My primary viola bow for the last 8 years has been a C.F. Iesta hybrid bow which is the same bow now sold under license in the US as the JonPaul Fusion Silver. It cost me $520, but the equivalent violin bow sells for about $380. I'm a big proponent of hybrid bows. I bought mine in person at a local shop, where I went with a $2,000 budget, and tested wood bows worth up to $2,500. At least for me, the much less expensive hybrid bow played about as well as the $2,500 wood bows, and was the hands-down winner among the bows $2,000 and under. Similar to Irv's experience, it's a very responsive bow. The sound is much closer to wood than carbon fiber -- though I should mention that I've never owned a carbon fiber bow, only tried them out either in shops or borrowing orchestra colleagues' bows for a few minutes at a time. I did notice an instant improvement in my playing ability, FWIW. My previous bow was a low-end pernambuco, so the better response and lower balance point probably helped; also, I'd been playing for 11 years when I upgraded.

The principal violist in my semi-pro orchestra, who is a full-time pro, tried out my bow out of curiosity, ordered a JonPaul Fusion Silver a few days later, and now uses it as her primary performing bow as well.

I haven't tried the basic JonPaul Fusion, but from what I've been told, it's made with essentially the same process and they just select their best sticks for the silver fittings.

FortyNothing, I also live in a hot, dry climate. I mostly play indoors but have used my hybrid bow for outdoor gigs in temperatures up to 98 degrees F before. My thermostat is set to 75 degrees in the summer and 70 degrees in the winter; I've rehearsed and performed with orchestras in a wider range of temperatures.