all as with everything you get what you pay for, like I said for a student its a good deal at least for their first year , I use the one I have for a beater even though the sound is generic I work out a lot of songs on it then i’ll put the flavor to it on my other fiddles

mark s cobb

I feel better now knowing Pierre isn’t wearing a cape and tights under his fiddlerman hat. It’s always nice to know that your heroes are human too.

I feel better now knowing Pierre isn’t wearing a cape and tights under his fiddlerman hat. It’s always nice to know that your heroes are human too.

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