Recommend me a bow

[franzbassist]

Nothing too fancy, just a good solid reliable bow that will work well with my lovely new Aria EUB. Any suggestions?

Should add I was a cellist until my late teens, so I am familiar with technique, just been out of the loop a while...

Thanks

Gareth

Edited October 21, 2009 by walbassist

[Major-Minor]

Hi Gareth

There are some amazing deals on ebay. I bought 2 chinese brazilwood bows for £40 each inc p+p. They are on the heavy side so not ideal for delicate spicatto work, but for most playing they work well. I just keep them as spares, as I have a couple of Paesold bows, one which cost £1000, but my favourite one was only £150 (admittedly some 10 years ago or so - probably a bit more costly now). I use this one almost all the time.

The Major

[Paul_C]

[paddoxbass]

As a cellist, you'll know the difference a good bow makes. The difference is just as dramatic on double bass. A good strong pernambuco stick will bring your playing on in leaps and bounds, but comes at a price. On a budget, I'd really recommend looking at a carbon fibre bow - they're stronger and springier than cheap wood bows and you don't feel quite so conscious of knocking it if you're playing in a tight space.
Although I normally use a very good quality pernambuco bow, I keep a carbon fibre bow as backup and do occasionally it on gigs. If they'd made them when I was learning, I think I'd have progressed much more quickly.
You can spend all sorts on them, but have a look at www.contrabass.co.uk under 'accessories'. £390 gets you a sturdy, very usable stick.
Don't forget you need a stickier rosin for bass bows. Nymans is a popular choice.
Good luck!
Jon

[mybass]

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='633758' date='Oct 22 2009, 07:09 PM']Hi Gareth

There are some amazing deals on ebay. I bought 2 chinese brazilwood bows for £40 each inc p+p. They are on the heavy side so not ideal for delicate spicatto work, but for most playing they work well. I just keep them as spares, as I have a couple of Paesold bows, one which cost £1000, but my favourite one was only £150 (admittedly some 10 years ago or so - probably a bit more costly now). I use this one almost all the time.

The Major[/quote]


BEWARE buying Chinese bows from China direct.
I thought I would try this, wanting a German style bow just to try out against my french style. Bow arrived padded inside a heavy plastic tube, as wide as gutter piping. The bow though was warped and had to be sent back to China after I had supplied/emailed photos to them back in China. They wanted to know the postage price as they reimburse that. In the plastic pipe it was about £30! They wouldn't pay that so instructed me to BREAK the bow and send back the frog end only. After emailing back about this they asured me this was the usual way they did it, postage ended up costing about £3.
They fully refunded me including postage but this all took about a month.
Try and visit a good shop in the UK.

[Gareth Hughes]

I bought a great French bow from Ken Smith in the US. Seemed very good value for the money.

[endorka]

Jon, what you are saying about the carbon fibre bow is really interesting, as I've been considering getting one of those for some time. I've been using a cheapie bow (£80) for several years, which is not too bad, but when I tried a decent wood one last week (value around £300), it made a huge difference to my playing. Everything was much easier! Would you say the carbon fibre bow at around £300 plays to the same standard as your average wood bow of the same price? Are there any negatives about it?

Jennifer

[paddoxbass]

Hi Jennifer.
I think you'd be surprised by how good the carbon fibre bows are. If I only had around £300-400 to spend, I'd definitely go for it again.
I've never played a cheap wooden bow that's got anywhere near as much spring in it. It makes a big difference having a bow that bites properly and responds evenly along its length.
I've tried some shockers & wish I'd had a better bow when I first started out nearly 30 years ago.

To put it in perspective - I now only have two bows. My main bow is a lovely quality old pernambuco bow, cost several grand and rewards with amazing bite for minimum effort.
My backup is a carbon fibre bow which comes in my bow case to all my gigs. Occasionally conditions dictate I use it - it's obviously slightly harder work than with the top notch bow, but it's very responsive & draws out an even tone.

Negatives? Not really. Cheap wooden bows often don't have an ebony frog - this does. It's got good weight to it. I've had it several years now & it's been great.
The only thing I would change is, should the hair go, I'll rehair it with coarser hair - but that's personal preference.

You might be lucky and find a decent wooden stick in that price range, and you can spend all sorts on carbon fibre bows but, if you're looking to spend around £300, I'd have a good look at the Col Legno standard. I bought mine from Tony at the Contrabass Shoppe - he's actually posted a video on his website & I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you about it if you gave him a call.

[url="http://www.contrabass.co.uk/carbon_fibre_bow_french.htm"]http://www.contrabass.co.uk/carbon_fibre_bow_french.htm[/url]

Let us know what you decide!
best wishes,
Jon


[quote name='endorka' post='647280' date='Nov 6 2009, 02:32 PM']Jon, what you are saying about the carbon fibre bow is really interesting, as I've been considering getting one of those for some time. I've been using a cheapie bow (£80) for several years, which is not too bad, but when I tried a decent wood one last week (value around £300), it made a huge difference to my playing. Everything was much easier! Would you say the carbon fibre bow at around £300 plays to the same standard as your average wood bow of the same price? Are there any negatives about it?

Jennifer[/quote]

[endorka]

Thanks for the reply Jon, most informative. It really does sound like the carbon fibre bow you mention is worthy of further investigation, they seem to be selling the same one [url="http://www.mjbl.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16:collegno&catid=5:bows&Itemid=9"]here[/url] for £318.

Jennifer

[Duckyincarnate]

I have this bow as well. I bought it at Cardiff Violins and paid 250 pounds for it. I am very happy with it but can not really compare it with other bows since I am fairly new to the double bass (playing for about 6 months now).

[Pete1967]

It's all about balance... and the strength of the hair.

If a bow is tip heavy, you have to play lifting it off the strings all the time and it become really uncomfortable. Too tip light, and it's the revrse and hard to get grip. Either way your technique is compromised and all the nuances become impossible. A good bow, either French or German should sit in the hand and feel natural and almost weightless - that's not to say it won't weigh anything, it'll just feel easy.

I confess I've never used a CF bow, but I'd definitely recommend a good Pernambuco bow, the best your budget can afford - due to some incredible good fortune I learnt to play using a Sartory. Amazing.

My personal preference is for a mixed hair. White hair is softer and gives a more mellow tone, but breaks more easily. Black hair is stronger but gives a harder tone. Consider and try different Rosins. I use Pops which is softer and gives better grip but a slightly woollier tone (I'm lazy). Nymans is poplular and harder and giver a more strident tone. I was taught by Duncan McTier who uses violin rosin of a brand I don't recall.. but harder still but a really bright tone and you have to be a genius to control it - great for solo work.

Re-hair your bow regularly - depending on how much you play, but I do (did) mine annually. Fresh hair has good grip and is much easier to play. Never touch the hair - oil/grease is your enemy!

[endorka]

Update: I was doing an orchestra gig about 3 or 4 weeks ago and one of the bass players had a carbon fibre bow, which he has used on professional gigs for some time. He let me try it, and it felt and sounded great. In addition to this, the frog was the correct dimensions for my hand, unlike my current bow. He bought it from the yitamusic store on Ebay for approx £100 - it is the "Top Model A Carbon Fiber Double Bass Bow French" model.

I bought one myself for £109 and have been using it for a couple of weeks with great results. It has a nice balance - the only way I can describe it is that it feels lighter yet more substantial than my old bow, and produces a softer, thicker sound. A real benefit thanks to the correct sized frog is that literally overnight I was able to execute off the string strokes, tremolo, and fast passages far more efficiently than before.

It looks pretty cool too, in my opinion. Great value for money.



Jennifer

[27 frets]

[quote name='endorka' post='688160' date='Dec 18 2009, 10:55 AM']Update: I was doing an orchestra gig about 3 or 4 weeks ago and one of the bass players had a carbon fibre bow, which he has used on professional gigs for some time. He let me try it, and it felt and sounded great. In addition to this, the frog was the correct dimensions for my hand, unlike my current bow. He bought it from the yitamusic store on Ebay for approx £100 - it is the "Top Model A Carbon Fiber Double Bass Bow French" model.

I bought one myself for £109 and have been using it for a couple of weeks with great results. It has a nice balance - the only way I can describe it is that it feels lighter yet more substantial than my old bow, and produces a softer, thicker sound. A real benefit thanks to the correct sized frog is that literally overnight I was able to execute off the string strokes, tremolo, and fast passages far more efficiently than before.

It looks pretty cool too, in my opinion. Great value for money.



Jennifer[/quote]

Good choice! I bought one the just the same a few months back

My teacher (who is pretty discerning) described it as 'lively', and subseetly recommended this model to someone who wanted a less breakable alternative to her very expensive pernambuco bow, for use in a pantomime orchestra pit. The same firm do pernambuco bows for a similar price, but I don't know how they compare.

[franzbassist]

Just to resurrect my original thread, I ended up buying two bows - one French and one German - to experiment.

First of all, I got a German bow from Thomann, their [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_bassbogen_3_4.htm"]self branded [/url] one.

I followed this up with a French bow from Yita Music on eBay, a AAA Ironwood bow with black hair.

I also picked up a very nice [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/concord_bassbogen_etui_2.htm"]case[/url] from Thomann to keep them both in.



When I started this thread I mentioned that I had been a cellist in my youth, so getting back into bowing has been quite exciting. German bow was new to me, but I have really enjoyed playing that style. The power and emotion you can get from bowing really is quite something...

Anyway, I have been impressed by the quality of both bows. They're very well made, dead straight, are a reasonable weight (both around 135 gms), and draw really nicely.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this thread.

Gareth

Edited April 14, 2011 by walbassist