so i was on ebay yesterday..and decided to mess around and look at bows........even though im not in need of one right now...i was just wondering if this is a good bow and does anyone have experience with this? The price is not bad at all...... http://cgi.ebay.com/Silver-Mounted-A...QQcmdZViewItem
Indeed I would stay away. There are several things that worry me here:
My snakewood bow is the heavy at 156 and I would not advise going much heavier. Most bows are more in the 130-140 range. (In other words I thought the 150 was pushing it)
Snakewood, from all of my research, is a very dense wood and hard to work with. It requires a lot of time and skill, just like Pernambuco. The fact that this bow is going for US 71 makes me worried. Most snakewood bows are $2000 and up.
Is sea ear the same as mother of pearl? I hope so, they should be using nothing less if the bow is made of snakewood.
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If you want to be a virtuoso you must work like a virtuoso from the beginning. Be better than yourself everyday and be proud to make a mistake. - Rabbath
That's a Chinese Bow. Our Bow supplier in China, different from this guy also offers Bows like this. The best Bows we have seen from China are the Pernambuco ones. That price is not bad but the model is long and doubtfully balanced. I have seen many a good piece of wood turned into a crappy bow. This is why we worked so hard in designing the model so that we would not fall into that same class. Heck, even the Brazilwood models that come into us play and sound great. This convinces me it's more the model and maker than just the material alone.
Give all the materials that Sue Lipkins would use to make a single bow to an unskilled maker OR just make a poorl designed bad weighted and botched graduated stick and see what you get.
I am fairly sure the seller of this Ebay Bow was hoping for at least double what it sold for. Also, do you get THAT exact Bow or just one like it. I have seen that same Bow auctioned off a dozen times. maybe I should save the pics and compared the wood grain between the auctions to see if it's the exact ad each time or hi takes new pics for each bow.
164 grams? OUCH.. We have a tollerance spec of 132-146 grams. I don't want any product liability law suits when some crippled guy with a mangled arm, shoulder or wrist comes to 'sue' me.
Just a heads up here. Most Bows under 2k are most likely made in China these days as they make and supply makers and sellers with about 80% of the Bows in the world today.
Ne how ma? 
