2 bow questions

[bassdogEmer]

I have a German bow - cost me around $700 the stick is really straight. It's got the hexagon shape. the frog is ebony with mother of pearl inlays. it has a nice bounce to it. seems easy enough to control. It draws a thick rich sound out of my bass.
my two questions are:
a) how can I tell if this truely is a good bow?? I have only owned much cheaper ones.
b) it has black hair which I had put on it about three or four years ago - there still a pretty decent amount of hair left on it. does hair go bad?? or get brittle with age? Am I ready for a rehair ??

[jallenbass]

Take it to one of the German bow players in the Philharmonic.

[bassdogEmer]

Thanks Jon - I was hoping for people to weigh in with their two cents up here on the forum. I dont have the time to go find a phil player and I am sure a phil player doesnt have the time to look at my bow -
all others - spam away with opinions please

[jfv]

But John is right, its not about words, if it was then
all an expert would be was someone who had read a
lot of books.

So, your answer is a person with the skill to tell is
going to have to inspect the PHYSICAL bow. If the
bow cost $700 then its student quality, 'good'
would be relative to that anyway.

As for your hair question, the same person will be
able to answer that too.

Good luck,

[jmpiwonka]

you could always try to get a lesson with a symphony player with the main intent of having them examine and give you their opinion of your bow...plus you could learn some stuff too...

[Alex Scott]

I am guessing you are dissatisfied.

go get some new hair, the rosin will stick better. Your bow probably is not the best bow in the world, maybe try some other bows if you are dissatisfied. Sell yours and buy another.

I am sure you have gotten a lot better in 3 or 4 years, so you probably need a new bow. Let me know if you need help rationalizing this decision and incurring heavy losses or debts because of it.

I go through the same thing every so often.