New bow stick?

Eilif · #1 04-13-2002, 02:45 PM

As part of a bass I just purchased, I got a bow. The stick of the bow sucks. It is cracked, and though repairable, it will keep on cracking over and over and over.... The frog, and tension adjuster are really nice,(ebony/mother of pearl, and Silver/mother of pearl respectively), and worth salvaging I think. My Questions are these:

Is it feasible and/or worth it to replace only the stick of a bow?

How do I go about finding just the stick of a bow?

anonymous0726 · #2 04-13-2002, 03:49 PM

Get thee to the luthier.

Rob W · #3 04-13-2002, 11:55 PM

Really, what makes a great bow IS the stick! You may have a nice frog there, but really, if you're looking to replace only the stick - that's a bit backward.

It would be like a buying a really crappy used car with really nice tires in great shape, and then looking to find a new car body to go with your great tires. Not too likely.

In other words, any reasonably good bow is probably going to have a nice frog, etc. already so you're not going to have much need for your nice spare parts.

Besides, it is a bit taboo to get a very nice bow and start changing parts like the frog. That would likely seriously devalue the 'original' state of the bow. ...sort of like taking a '57 Fender bass and throwing new pickups in.

Eilif · #4 04-14-2002, 12:57 AM

I can't really afford a really nice bow anyway. My one working bow is a glaser Fibreglass (please don't laugh) I know that the most important/expensive/ sound-influencing part of the bow is the stick.

I just want to know if there is somewhere I could buy a wooden stick that I could put with the components I have and have a second bow that would be a little better than my Fibreglass one.

anonymous0726 · #5 04-14-2002, 08:27 AM

About the only thing you could do is get the bow repaired. It can be done. The repairman will glue and clamp it, and then wrap a bandage around the repair. The bow that Edgar Meyer was using at the master class that I attended not long ago had undergone this treatment. You could also keep an eye on eBay and see if something comes up...

Jeff Bollbach · #6 04-14-2002, 08:28 PM

This site has anything you could think of in order to put a bow together.

http://www.bowworks.com/