Accidents caused by instruments

John Watt

Member
Here are two photos that perfectly illustrate,
what happens when a left-handed guitar, and a right-handed guitar,
collide, as being owned by the same guitarist,
general rock or progressive, even jazz or classical,
it matters not.

And, as usual, the lefty lost, a lot.
Not just left, but bereft.


all right.jpgnot right.jpg
 

Noto Von Heft

Guest
It is always unfortunate when a friend sustains a music injury.
Having to carry a heavy instrument up stairs only gets more difficult,
as we all age. Sometimes, I suffer.
 

Florestan

New member
Has anyone been injured when a guitar string snapped? I am thinking of the metal strings in particular. Could take an eye out I suppose if one were picking strings with their teeth.
 

John Watt

Member
Florestan, this was a bad one for me.
If a Fender Stratocaster is set up properly, when you break a string,
the end with the ball pops out behind the guitar, hitting you and you know it,
and the string flies off the tuner like an arrow shot from a bow.

I was playing in The King Edward Hotel in Thunder Bay,
the last big city before you head out to the Canadian prairies.
Sylvia Tyson and her band were the last band before we got there.
Do you know "Four Strong Winds", a beautiful song her husband wrote?

The Toronto showband I was in was more about the show than any original music,
and it was a big stage in a big room, more than upscale downtown.
Thunder Bay had a big and wonderful symphony, and junior symphony orchestra.

I was jumping off the three foot high stage onto the dance floor,
playing a lead solo with my teeth, and when my feet touched down,
I popped a string and it went flying, cutting both sides of my lips, bleeding.
Every time I opened my mouth to sing, these cuts opened, looking bad,
everyone thinking I had some horrible sexual disease,
and it was the keyboard player who thought that was funny, joking onstage.
It took over a month, and a one-show week, before they healed.

Oh... string and spring players can have Fender benders. Ask bartenders.
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
There must be a few recorded instances of drummers accidentally throwing their drumsticks away - possibly hitting a fellow band member or someone in the audience.

I actually saw this happen - however it wasn't intentional. Apparently the drumstick broke during a riff - and the drummer quickly threw it over his head and grabbed a spare he had nearby and never lost a beat in the process. Talk about being prepared!
 

Eriks

New member
Has anyone been injured when a guitar string snapped? I am thinking of the metal strings in particular. Could take an eye out I suppose if one were picking strings with their teeth.

Hi Florestan, thank you for many interesting comments. I suppose a thick string on a large instruments such as a cello could be harmful if it snapped. Will look into it for sure.
 

John Watt

Member
Upright bass and cello strings just let loose, unwinding, not snapping at all.

The one big difference between electric bass strings and guitar strings,
is you can boil bass strings to bring them back to life, not guitar strings.
Depending on where you are and what you're doing while boiling,
that can be another injury right there.

In the rock world, slamming sticks on rims and hitting cymbal edges,
not only starts to shred them, you can see them starting to crack.
Breaking it and grabbing another is usually part of the act,
as is twirling them around when you're not hitting anything.
I know some drummers that get called twirly-birds,
doing that more than playing.
 
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John Watt

Member
There was this pianist, whose act got him down,
'cause after seeing Deep Purple, he felt like a stage clown.
Jon Lord took a knife, and stabbed at his Hammond,
when it was stuck in between keys, his playing grew more dramatic.
And just when you thought you really had seen it all,
suddenly, he stood back and threw it, just missing Ritchie Blackmore.
But then, a note you never heard before stuck up to say,
look, he's throwing it again and into the side deeply it will stay...
as Ritchie began to flamenco dance with his guitar like a sword,
and so hassles made of stands getting kicked over again,
are on another stage.
...Ian Paice drum solo, losing fourteen sticks into the audience,
until there are no more in his big stick gig bag...
as he leaves the stage, throwing his last stick into the crowd,
lights go out, and a small spot shines down...
as their lead singer Ian Gillan is standing in a white gown,
with a little golden harp at his shoulder,
singing the start to "Sweet Child in Time".
"sweet child of mine, can you do the time, oh, that's the sound of your mother crying...
can you see the blind man, with the smell of burning lead,
shooting at the moon... bullets flying... wait for the ricochet..."
Ritchie Blackmore is just leaning back against his Marshall stack,
eyes closed, not moving, not playing a note or making a sound,
his right leg sticking out, his heel resting on the top of the first cabinet,
and as the song builds to solo crescendo...
he suddenly pushes himself up and off the amplifier into the air,
starting to play the solo to the song...
and he never really came down, because everyone reached out to hold him up...
as he was waiting for the bass solo...
 
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tbpr

New member
During a ballet performance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, NY, a hornist was trying out a different mute. Some scores call for very quick mute in/out changes. For that reason, horn mutes have a string or cord attached to the outside to enable the hornist to keep the mute on the wrist to facilitate a quick change.

In this case, the mute the hornist was trying was an unusual, very heavy all-brass mute. At a certain point in the music, a quick mute out change was required. As he flung the mute out of the bell, the string broke and the heavy mute went flying. Fortunately, there was no one behind him at that moment, but the mute bounced off the floor and knocked down a snare drum and stand. It was a sudden huge noise in the middle of a very quiet passage. I thought the conductor was going to fall off the podium, however, he survived, as did the hornist.
 
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