Bows in Baltimore/Washington area

[pskelly]

For those of you in the Baltimore/DC area, does anybody know of places to try/buy higher-end bows besides Bob's House of Basses and Dave Mansbridge?

Thanks,
Pete

[ldabass]

I saw a couple of 'higher' end ($1,000-$2,000) at Brobst Violin just south of Washington. I would call them first though (703.256.0566). It kind of depends where in the spectrum you are looking.

[Kylebass]

Donald Cohen in Old Town Alexandria has some very high end bows. George Vance in Silver Spring has some mid range stuff. Bill Vaughn of the National Symphony will also have a few bows to try.

[EggyToast]

What about low-end bows? I'm looking for stuff in the $300-600 range, but it seems like the places around are Annapolis (45 minutes, appt only), Bob's in DC (hour+, appt only) or Shank's in PA (1.5hr+, appt only).

[wineaux]

Eggy,

I'm in the general neck of the woods you're talking about. I bought my bow at Bob's in D.C. and I bought my last bass at Shank's (about 2 hours for me.)

Appointments are easy to get and both places are worth checking out. You won't find a nicer guy and better craftsman than Mike Shank. In fact, I'm visiting him Saturday for some work.

[ADissen]

+1 for Mike Shank

i bought my bass from him and he and his wife are the nicest people in the world. if they dont have what youre looking for theyll do whatever they can to help you out.

[PocketGroove82]

bus it to new york?

[EggyToast]

Well crap. Guess I'll have to convince the wife some time to make a trip up to PA with me. Was hoping there was something closer due to work + graduate school.

I assume I don't have to haul my bass up to PA; that I can test out at Shank's with one of their basses?

I'll have to practice my etudes to get them more into memory, as well. ;D

[dchan]

^ If you're going into PA, you should stop by Ken Smith's place in Perkasie, PA as well. Make sure to contact him first.

[wineaux]

Eggy,

Mike has a showroom full of basses that you can use to test drive a bow.

Do you have a preference at this point for French or German? I have a nice German bow that I picked up for less than your price range (about $150) from Bob's in D.C. I like the balance and the feel a lot. I live about 40 minutes from Baltimore and if you wanted to try it, I could meet you somewhere and I lend it to you for a while to try. If you liked it, then you could go to Bob's or have him send you one.

If French is your thing, I'll look around when I'm at Shank's tomorrow, see what he has and let you know.

pskelly, I'll see what he has in your range as well.

[EggyToast]

I play German. I have an Upton bow that's decent, but basic, which is why I'm looking to move up. It's not bad, especially for the price, but I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for in a new bow -- probably a host of things that I won't know until I have a few in my hand ;D

Hey yeah, if you could ask up at Shank's what kind of variety they have for german bows in the "under 600" range, that would be awesome. One of the things I dislike about shopping in person, in general, is that often selection is limited and you have no way to compare to what else is out there. My wife ran into this recently while looking at violins -- the starter shops had 2 starter violins (the Bad model and the Worse model) and then everything was 3 times higher than that price point.

[wineaux]

Eggy,

I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know. Also, if your wife is still looking, there's a pretty cool violin shop in Gaithersburg -- Lashof's Violins. The owner used to sell and work on basses, but, alas, now focuses exclusively on the little guys.

[EggyToast]

She's picked up one, but I'll let her know. There's a violin shop right down town here in b-more, and a couple around, but since she's just getting started price was her biggest concern. She tells me "I'm on their site now "

She is on the lookout for a new bow, though, so thanks!

[NshhG]

Thanks for the information.
hipaa