Taking off silver wrapping and plastic thingy

[Tronictq]

I was told the other day that taking the silver wrapping and that black plastic thing off of the bows enhances "good, good, good" vibrations and you get a bigger and better sound.

This is supposedly Gary Karr's belief?

Has anyone tested it out? Results?

-T

[Bob Branstetter]

Good bows don't have plastic thingies.

[toman]

I'm not sure about the sound or vibrations or anything, but removing the grip and wire wrap from any bow will change the balance. The reason the wire is there in the first place is to fine tune the balance, so one would think that removing it might make the bow play worse? I know that my german bow has no grip, but you can see where there used to be one. It's an excellent bow the way it is now, so who knows if it was better with the grip or not. I've always thought the whole thing was a bit odd, both because I see many good bows without grips, and because I never could quite figure out why german bows had grips to begin with other than balance. hmmm...

[Tronictq]

That's what i meant, the rubber GRIP, not plastic thingy. Sorry about my lack of clarity. I was fumbling for words in my mind at the time.

I have a fairly decent Hofner bow, not the top of the line by a long shot, but definitely not a "student" bow.

I'm really contemplating doing it, hopefully I get a few more opinions first. I guess all that would be lost is the balance to a fine bow that has worked for me thus far.

-T

[toman]

I would probably say don't do it. If the bow works for you the way it is, keep it that way, If not, sell it and get something different. I personally wouldn't go doing something like just discarding the grip without having a very good idea of what it will do. What exactly is the bow not doing that you would like it to, and what do you hope to acomplish by removing the grip? I would say either take the bow to a good bow repairman and ask him if removing it will acomplish what you want, or just start shopping for a new bow. If the bow is as good as you say it is, don't risk messing it up.