Wandered off to get the old violin out (7)
I believe the answer is:
strayed
'wandered off' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'the old violin out' is the wordplay.
'the old' becomes 'ye' (resembles a historical spelling of 'the').
'violin' becomes 'strad' (Stradivari abbreviation).
'out' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ye' going into 'strad' is 'STRAYED'.
'to get' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for strayed that I've seen before include "Wandered away" , "Wandered; digressed" , "Went off the track" , "Wandered off course" , "Went off course" .)