Carlsson, Kolstein carbon fiber and such

[brijonrob]

An opinion question for anyone interested. I recently returned to double bass after about of decade of bass guitar only. Been trying to get my bowing back in order and have been experimenting a bit. Got one of the Upton Bass workshop bows, which I liked but was a bit tip heavy for me, and have since gone to one of the Glasser braided carbon fiber bows (their top of the line job), which is acutually quite nice, good weight, good balance (for me, that is) and as nice as some of the more expensive wood bows I have played in the past. (I know Glasser gets a bad rap, probably due to that fiberglass stick we all found in corner of the band room somewhere that had three hairs left on it after some kid used it to pry a door open!) My question is over rosin. Years ago I used Pops with limited satisfaction, dealing with the mess, wanted to try some different options. I first tried the Jade, which was definitely not my cup of tea. Too hard, just did not load on to the bow right for me. After reading up, decided to try the Carlsson. I found it to be somewhat brittle and no where near as sticky as I thought it should be. Now a few months later I am trying the Kolstein all-weather. Think I might have a winner here. Very little needed, nice and sticky without the mess, love the new silicone sleeve they have. Works well for me. What I am wondering is if the cake of Carlsson I got was a bit old. Anybody else out there tried both? Just curious. THANKS!

[shadygrove]

I haven't tried Kolstein, but found while the Carlsson is just right for me in the summer it takes a lot more swipes of the bow and seems much less sticky in the winter.

On a related note... should I be putting a few drops of water on the little sponge in the Carlsson container now and then? I'm assuming the sponge is to keep the rosin from getting dried out, but don't want it to turn it into a sticky mess when the weather warms up again.

[Phil Rowan]

Originally Posted by shadygrove

On a related note... should I be putting a few drops of water on the little sponge in the Carlsson container now and then? I'm assuming the sponge is to keep the rosin from getting dried out, but don't want it to turn it into a sticky mess when the weather warms up again.

Do you keep the rosin in a small sandwich zip lock bag with a few drops of water in the bag? I've never used Carlsson's rosin so I don't know about the sponge, but I would assume water isn't something you'd want to get directly on the rosin.

[kurt muroki]

a few drops of water helps most rosin that has dried out. also blowing in the rosin container before closing the plastic container works... like pops or carlsson. for others in paper containers I use a ziplock bag.