Invitation to purchase Bakers rosin. Should I? Worth it? Which formulation?
I received an email this morning from Bakers offering me an opportunity to purchase up to two cakes of Bakers Rosin. I have 48 hours to respond. I barely recall signing up on the waiting list years ago. I currently use Oliv Evah and Obligato strings. My rosin cake is four years old and appears to be hardly worn. I need to apply Rosin maybe every week or so. I play (practice) 2-3 hours a day.From the email: Because our production is limited, and in hopes to get rosin to everyone waiting, we restrict member orders to a maximum of two units per member, per season.
This can be one of each Baker's blend (Baker's Original and Baker's Vuillaume Citron), one of either, or two of either blend.
3. Baker’s Rosin currently sells for $24.50 USD per unit.
The total cost including shipping within the U.S. are; 1 unit: $29.90 USD or 2 units: $54.90 USD.”
Replies (35)
Can anyone who has made this purchase before confirm the process I have been asked to use is legitimate?
These days I've switched to Leatherwood.
http://www.bakersrosin.com/about.html
I thought colophony was the sound of digestion until I discovered Baker's. Quite hilarious
I've told them they need to raise their prices before, but they feel bad about it.
I form a mold of aluminum foil around a bottle lid of appropriate diameter. I put the broken rosin bits in it and heat it in a toaster oven at an appropriate temperature fairly well below the boiling point of water. Voila - "new" rosin cake!
I can glue it to the cloth from the old cake, or to the base of the rosin holder.
What I noticed that I felt was unique about Baker's was the way it allowed me to vary tonal characteristics of my sound more readily than other rosins I have used (and I have used dozens). I felt that this unique quality degraded while playing and would resume when refreshed. But now I am probably 10 years older and my right arm no longer has the subtlety to play that well - I'm lucky to play at all.
If you have a right arm you can control well this may well be a great rosin for you. I think it is worth a try.
My major objection to Bakers at the time, was the round aluminum case it is used in - I found my first case crushed enough that it got "out of round" and became very difficult to open. Sure - I moved the cake to a "rosin cloth" where it worked very well. I did place a 2nd order when given the opportunity.
One thing I did notice was that "magic rosin" (the one that is essentially colorless) took much longer to harden upon cooling. Like weeks. Not sure why; I didn't do anything really differently.
I was interested in Andrew's comment about melting well below the boiling point of water (100 C). My experience is that the temperature needs to be higher but not much higher than 100 C. Now, of course, I'll have to measure that from now on. :)
If this rosin gives me half the satisfaction the new Wittner pegs gave I will be happy. I play often outside in high humidity conditions. The Oliv Evah rosin I’m using gets a bit too tacky under those conditions. If I am not pleased, I’ll have Bakers rosin to offer to members at cost plus shipping.
It's not expensive to try Baker's but it's not going to rock your world. I think if it weren't for the marketing method, nobody would be talking about it.
The packaging, while very pretty, is problematic. That little steel canister gets sticky (with rosin, naturally) so you have to twist it to get it off, but the twisting tends to break the rosin off the wooden base.
As others here have noted, it's easy to melt and re-form it. But I haven't bothered -- I prefer Colophane Gold & Silver.
I've got some Jade, which I'm not convinced by, and I've got some Hidersine 6V and on order I've got some Hill, some Kaplan and some Royal Oak. Oh well, RAS is cheaper than VAS!
From all rosins I've tried yet I know that I prefer the softer versions but still would like one that is even a bit more sticky. But as long as I haven't any clue how to find out about these specifications in advance, I hold myself back from any further investments.
I read about Baker's about seven years ago and emailed to be added to their list. It took three years before I got an invitation. I bought two the first time. I got another invitation the following year, and declined because I'd barely used any of my first tin. I didn't get any invitations for the next three years, but I got another one yesterday. I must be at the end of the list.
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Spam email is increasing by the day. Some of it can be very convincing and is often directed at getting access to the recipient's bank account.