I'd love to know the impressions of fiddlers here regarding carbon fiber, composite, and wood bows. I recently decided that even though I like my wood bow, I need something that can take the rougher treatment bows can get in a pub, so I've been looking at carbon fiber bows (tried a few dozen of them since last week). I've read here (among other places) that carbon fiber bows are better value for the money than wood bows, but I haven't found this to be true at all---in fact, the only carbon fiber bows that I've found that play nearly as well as my wood bow all cost a few hundred dollars more!
My other impression is that there are a lot of mediocre carbon fiber bows out there. I don't know, maybe that's just true of all bows in general, but I didn't try this many duds when I was shopping for my wood bow.
Has anyone done this kind of comparison shopping lately? All thoughts are more than welcome!
Yes, there are a few threads that have come up in the last year on the subject, and three makes that always enter the discussions, including the Incredibow. There have also been some recent advancements, in the last year or two. You're going to hate me, but here's a start with some of the threads, starting with the most recent, and It isn't everything, just a sampling...
I've never used an 'Incredibow' but have run into several folks with them who are quite happy with them. The same is true of Coda bows, and the feeling in general that they are better than wood bows considerably more expensive than they are... But, I wouldn't call the Codas or comparable carbon fibre bows inexpensive, while I would put the "Incredibow" in that category, and as what seems on all accounts to be a good purchase. Some fiddlers carry them as a session backup, along with their 'other' fiddle...
The only times I've tried Incredibows, I absolutely hated the nasty, ugly, horrible things. Trevor will have a thought or two on carbon fibre bows. He has one (can't remember the make) that I tried once, for about 5 minutes, but I have to say, whatever that one was, it was all right actually. It looked like a proper bow, felt, if anything, a bit lighter, but played perfectly fine.
The one I'm trying now is a composite bow, carbon fiber laminated with pernambuco, which supposedly helps bring out a better sound, more overtones or something. I think I like it. It does seem to work better than the ones that were just synthetic, but then I haven't tried the pure carbon fiber ones that are > four figures.
I'm just surprised that all the cheaper ones I tried sounded so bad. They all had really weak sound, and sometimes mushy/fuzzy sound, and surface noise. Even the ones that were several hundred dollars. I haven't tried an Incredibow, but don't think I want to---just the idea that I can't adjust the hair tension is a turnoff.
My incredibow is a fraction of the value of my wooden bow and doesn't sound as good, but then I wouldn't expect it to. I have however found it to be perfectly good enough for the sessions I go to. I also don't have to worry about it being dropped or sat on which is a bonus.
At the endo of the day it's down to personal taste and preference.
Rather reminds me of similar arguments about the respective merits of split-cane (composite) and fibreglass fishing rods back in the Sixties, time of my mis-spent boyhood. The consensus was that good split-cane was the best thing to use, though expensive: poor split-cane was the worst option: fibreglass was weak in some respects, but at least standardised and averagely serviceable. On pocket money, I made do with fibreglass. Carbon rods then came in and were reckoned to be a lot better than fibreglass, but I never used one - or a split-cane, come to that.
"I'm just surprised that all the cheaper ones I tried sounded so bad."
I think this is quite telling, but it could depend on the instrument.
I have a codabow diamond SX which plays nicely and on my medium-cheap Chinese fiddle it draws a better tone than my inexpensive (£200) wooden stick. However, partnered with my other recent acquisition, an old German fiddle, I would say that the wooden bow actually draws a noticeably nicer sound. despite being 2/3 the cost of the coda.
Perhaps a solution if you just want a "second" bow for sessions is simply to go for whichever one you like most, regardless of materials, at price that won't leave you sobbing if it gets damaged? I guess it depends on how much you have to spend.
Pernambuco, the specific species that was used in the old bows people rave about, doesn't exist anymore. The wood now used is acceptable, but it isn't the same, isn't of the same strength and tension. That doesn't mean that there aren't good new bows out there, but it does in part explain the search for alternate materials. My bow experience is what I suspect is limited compared to others, but I have both and I have a Coda I really like. The composite bows have lit interest in my head and heart, the idea that the two together might combine to make a better whole, and the addition of graphite might give the versions of pernambuco no being used for bows something closer to the tensile strength and spring of the old species. I'd love to have the opportunity to try them, but it helps to have a lot of past experience with many bows to make a judgement from. However, I've tried a few graphite bows that just felt right. That's coming from someone who easily qualifies as a wood freak. I love it, from the seed to the sapling to a final product...
I'd suspect you have it in you kennedy to make a fair judgement, but don't let the past colour your ability to judge something new. I've never heard or tried a cheap synthetic bow that I liked either, but I love my Coda...
I used a Coda Classic carbon bow for several years. It was an excellent bow, and it's super-hero invincibility was nice for pub brawls...er, sessions.
But when I found my Cirillo (Water Violet) pernambuco bow for under $300, I sold the Coda.
The Coda was responsive and very stable--a nice balance of those qualities. But my wood bows seem to conduct more of the feel of the string that the carbon ever did. That's just my highly subjective sense of it, but feeling the vibrations in the stick is one of the more important features of a good bow, so I'm prone to follow my own gut on this.
The cheaper carbon bows I've played were all adequate but not joyful to play.
"Pernambuco, the specific species that was used in the old bows people rave about, doesn't exist anymore."
...What? I know it's endangered, but legit Brazilwood is certainly not extinct, and so far as I know, there has yet to even be a preservation effort halting the use of pernambuco for commercial uses, like bows. Where did you hear old rosewood was already done for?
Some years ago, Smithsonian magazine carried a story about bow makers in Europe and the US forming a coalition to create pernamubco preserves in Brazil. They also helped local people to become excellent bow makers, giving them both a livelihood and a reason to protect the trees. I own two pernaumbuco bows made in Brazil--both are very high quality, livley, lovely bows to play.
As I understood it from the Smithsonian article, the pernambuco being protected is the same species as has been sought after by bowmakers for generations.
Woodwind makers have undertaken a similar preservation effort in Africa for grenadilla (blackwood).
The original species, the one used in the old bows, and also popularly over cut to make palets for shipping things from South America to the rest of the world ~ is ~ as best I know ~ now extinct... We do tend to have that affect on things...sadly...
There is and was more than one species of pernambuco...
Damn Will, you mean I'll have to sell my lovely Coda and chase up a Cirillo?
Yes to the moves to protect hardwoods everywhere. In Brazil, however, they still find it easier, when clearing jungle for ranchland, to throw much of it on piles and burn it...
That information was courtesy of a bow making friend I apprenticed with for a spell, and an article, which I think was in the BVMA (British Violin Making Association) Journal...
I'm not saying that what I've read and been told isn't potentially mythical, and easy to take in if you take in mind a love of trees and an awareness of what we have done to a number of species, animal and plant, over time...
I also have one pernambuco bow, of some version...
Thanks for the info and links, c. I'm in Butte USA enjoying a festival with Beoga headlining--no time to surf for all that stuff. Good on you my friend.
As I understand it from my repairer friends, it is still possible to get pernambuco, only one species is and was used as pernambuco, and, like everything else, there is good pernambuco, better pernambuco and worse pernambuco. It may be the case that the best pernambuco is no longer available.
We got in orders of pernambuco, and the man guiding my clumsy hands had some simple methods, ones known in the trade, for measuring the spring in wood. None of the purchased pernambuco, all supposedly best quality, had the same tensil strength of the older wood... This though may be just down to habitat, growing conditions and the age of the wood, as it is the heartwood that is the prized red wood. So you may be right, it might not be down to a subspecies but other influences...
However, back on topic, this may be reason enough for considering other options, like synthetics, carbon fibre, and composites. One other bow wood I quite like is snakewood, but it is so toxic and potential to raising allergic reactions, that it has been known to kill the people milling it. That hasn't stopped others from turning it into bows and woodwinds, and using it for decorating guitars and related instruments.
But is the incredibow the one that you cant tighten or loosen - its set quiet tight isnt it?? They would feel weird to be, I'm interested in a carbon fibre as well -but not if you cant loosen and tighen the bow.
Don't worry about Incredibows, bb. Believe me, you wouldn't like them. The look, the feel, the fixed, wrong, hair tension ... And the hair itself is plastic. It's made of one of those 'indestructible' materials that you just wish wasn't ...
CF bows are just like regular bows - at least on the surface
- they're just made of cf instead of wood. I noticed once there
were 3 us at O'Malleys using the type of same el cheapo cf bow. Mine
was $125 but it needs a hair transplant now. It is hugely better than
the brazil wood bow that came with my Paesold fiddle
The dllemma is a rehair costs $80 and luthiers don't like to waste their
time on these bows; two told me to ditch it and just buy a new one with
more hair on it
i wonder why people think that they need a carbon fiber because your bow might get "rough treatment" (as long as you're not a classic violinist owning somethin like a Stradivarius). Or what do you DO at sessions ? I think my wood bows were through all sorts of situations and not taking any damage as long as you don't drop them straight onto the pointy end - and you wouldn't do that to a carbon fiber, would you?
I use at the moment a 3/4, very heavy fiddle bow on the 5-string viola which I inherited from my GREAT-grandfather, so its about 100 years old (and from what i am told, even he used to play under quite session-like conditions), and it has been through the hands of countless children learning violin (at the "3/4-violin-stage") and it' s still just fine?
Hmm, my friend recenlty suffered the loss of a lovely bow at a session. It was an accindent but lets just say that the few thousand pound bow is no more.
I had a bow for 30 years, loved it. Had it on my lap during a string class I was teaching. It fell off, onto the floor and broke. I had to swallow my vomit in front of 10 year olds, and stifle a few "choice" words. I replaced it with another wood bow, but could not really afford a really nice one. Was not very happy with it. I also do some outdoor gigs, like on a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail, and just don't want to take any more chances, so I have a carbon fiber. Probably just mental...
I use one of Glasser's braided carbon fibre bows. It's a big step up from my old (very cheap) wooden bow, and certainly seems good enough for sessions. It cost around $300.
I've tried friends' $1000 and $5000 bows, and while it's true you can really feel the difference, I don't know if I could bring myself to take one to a session.
Fiddles themselves seem to survive more knocks than bows. And these days, with some airlines forbidding full-size violin cases in the cabin (step forward, Singapore Airlines), it's nice to know I could put the fiddle in a small case and check the (carbon fibre) bow without worrying about it too much.
carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
I'd love to know the impressions of fiddlers here regarding carbon fiber, composite, and wood bows. I recently decided that even though I like my wood bow, I need something that can take the rougher treatment bows can get in a pub, so I've been looking at carbon fiber bows (tried a few dozen of them since last week). I've read here (among other places) that carbon fiber bows are better value for the money than wood bows, but I haven't found this to be true at all---in fact, the only carbon fiber bows that I've found that play nearly as well as my wood bow all cost a few hundred dollars more!
My other impression is that there are a lot of mediocre carbon fiber bows out there. I don't know, maybe that's just true of all bows in general, but I didn't try this many duds when I was shopping for my wood bow.
Has anyone done this kind of comparison shopping lately? All thoughts are more than welcome!
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by kennedy
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Yes, there are a few threads that have come up in the last year on the subject, and three makes that always enter the discussions, including the Incredibow. There have also been some recent advancements, in the last year or two. You're going to hate me, but here's a start with some of the threads, starting with the most recent, and It isn't everything, just a sampling...
Discussion: Expensive or cheap bow?
# Posted on June 23rd 2008 by fabphil39
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/18198
Discussion: Bow advice..
# Posted on May 19th 2008 by premierview
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/17821
Discussion: Bow recommendations
# Posted on February 23rd 2008 by tricia
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/16819
Discussion: incredibow
# Posted on December 6th 2007 by jig
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/16029
Discussion: New bow...
# Posted on January 8th 2007 by chef4life
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/12255
Discussion: Bow advice....
# Posted on December 15th 2006 by chef4life
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/12043
Discussion: How much to spend on the bow?
# Posted on September 13th 2006 by pajic
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/11191
Discussion: Fiberglass Coda bow: what and where to buy
# Posted on September 29th 2005 by nutsmuggler
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/7891
Discussion: Erich Steiner Carbon Fiber Bows
# Posted on February 14th 2005 by grymater
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/5823
Discussion: The "Incredibow"
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by donnchad
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/3958
Discussion: Carbon Fibre Bows
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by mandofab
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/1874
Discussion: Carbon Fiber again
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by adam b
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/1580
Discussion: Bow Question
# Posted on September 30th 2002 by KP
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/942
Forgive me kennedy, but it is a start at least...
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
I've never used an 'Incredibow' but have run into several folks with them who are quite happy with them. The same is true of Coda bows, and the feeling in general that they are better than wood bows considerably more expensive than they are... But, I wouldn't call the Codas or comparable carbon fibre bows inexpensive, while I would put the "Incredibow" in that category, and as what seems on all accounts to be a good purchase. Some fiddlers carry them as a session backup, along with their 'other' fiddle...
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
The only times I've tried Incredibows, I absolutely hated the nasty, ugly, horrible things. Trevor will have a thought or two on carbon fibre bows. He has one (can't remember the make) that I tried once, for about 5 minutes, but I have to say, whatever that one was, it was all right actually. It looked like a proper bow, felt, if anything, a bit lighter, but played perfectly fine.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
The one I'm trying now is a composite bow, carbon fiber laminated with pernambuco, which supposedly helps bring out a better sound, more overtones or something. I think I like it. It does seem to work better than the ones that were just synthetic, but then I haven't tried the pure carbon fiber ones that are > four figures.
I'm just surprised that all the cheaper ones I tried sounded so bad. They all had really weak sound, and sometimes mushy/fuzzy sound, and surface noise. Even the ones that were several hundred dollars. I haven't tried an Incredibow, but don't think I want to---just the idea that I can't adjust the hair tension is a turnoff.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by kennedy
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
My incredibow is a fraction of the value of my wooden bow and doesn't sound as good, but then I wouldn't expect it to. I have however found it to be perfectly good enough for the sessions I go to. I also don't have to worry about it being dropped or sat on which is a bonus.
At the endo of the day it's down to personal taste and preference.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by bowburner
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Rather reminds me of similar arguments about the respective merits of split-cane (composite) and fibreglass fishing rods back in the Sixties, time of my mis-spent boyhood. The consensus was that good split-cane was the best thing to use, though expensive: poor split-cane was the worst option: fibreglass was weak in some respects, but at least standardised and averagely serviceable. On pocket money, I made do with fibreglass. Carbon rods then came in and were reckoned to be a lot better than fibreglass, but I never used one - or a split-cane, come to that.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by nicholas
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
"I'm just surprised that all the cheaper ones I tried sounded so bad."
I think this is quite telling, but it could depend on the instrument.
I have a codabow diamond SX which plays nicely and on my medium-cheap Chinese fiddle it draws a better tone than my inexpensive (£200) wooden stick. However, partnered with my other recent acquisition, an old German fiddle, I would say that the wooden bow actually draws a noticeably nicer sound. despite being 2/3 the cost of the coda.
Perhaps a solution if you just want a "second" bow for sessions is simply to go for whichever one you like most, regardless of materials, at price that won't leave you sobbing if it gets damaged? I guess it depends on how much you have to spend.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by Mercurius
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Pernambuco, the specific species that was used in the old bows people rave about, doesn't exist anymore. The wood now used is acceptable, but it isn't the same, isn't of the same strength and tension. That doesn't mean that there aren't good new bows out there, but it does in part explain the search for alternate materials. My bow experience is what I suspect is limited compared to others, but I have both and I have a Coda I really like. The composite bows have lit interest in my head and heart, the idea that the two together might combine to make a better whole, and the addition of graphite might give the versions of pernambuco no being used for bows something closer to the tensile strength and spring of the old species. I'd love to have the opportunity to try them, but it helps to have a lot of past experience with many bows to make a judgement from. However, I've tried a few graphite bows that just felt right. That's coming from someone who easily qualifies as a wood freak. I love it, from the seed to the sapling to a final product...
I'd suspect you have it in you kennedy to make a fair judgement, but don't let the past colour your ability to judge something new. I've never heard or tried a cheap synthetic bow that I liked either, but I love my Coda...
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
I used a Coda Classic carbon bow for several years. It was an excellent bow, and it's super-hero invincibility was nice for pub brawls...er, sessions.
But when I found my Cirillo (Water Violet) pernambuco bow for under $300, I sold the Coda.
The Coda was responsive and very stable--a nice balance of those qualities. But my wood bows seem to conduct more of the feel of the string that the carbon ever did. That's just my highly subjective sense of it, but feeling the vibrations in the stick is one of the more important features of a good bow, so I'm prone to follow my own gut on this.
The cheaper carbon bows I've played were all adequate but not joyful to play.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
"Pernambuco, the specific species that was used in the old bows people rave about, doesn't exist anymore."
...What? I know it's endangered, but legit Brazilwood is certainly not extinct, and so far as I know, there has yet to even be a preservation effort halting the use of pernambuco for commercial uses, like bows. Where did you hear old rosewood was already done for?
--DtM
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by Dan the Man
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Some years ago, Smithsonian magazine carried a story about bow makers in Europe and the US forming a coalition to create pernamubco preserves in Brazil. They also helped local people to become excellent bow makers, giving them both a livelihood and a reason to protect the trees. I own two pernaumbuco bows made in Brazil--both are very high quality, livley, lovely bows to play.
As I understood it from the Smithsonian article, the pernambuco being protected is the same species as has been sought after by bowmakers for generations.
Woodwind makers have undertaken a similar preservation effort in Africa for grenadilla (blackwood).
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
The original species, the one used in the old bows, and also popularly over cut to make palets for shipping things from South America to the rest of the world ~ is ~ as best I know ~ now extinct... We do tend to have that affect on things...sadly...
There is and was more than one species of pernambuco...
Damn Will, you mean I'll have to sell my lovely Coda and chase up a Cirillo?
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Yes to the moves to protect hardwoods everywhere. In Brazil, however, they still find it easier, when clearing jungle for ranchland, to throw much of it on piles and burn it...
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
That information was courtesy of a bow making friend I apprenticed with for a spell, and an article, which I think was in the BVMA (British Violin Making Association) Journal...
http://www.bvma.org.uk/
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Maybe that should have read sub-species...
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Like the most of the rosewoods, it is another member of the pea family, or Leguminosae.... The 'common' Brazilwood being Caesalpinia echinata
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
International PErnambuco Conservation Initiative
http://www.ipci-usa.org/
& you'll find some lovely pictures there.
I'm not saying that what I've read and been told isn't potentially mythical, and easy to take in if you take in mind a love of trees and an awareness of what we have done to a number of species, animal and plant, over time...
I also have one pernambuco bow, of some version...
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Almost forgot, it was also popularly pulverised to a powder to make a red dye...
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilwood
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Pernambuco Wood
http://www.arcosbrasil.com/PernambuccoWood/pernambuccowood.html
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Thanks for the info and links, c. I'm in Butte USA enjoying a festival with Beoga headlining--no time to surf for all that stuff. Good on you my friend.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Well, I know that pernambuco is now rare, but I think this gives a more accurate description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilwood
As I understand it from my repairer friends, it is still possible to get pernambuco, only one species is and was used as pernambuco, and, like everything else, there is good pernambuco, better pernambuco and worse pernambuco. It may be the case that the best pernambuco is no longer available.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Whoops - sorry, ceol, cross-post. You're just too quick with these things!
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
We got in orders of pernambuco, and the man guiding my clumsy hands had some simple methods, ones known in the trade, for measuring the spring in wood. None of the purchased pernambuco, all supposedly best quality, had the same tensil strength of the older wood... This though may be just down to habitat, growing conditions and the age of the wood, as it is the heartwood that is the prized red wood. So you may be right, it might not be down to a subspecies but other influences...
However, back on topic, this may be reason enough for considering other options, like synthetics, carbon fibre, and composites. One other bow wood I quite like is snakewood, but it is so toxic and potential to raising allergic reactions, that it has been known to kill the people milling it. That hasn't stopped others from turning it into bows and woodwinds, and using it for decorating guitars and related instruments.
# Posted on August 9th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
But is the incredibow the one that you cant tighten or loosen - its set quiet tight isnt it?? They would feel weird to be, I'm interested in a carbon fibre as well -but not if you cant loosen and tighen the bow.
# Posted on August 10th 2008 by bb
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Don't worry about Incredibows, bb. Believe me, you wouldn't like them. The look, the feel, the fixed, wrong, hair tension ... And the hair itself is plastic. It's made of one of those 'indestructible' materials that you just wish wasn't ...
# Posted on August 10th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
CF bows are just like regular bows - at least on the surface
- they're just made of cf instead of wood. I noticed once there
were 3 us at O'Malleys using the type of same el cheapo cf bow. Mine
was $125 but it needs a hair transplant now. It is hugely better than
the brazil wood bow that came with my Paesold fiddle
The dllemma is a rehair costs $80 and luthiers don't like to waste their
time on these bows; two told me to ditch it and just buy a new one with
more hair on it
# Posted on August 11th 2008 by Hup
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Thanks for the tip Hup - I was that close to buying a carbon fibre but think I'll invest in a nice wooden one instead
# Posted on August 11th 2008 by bb
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
i wonder why people think that they need a carbon fiber because your bow might get "rough treatment" (as long as you're not a classic violinist owning somethin like a Stradivarius). Or what do you DO at sessions
? I think my wood bows were through all sorts of situations and not taking any damage as long as you don't drop them straight onto the pointy end - and you wouldn't do that to a carbon fiber, would you?
I use at the moment a 3/4, very heavy fiddle bow on the 5-string viola which I inherited from my GREAT-grandfather, so its about 100 years old (and from what i am told, even he used to play under quite session-like conditions), and it has been through the hands of countless children learning violin (at the "3/4-violin-stage") and it' s still just fine?
# Posted on August 13th 2008 by Mina the Fiddler
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
Hmm, my friend recenlty suffered the loss of a lovely bow at a session. It was an accindent but lets just say that the few thousand pound bow is no more.
# Posted on August 13th 2008 by bb
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
I had a bow for 30 years, loved it. Had it on my lap during a string class I was teaching. It fell off, onto the floor and broke. I had to swallow my vomit in front of 10 year olds, and stifle a few "choice" words. I replaced it with another wood bow, but could not really afford a really nice one. Was not very happy with it. I also do some outdoor gigs, like on a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail, and just don't want to take any more chances, so I have a carbon fiber. Probably just mental...
# Posted on August 13th 2008 by Wyogal
Re: carbon fiber vs. composite vs. wood bows
I use one of Glasser's braided carbon fibre bows. It's a big step up from my old (very cheap) wooden bow, and certainly seems good enough for sessions. It cost around $300.
I've tried friends' $1000 and $5000 bows, and while it's true you can really feel the difference, I don't know if I could bring myself to take one to a session.
Fiddles themselves seem to survive more knocks than bows. And these days, with some airlines forbidding full-size violin cases in the cabin (step forward, Singapore Airlines), it's nice to know I could put the fiddle in a small case and check the (carbon fibre) bow without worrying about it too much.
# Posted on August 13th 2008 by Just a person