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I got 5 months of use out my last Fiddlerman Carbon Fiber bow (the "improved" style, bought on sale) before I could tell it needed a rehair, also think the screw in the frog is showing some signs of wear, so figured it was time for another bow.
Fiddlershop recently came out with a Snakewood frog on their improved Fiddlerman Carbon Fiber Violin bow and I was thinking to myself that snakewood is heavier than ebony and I like the balance closer to the frog, anyway - so I bought one. I'm sure snakewood probably makes no difference other than for looks, but that doesn't matter.
IT FEELS GREAT!
LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!
Huge difference having new hair & this bow works great
for everything I play (even on the C string)!
Turned around and bought a 2nd one - think I might be happy getting these rehaired down the road.
Btw, ❤Fiddlershop❤ is still THE BEST - fast shipping & great service!
If anyone cares, I've been liking Premium Holstein Rosin on these bows - don't know if I'll switch over to one of my other rosins now that the weather is starting to change, we'll see.
Just saw Fiddlershop has come out with a new "Performance Series" CF Violin Bow - priced between the reg and the Pro Series!
I'm getting very close to my 2 Year anniversary for playing my "Mortimer", so maybe next year I'll be ready to try something a little different.
... might just need a different bow, if I decide to get the new Glasser AEX 6-String Violin, or maybe the 5-String VIOLA!
- Emily
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Hi Emily. A bow re-hair after five months? You must have fire in your fingers! I have three bows, a carbon fiber, yellow sandalwood, and a nice pernambuco. None, with the exception of the sandalwood ( maybe 7 or 8 hairs I have had to trim off) have lost any hair in the last 18 months. You go girl!
Have fun fiddling!
Grandpa
Violin ---- the most human of all instruments
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@Grandpafiddle -
I was kind of surprised.
Had a few bad hairs I cut off when I first got that bow - otherwise I don't break hairs. I may not have noticed it quite so early, but started having trouble getting the C string to sound good (even with a new string) and started needing to use rosin way more often than was normal.
HUGE difference, now with new hair - so much easier to play!
I found this, might help explain.
"Sometimes it’s a subjective feeling that sneaks up gradually—a feeling that the hair isn’t engaging the strings the way you remember it, or a feeling that you want to keep adding rosin. Ironically, too much rosin can have the opposite of the desired effect. Before deciding that an otherwise “full head of hair” is ready for replacement, try removing some rosin with a soft, clean, dry cloth. If that doesn’t work, and it’s been a while since your last visit to the violin shop, get a rehair." (Erin Shrader - Strings Magazine)
Many sources say rehair once to twice a year - and, of course, more if you're a professional. (you know I'm not)
I just play passionately every day - sometimes quite a bit. 😊
- Emily
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Not to get too far off topic, but I'm planning to bring my bow in for a rehair soon because it's badly in need of one. (This is after 18 months, though I stopped playing for months and have played much less than usual since resuming). I haven't broken a single bow hair since my last rehair. It's definitely not about breaking bow hairs.
On average, when playing regularly, I have my bow rehaired every 6-9 months; I would guess that I break an average of 4-5 hairs between rehairs (most of them within the first few weeks), and have probably only ever reached a double-digit number of broken hairs once in over 20 years.
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@ELCBK and others. You may want to consider an experiment on the bow in need of a rehair. You should be able to strip the old rosin off the hair by an application of ethyl alcohol (graves grain alcohol) or acetone. Nothing new there.
I have wanted to wash the hair in a water and swimmer’s shampoo (which has the substance edta which removes chlorine and other minerals from the hair). I would scrub with a tooth brush and rinse. I would be interested on how long you could keep this cycle up before the hair is completely worthless. I suspect at least two to four cycles.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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@Irv -
I have wiped hair down with alcohol before, on another bow, but I should have mentioned I could see the hair had already stretched on this one - so, just didn't feel it was worth messing with.
Don't think it's a very good idea to wash hair with any water if there is a wood wedge at the tip or wood in contact with the hair in the frog - even of you try to protect the ends, because hair acts like a wick.
I am guilty of not always loosening the hair after playing, especially when I've been interrupted, thinking I might only be setting "Mortimer" down for short while/few hours before resuming what I've been working on.
Have wondered if a stiffer bow might mean more, or less stress on hair than with a more flexible one, but that's a whole other rabbit hole. (lol)
...one competitor believes hair is only good for about 120 hours of playing - but I've also read 250 hours. Sure is arbitrary! 🤔
Fiddlerman has mentioned in another thread that the quality of the hair used for rehairs at the Fiddlershop is of much better quality than what is originally provided on these bows.
I believe, now, it would definitely be worth rehairing these new bows (when the hair wears out) and it does make sense to me that better quality hair would last longer.
The bow I had to tweak (another thread) with weight was the "old style", before they improved it - my 2 new Fiddlerman "improved" bows are a much better quality bow (for me, at the moment) - could even be EXCELLENT with the best quality hair. 😊
- Emily
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ELCBK said
I got 5 months of use out my last Fiddlerman Carbon Fiber bow (the "improved" style, bought on sale) before I could tell it needed a rehair, also think the screw in the frog is showing some signs of wear, so figured it was time for another bow.Fiddlershop recently came out with a Snakewood frog on their improved Fiddlerman Carbon Fiber Violin bow and I was thinking to myself that snakewood is heavier than ebony and I like the balance closer to the frog, anyway - so I bought one. I'm sure snakewood probably makes no difference other than for looks, but that doesn't matter.
IT FEELS GREAT!
LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!
Huge difference having new hair & this bow works great
for everything I play (even on the C string)!
Turned around and bought a 2nd one - think I might be happy getting these rehaired down the road.
Btw, ❤Fiddlershop❤ is still THE BEST - fast shipping & great service!
If anyone cares, I've been liking Premium Holstein Rosin on these bows - don't know if I'll switch over to one of my other rosins now that the weather is starting to change, we'll see.
Just saw Fiddlershop has come out with a new "Performance Series" CF Violin Bow - priced between the reg and the Pro Series!
I'm getting very close to my 2 Year anniversary for playing my "Mortimer", so maybe next year I'll be ready to try something a little different.
... might just need a different bow, if I decide to get the new Glasser AEX 6-String Violin, or maybe the 5-String VIOLA!
- Emily
WOW!!! Thanks so much Emily. And we didn't pay her to write any of this stuff. 🤣
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