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When does a cheap bow become an expensive bow?
Confused about the current poll question.
Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 (2 votes) 
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Uzi
Georgia

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April 25, 2014 - 2:47 pm
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The current poll question about bows asks if we are using a cheap carbon fiber or an expensive carbon fiber, a cheap pernambuco or an expensive pernambuco. What's the price break between cheap and expensive?

Cabon Fiber < $300 cheap?
Pernambuco < $1,000 cheap?

Is that about right?

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright

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Barry
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April 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm
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"When does a cheap bow become an expensive bow?"

when you beat the heck out of someone with it and get an assault charge..just sayin'

b-slap

There is no shame in playing twinkle, youre playing Mozart

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Oliver
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April 25, 2014 - 4:23 pm
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I'm sure you can get pernambuco much less (cheap) than $1000. Not considering materials, I would call ANYTHING less than $300 "cheap".

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

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DanielB
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April 25, 2014 - 4:37 pm
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Cheap is when even *you* can't deny it was a waste of your money..

Expensive is gear you'd like but can't afford, at least not right now.

Between those two is Reasonable, which is the range where it works well for you and it was in your budget. Almost any musician, regardless of what they paid for a piece of gear, considers the price to have been Reasonable if the gear works out for them and they managed to afford it.

There is another category above and beyond Expensive, called Ridiculous. That is where something costs so much that you wouldn't pay that for it, even if you hit the lottery.

rofl

"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman

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Fiddlestix
Michigan, USA

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April 25, 2014 - 5:59 pm
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A cheap bow become's expensive, when it is no longer mass produced and it is made by hand from a renowned bow maker.

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Fiddlerman
Fort Lauderdale
April 25, 2014 - 6:28 pm
Member Since: September 26, 2010
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Funny thread.
True fact. We have a good Pernambuco bow that we sell at fiddlershop which we call "Cheap Pernambuco Bow".
After renaming it this way we made far more sales than before. People search for cheap this and cheap that.... when they find this bow they figure they have nothing to loose. It seems that almost everyone is super happy with this bow since we receive extremely few returns. Who would have thought that cheap would be a selling point????

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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Robyn.fnq
Queensland, Australia

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April 26, 2014 - 12:11 am
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I'll add my definition to the above:
Not having access to any music shops apart from online, I've bought my whole kit that way; all of it, including replacement strings and bows, after much research.
When a cheap purchase becomes expensive is when I receive it and realise that it was a total waste of money, and the postage to return it is a waste as well. By the time I research something else and buy it, I could've spent more money in the first place than I'd planned to.
pie_in_the_face-2223

If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're probably right.

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Fiddlerman
Fort Lauderdale
April 26, 2014 - 6:54 am
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Great definition Robyn :)

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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KindaScratchy
Massachusetts
April 26, 2014 - 6:12 pm
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I know of one company that sells a bow for $28,000. My new car cost less than that. I'd put that in the ridiculous category.

Similar to Robyn's answer: I think a cheap bow becomes a "more expensive than it should be" bow when you have it rehaired and the rehairing costs more than the original price of the bow.

When the work's all done and the sun's settin' low,

I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow.

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Oliver
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April 27, 2014 - 9:35 pm
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Great minds ............... I have never rehaired a bow where the rehair was more expensive.
Fact is that I never had a bow rehaired.
(One luthier said my bows were in the "disposable" class) (Was that an insult?)

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

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Fiddlerman
Fort Lauderdale
April 28, 2014 - 7:20 pm
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That might have been intended as an insult Oliver. But what do they know. ;-)

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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Oliver
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April 28, 2014 - 9:07 pm
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I think I should be planning on a genuine FM CF bow in the near future!

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

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MrYikes
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April 28, 2014 - 11:50 pm
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I can understand all of your comments, but I submit that there is a place for cheap. Be it violin or bow, I would never do to an expensive piece, what I do to the cheap ones I own. I am in a learning phase and am doing that which for me is necessary to learn everything I need to know about playing a violin. After I know how to treat a violin or bow, then I can upgrade without fear.
If though, I bought expensive first, how would I learn? Because someday the post will fall or the bridge will crack or the hair will turn into a mass of bumps of rosin, the tailpiece will strip its retainer and all the pegs will fail to hold tension,,,and and,,and my teeth will fall out and my hair will turn green, too. I decided to do all my learning now, here, not when I'm playing the wedding march with the bride's mother staring at me.

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