What does everyone think about the bow maker, Pierre Guillaume?

December 26, 2007 at 02:48 PM · P.Guillaume is indeed in the class of bowmaker you mention. His Gold mounted bows in particular are very fine. Good value also.

cheers

Sean

December 31, 2007 at 07:35 PM · Guillaume's bows are quite nice, however one I played last year was a bit stiff and a little hesitant on the string. LeCanu's work is superb, supple yet with an immediacy required by good players.

Both are, indeed, living masters among today's makers.

Eric

December 31, 2007 at 07:29 PM · Awesome maker!

January 1, 2008 at 12:12 AM · Gennady showed me a LeCanu and a Pierre Guillaume.

I must say that the LeCanu was superior (the Bigot and G. Nehr were superior as well).

The Guillaume seemed like it was a one dimensional bow and did not have as much lower overtones. Although it tracked and handled really well.

But he also told me that Pierre Guillaume has a special edition of his top notch bows. Apparently that is in a different price category as well.

Much fancier etc.

April 25, 2017 at 02:30 PM · I played on several brand new gold mount Le Canu bow, they are indeed very nice, performance ready bows. HOWEVER...I only buy Guillaume premiere gold mount bow because:

1. Anyone with knowledge of bow knows very well bow does not last forever like violin does. Professional musician owns few antique bows but many new bows because they want to prolong the life expectancy of their best french bows for big gigs.

2. A brand new Le Canu bow tends to be too soft, yet they're performance ready, but not good for long run, as bow tends to get soft as years go by. Friend of mine bought a gold mount Le Canu few years back and its becoming too soft now. The quality is no where near my Guillaume gold, and we paid almost the same price.

3. A brand new Guillaume bow tends to be little stiff in the beginning, but that's fine because as bow aged, so does the wood, and trust me it will become magnificent as you play on them, both balance and agility. The bow will grow to your style of playing, its like training your dragon...sound sweet and sensitive, you know what i mean. I had a chance playing a JPM Persoit, Guillaume has the same feel, but different result of course!

4. Guillaume as bow maker is in a different category then Le Canu, can't put them in same sentence. I heard they are two generations apart.

I owned other antique bows like sartory, N. maline, P. Simon, FX Tourte, as for modern bow, I buy only P. Guillaume gold mount!