second fiddle vs third string

second fiddle

noun
  • A fiddle part in harmony to the first fiddle. 

  • The person playing second fiddle. 

  • A sidekick or subordinate, or the role of such a person. 

third string

noun
  • A unit of players that plays behind the first and second strings; a junior varsity team. 

adj
  • Of a decidedly lower quality or condition. 

How often have the words second fiddle and third string occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )