Poll: Percentage of Bass value to spend on Bow

SteveFreides · #1 10-13-2009, 01:46 PM

Pick a percentage to recommend to people when they ask how much to spend on a bow.

I say 15%.

-S-

reedo35 · #2 10-13-2009, 11:01 PM

It depends on what you are doing. If you only play Jazz gigs, and need a bow for sustained notes on a Ballad, yes, it's a stupid question to think about. If you are in a professional Orchestra, Playing mostly classical, you might want to think about a better quality Bow. I would rather play a Great Bow on a Mediocre Bass than Vice versa. My .02.

thebassbass · #3 10-14-2009, 12:18 AM

i paid over 50% of what i paid for my bass for the bow that i have now.

JtheJazzMan · #4 10-14-2009, 12:41 AM

No offence, but I hate these questions.

Each piece of equipment is a link in the chain of equipment. You upgrade your equipment as you can and you deal with the weakest link in the chain.

Uncletoad · #5 10-14-2009, 07:30 AM

Making your budget for your bow based on some arbitrary number like the cost of your bass is pointless.

Try to buy the one you prefer over all the others you try that you can afford, or find the bow you love and try to find a way to buy it.

Eric Swanson · #6 10-14-2009, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncletoad

Making your budget for your bow based on some arbitrary number like the cost of your bass is pointless.

Try to buy the one you prefer over all the others you try that you can afford, or find the bow you love and try to find a way to buy it.

+1. I have an inexpensive bass right now and my bow's value equals or exceeds the bass'. When I get a nicer bass, the ratio will change. So, what conclusions can anyone draw?

A pro orchestral player w/a $100K + instrument and a $6K bow has a different ratio than somebody with a cheaper bass and an identically priced bow.

Get the best bow you can. Forget the ratio, IMHO.

hdiddy · #7 10-14-2009, 09:51 AM

Dude, what's wrong with you guys? Cummon, everybody knows that if you don't get the proper bow-to-bass price ratio, your bass is going to asplode!

Please stop the misinformation!

fdeck · #8 10-15-2009, 06:28 PM

My bass was free and my bow was 300 bucks. So my ratio is 300 divided by zero, whatever that works out to.

But seriously, I agree with the others. What's important is that each instrument is at least good enough to complement the other. My new bow made my bass sound better. A new bass will probably make my bow sound better. Being a better player will make both sound better. It never ends.

thinears · #9 10-16-2009, 01:34 AM

Well, you can't divide by zero, but you can take the limit as the price of your bass approaches zero, getting a ratio where your bow is infinitely more expensive then your bass. Wow. Sorry, I couldn't resist, I'm a math person.

dchan · #10 10-16-2009, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thinears

Well, you can't divide by zero, but you can take the limit as the price of your bass approaches zero, getting a ratio where your bow is infinitely more expensive then your bass. Wow. Sorry, I couldn't resist, I'm a math person.

Yes. One of the poll choices should have been ∞.

JtheJazzMan · #11 10-16-2009, 02:30 AM

You can divide by zero. It just tears a hole in the fabric of space time, so Id advise against it.

TheSuzie · #12 10-16-2009, 11:42 PM

For several years I owned a bow but no bass so my question was what percentage of the cost of my bow should I spend on a bass...

SteveFreides · #13 10-18-2009, 09:19 PM

I think it's a useful metric for those of us who teach kids to be able to give to parents, and also a useful metric for first-time buyers who don't know much, e.g., if the store wants to sell you a $5k bass and a $50 bow, you should know this probably isn't good. Perhaps I should have said "when parents ask" instead of "people."

To the people who said if you play jazz you don't need much of a bow, in my opinion that's backwards. Notice how you sound just fine on your students' instruments but it doesn't work the other way around. Speaking just for myself here, but I play quite a few thing and the ones I play the best are the ones for which I have the worst instruments.

Just my opinion and you're entitled to yours, of course - I think it's a fine question to ask for the reasons I gave above.

-S-

Uncletoad · #14 10-18-2009, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveFreides

I think it's a useful metric for those of us who teach kids to be able to give to parents, and also a useful metric for first-time buyers who don't know much, e.g., if the store wants to sell you a $5k bass and a $50 bow, you should know this probably isn't good. Perhaps I should have said "when parents ask" instead of "people."

To the people who said if you play jazz you don't need much of a bow, in my opinion that's backwards. Notice how you sound just fine on your students' instruments but it doesn't work the other way around. Speaking just for myself here, but I play quite a few thing and the ones I play the best are the ones for which I have the worst instruments.

Just my opinion and you're entitled to yours, of course - I think it's a fine question to ask for the reasons I gave above.

-S-

Having a context like that up front would be far more helpful for targeted responses. In that context this conversation makes a bunch more sense.

The 15% ratio is helpful to tell a beginning student's parents who buy a $3000 bass and want to start them in a crappy $100 ebay bow that they should look at something better...around $450. That makes sense.

Having said that I still think the concept of ratios are a bad idea. It's arbitrary and doesn't account for individual differences in the student or the equipment they are using. Bow values and bass values just don't square up like that past the entry level.

For instance, I have a $5000 bass and a $25,000 bass. My $900 Prochownik french bow (probably $1500 now) seems very up to the task on either bass. None of my teachers have suggested I'm missing something in a bow.

By the 15% rule I've undershot by over $2000, or overshot by $750 depending on which bass you are talking about. Spending another $2K on a bow isn't going to make me sound better. Practicing with my $900 bow a lot will.

As a student develops their needs change and helping them and their parents find suitable tools to help them grow is part of a teachers gig. Each student progresses at different rates and so need more specific guidance about tools. Ratios become arbitrary at that point. IMO which means very little in this area, ratios are are only helpful when parents are super cheap or horribly ignorant. In that case you're really educating the parents on perspective, not values or money.

Topagege0 · #15 10-18-2009, 11:52 PM

Hdiddy is hilarious, and I def agree with Uncletoad and the whole concept of who Can put a ratio to something like that, nice chain link analogy. I have 2 basses one around 10,000 and one around 20,000 and my bow is (I calculated it) less the one half of one percent of the greater of the two instruments. If there is such a thing as a ratio....im muffed. But I think I realized I'm buying a new bow this week. Thanks guys!