Identifying the bow wood

fdeck · #1 07-01-2006, 04:09 PM

Here's the scenario: Unknown bow, unknown maker. Pernambuco or something else? Any tips on ID'ing the wood?

toman · #2 07-01-2006, 06:18 PM

IMO, it doesn't really matter. If the bow plays well, it's a good bow. It it doesn't, it's not... A stick could be made of play-doh for all I care, as long as it plays...

fdeck · #3 07-01-2006, 08:12 PM

True enough. Maybe my question is more academic than practical.

KSB - Ken Smith · #4 07-01-2006, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

Here's the scenario: Unknown bow, unknown maker. Pernambuco or something else? Any tips on ID'ing the wood?

Here's 2 Pernambuccos and 1 Brazilwood in this pic; http://www.kensmithbasses.com/Double.../bows_tips.JPG

The Pernambucco has nicer color and grain transparency. When you play two similar bows made only of different wood, you can feel and hear the richness of the Pernambucco over the Brazilwood.

We just had 10 bows made of the exact same models and the main difference was the wood. The Pernambucco is far superior in tone, feel and elasticity in the playability.

Here are some other shots of 3 of these bows. Here (this is not an ad); http://www.kensmithbasses.com/Double.../KSB_bows.html

The bottom bow in each grouping is the Brazilwood. The top Bow is slightly higher quality Pernambucco as far as Bows go. This was agreed buy testing them on several fine Basses and two different players. Until now, I have never been able to test 10 exact model Bows in the same day or even over decades for that matter. It was a learning expierence for me as well.

I had a Bow recently that looked to be made of Cherry. Here (this is not an ad); http://www.kensmithbasses.com/Double...n/alsatian.htm

Lower cost Bows in the past were made of all sorts of wood but China which currently turns out about 80% of the Bows in the world today is currently producing mostly Brazilwood and some Pernambucco Bows in various grades depending on the actual maker and the model. I say that last statement because I have seen quite a few Bows made from beautiful wood that in my opinion were a total waste. Just having the best wood does not make it a good Bow.