Salt and Pepper Squeak!!!

AndreyR · #1 09-25-2008, 05:09 PM

Hi everyone, I've been playing upright with a bow for about a month. I have lessons with a teacher regularly. Last week I have started doing 2 octave scales.. And went to get my bow rehaired where I'm renting it from - Kolstain's in Long Island. I came in, and the guy just gave me another bow, and the hair on it was said to be new, but played on. It's called salt and pepper as my teacher called it, because it has white and black stripes. I use Kolstein's Ultra Bass Rosin. The bow squeaks!!! It's just not catching the hair, unlike the last bow with white hair... If i tried to bow normally like I did with the last bow, this new bow just doesn't catch the string, and squeaks producing overtones...I am getting annoyed, and I have to use extra pressure to get it to catch the string, and my arm gets tired, which is the result of stress and improper technique. I got the bow saturday the 20th, and played it sunday, wed, and today - 3 days, so the hair should have gotten used to rosin already... Plus I tighten the bow pretty well.
Can anyone please suggest something?

standupright · #2 09-25-2008, 05:11 PM

switch rosins? pops maybe?
is your bow too tight?

AndreyR · #3 09-25-2008, 05:23 PM

I'm going to switch to pops soon, yes. But kolstein's rosin is very sticky, so my problem might not be the rosin.

. Plus I keep the strings clean.

standupright · #4 09-25-2008, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndreyR

Hi everyone, I've been playing upright with a bow for about a month. I have lessons with a teacher regularly. Last week I have started doing 2 octave scales.. And went to get my bow rehaired where I'm renting it from - Kolstain's in Long Island. I came in, and the guy just gave me another bow, and the hair on it was said to be new, but played on. It's called salt and pepper as my teacher called it, because it has white and black stripes. I use Kolstein's Ultra Bass Rosin. The bow squeaks!!! It's just not catching the hair, unlike the last bow with white hair... If i tried to bow normally like I did with the last bow, this new bow just doesn't catch the string, and squeaks producing overtones...I am getting annoyed, and I have to use extra pressure to get it to catch the string, and my arm gets tired, which is the result of stress and improper technique. I got the bow saturday the 20th, and played it sunday, wed, and today - 3 days, so the hair should have gotten used to rosin already... Plus I tighten the bow pretty well.
Can anyone please suggest something?

this might be your problem then. try loosening the tension.

JimGullen · #5 09-26-2008, 07:26 AM

Hi Andrey!

Getting a bow rehaired can be just like _War and Peace_: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.." :-)

I would suggest you try the following things.

First, make sure you're not overtightening the bow. Each stick needs a different amount of tension, but a rule of thumb is that the stick should just about touch the strings when you're really "digging in" and applying alot of shoulder pressure.

Once that's taken care of, new hair always needs a lot of rosin at first. Rosin your bow and start playing (long tones are great, here), after some period you begin to feel it not grab as well, stop and re-apply. Play some more until it starts to slip....apply more rosin. Repeat....These applications, at first, might be only a few minutes apart! As you go, the time between re-applications will increase.

When you're done playing, loosen the bow and go do whatever. When you come back, you'll find that you'll be re-applying a little more frequently than you ended with, but you wont' be back to square one...and it'll keep getting better.

Depending on how much you play, it can take a few days to work in a good base.

After rehairing my bow the last time with some black hair, it took me five days to get a base in there...I WAS getting nervous! Now that it's in there, it's sweet and needs very little rosin reapplication. Once at a beginning of a practice session, max.

Best regards!

Jim

AndreyR · #6 09-26-2008, 10:28 AM

Hey Jim, the stuff what you wrote down seems like a good strategy. I'll definitely try it! Thanks again!

David Kaczorowski · #7 09-28-2008, 11:48 AM

Bow hair has a break-in period of 2 or 3 days till it starts grabbing well.

Marcus Johnson · #8 09-28-2008, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimGullen

Getting a bow rehaired can be just like _War and Peace_: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.." :-)

"A Tale Of Two Cities", actually.... Dickens couldn't make up his mind, apparently.

AndreyR · #9 09-28-2008, 04:48 PM

In any case, the bow seems to have started to grab the string. Learning to play upright is tough...

BHurn · #10 09-30-2008, 12:16 PM

Probably just reiterating what others said, but I got a new bow recently which was never previously rosin'd and all I had to to do was just rosin it for a solid 3-5 minutes. then run my fingers through the top of the hair, (not the bottom, the side facing the bow) and then eventually it got some serious grab.

JimGullen · #11 10-01-2008, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

"A Tale Of Two Cities", actually.... Dickens couldn't make up his mind, apparently.

There's a REALLY good reason my degrees are in Statistics! :-)

Apologies to Mssrs Dickens and Tolstoy!

Best regards!

Jim