How do you know when your bow is toast?

July 6, 2011 at 10:42 PM ·

It's not really that bad if your bow loses its camber. Just recamber it at the luthier. It should be cheaper than getting a new one. Also, good bows with good wood don't loose their camber that easily and can last good decades (or centuries) with their stick in perfect shape, provided that you rehair them regularly so you don't cause uneven tension that would bend the bow unevenly (which is exactly what happens when you have less that 2/3 hair left).

A bow will not hiss and explode when it is done for, but general signs of wood fatigue should include a loss of tension when the hair should be tense and an unnatural bend of the stick right before the frog. Some bows crack and break from that point because of the pressure exerted by the frog on that area.

Or better yet, buy a carbon fiber bow. Some purists may complain about it not having the same feel, but if you are looking for a moderately priced, safe, long-term alternative for a non-demanding musical life (It's not like you are taking it to Carnegie), then a carbon bow should be good enough to last longer and be tougher than cheap wood bows.

July 7, 2011 at 04:28 AM ·

Greetings,

`how do you know when your bow is toast?

When the jam  and butter drips though your f holes.

Cheers,

Buri

July 7, 2011 at 05:04 PM ·

It's not really that bad if your bow loses its camber. Just recamber it at the luthier. It should be cheaper than getting a new one. Also, good bows with good wood don't loose their camber that easily and can last good decades (or centuries) with their stick in perfect shape, provided that you rehair them regularly so you don't cause uneven tension that would bend the bow unevenly (which is exactly what happens when you have less that 2/3 hair left).

A bow will not hiss and explode when it is done for, but general signs of wood fatigue should include a loss of tension when the hair should be tense and an unnatural bend of the stick right before the frog. Some bows crack and break from that point because of the pressure exerted by the frog on that area.

Or better yet, buy a carbon fiber bow. Some purists may complain about it not having the same feel, but if you are looking for a moderately priced, safe, long-term alternative for a non-demanding musical life (It's not like you are taking it to Carnegie), then a carbon bow should be good enough to last longer and be tougher than cheap wood bows.

Thanks Oliviu. I already have a K. Holtz carbon fibre bow as well, and when I look at my wooden bow alongside the CF, the camber looks to be about the same. And the wooden bow in question still has nearly all its original hair. So from what you say, camber isn't likely an issue with this bow. Nor do I see any unnatural bend or cracks near the frog, nor are the hairs losing tension. So maybe the bowing issues I've been experiencing are totally of my own creation, and not a problem with a failing bow that has come to a natural end to its life! I don't have exactly the same issues when I use the CF bow, but because it is relatively new (to me), differences inevitably arise from lack of familiarity with another bow (and not necessarily from one being "broken" and the other not). In a way, I wish the "hiss or explode" function would engage when the bow becomes next-to-useless, but since it doesn't, I'm still wondering if I'm paddling upstream against a stream of faulty equipment, or just experiencing the inevitable challenges of learning good bowing technique.

  You are certainly correct that neither my bow nor I are headed for Carnegie (soon anyway...), but learning violin is SO much more complicated than I had imagined, and I'm always trying to figure out this wonderful instrument. But it doesn't seem as though the natural aging of an inexpensive bow is likely to create the sort of difficulties I've been experiencing.  I really appreciate this site for information my teacher can't always provide (or that I want to use up her time for during lessons).