Rodion Azarkhin's Modified Bow

[Patton]

I was reading an article in an old issue of Bass World about Rodion Azarkhin and it mentioned that he used a bow of his own design. Does anyone know what his bow setup was?

[bassist14]

maybe you can find some info here:
http://www.silviodallatorre.com/subr...ontent=publish

[Mr.Phil]

I read that article too. The bow had a lot of extra weight, 200+ grams? And something that allowed for finger accents? Interesting indeed.

[Charleyelrahc]

Hi, I don't play bass but am completely enthralled by this amazing artists work. I can't even believe there isn't a major documentary of his work plus it is very difficult to find anthologies about him so if you hear of any please let me know.

Also, I stumbled onto rodion azarkhin watching a movie about the artists John Cale and Brian Eno called "Words For the Dying". It has this incredible section where Rodion comes into the studio as a seasoned veteran and jams on the bass with the afore mentioned bow you are interested in. It looks like he totally customized it for his style. His hand are humongous and the film really shows his genius.

Best,

Charley

[gp_bass]

I've got an old book from the 80's called "the way they play." It was one of a series of maybe 15 or more books on major artists at the time.

There's a full article and interview on Azarkhin, as well as pictures of him and his bow. His (German) bow had weights taped at the tip and middle of the bow, and he had some kind of thumb lever mechanism that would change the tension of the hair when he pressed it. Wild stuff.

The book's in storage now, but I could dig it out. I think scanning it would violate copyright laws, so not sure how to share this info.

Here's the book for sale online from some rare bookseller. Steep price!
http://antiqbook.com/boox/paw/1004844.shtml

[anonymous12251111]

I have an old bass world magazine somewhere, it shows photos of his modified bow. It was about 250g, German, with a "trigger" system for finger accents. It also looked like the entire bow was French but with a German frog...I'll try and find it somewhere.