| To me the strings are springs, the bow stick and hair are springs and my bow hold strength and flexibility should match these springs. I look for a well designed and well balanced bow that should easily start and control notes anywhere along its length in either direction with good firm tone. The stick should have a nice bend and yet sufficient clearance from the hair when tensioned.
Yes above, if the stick is too weak the hair can never be tensioned sufficiently, notes are hard to grip at each start and you can too easily play three strings at once without any real power in the sound. If the stick is too stiff you can easily over tighten the hair tension and the hair won't bend around strings. This will make the bow and notes harder to start and control, especially out at the point of the bow.
With French bow my starting point is to tension the hair so that when I press down on the D or A string at the middle of the bow the hair will just touch three strings at once. This is the most weight I will ever use. Then I go up or down say 1/4 or 1/2 turns of the tensioning screw at a time, testing the ease of starting notes to optimise tension and tone. I use Nymans rosin. Pops has much more (too much?) grab.
A bow stick that is too weak or too uneven in response along its length will continue to bother you and make a lot of unwanted extraneous sounds. The weakest bows even start to bend the wrong way, convex instead of concave. If it is too strong then it will feel clumsy and skid across notes, unable to start them cleanly. I suppose the above would equally apply to the German bow, although the hair would always be clear of the stick, even with the weakest stick!
If possible take your bass with you when you go shopping for a bow, or organise a way to try a number of bows before choosing the best for your bass. Price is not always a guide.
DP | 
