Frog to Tip

huw · #1 08-30-2003, 07:28 AM

Just out of curiosity what is the reason behind appling rosin from frog to tip and not tip to frog? As you can probably guess I'm new to bowing.

dragonetti11 · #2 08-30-2003, 04:48 PM

It doesn't make any difference up bow or down bow just so the rosin goes on evenly.

toman · #3 08-30-2003, 05:28 PM

supposedly, the hair has little scale type things that if you rosin from tip to frog, they get all out of whack and stand up. That being said, I was not aware of this for a several years and rosined my bow in both directions without any ill effects that I noticed. I also see violinists rosin in both directions all the time, so I dunno... Maybe somebody should get two bows rehaired at the same time, and then rosin one in each manner and report as to whether it makes a difference.

Johnny L · #4 08-30-2003, 09:37 PM

I don't think it's any big deal. I've seen bassists using hard rosin apply it to their bowhair as if they were coloring in a picture with a crayon.

I just do a downbow on my Pops because it's easy to do and gets the job done for me. Seems to coat those bristles quite evenly, and if I did an upbow instead I don't think I'd lose out on anything.

Don Higdon · #5 09-01-2003, 03:23 PM

The hair is more securely held at the frog.

Billdog · #6 09-17-2003, 10:15 PM

I haven't personally researched this, but I'm pretty certain the notion that hair has tiny "fingers", or whatever you want to call them, on it has been disproven. Apparently that was what people thought way back in the day, but modern science has enlightened us, and I think the conclusion now is that the sound is made purely by the friction between the bow and the string (which, on a microscopic level is kind of like little fingers I guess

).

mje · #7 09-18-2003, 06:15 AM

While the hair itself is made up of overlapping cells that look like scales, these have nothing to do with the action of the bow on the string, as you can see for yourself by using an unrosined bow ;-) What makes it all happen is electrostatic attraction between bow hair and rosin, and between rosin and string.

**Pacman** · #8 09-18-2003, 09:21 AM

Actually, rosin has such a low melting temperature that the pressure from the bow momentarily "glues" the hair to the string. As the bow is pulled it releases the bond, and the rosin "grabs" the string in another spot, repeating the process.

mje · #9 09-18-2003, 07:24 PM

You can describe it at various levels, from the macroscopic on down, but in the end it's all about sharing electrons ;-)

Billdog · #10 09-22-2003, 05:45 PM

Thanks for sharing all of yours!

MerryPrankster · #11 01-23-2004, 06:52 PM

I was always taught (by a violinist) that it only matters with soft rosin...medium rosin too probably...but hard rosin , it shouldnt matter..

Don Higdon · #12 01-25-2004, 03:19 AM

I'm guessing the assumption is that hard rosin won't be sticky enough to pull the hairs out. Why take a chance? It makes no sense. Also, if the rosin is too hard to melt onto the hair, it won't do its job on the string. You'll have to keep running the bow across the rosin until it does heat up.