Quote:
Originally Posted by GuitarFreak664  Please once you get it could you tell me how nice of a bow it is? I have been an orchestral bass player for five years now and I just bought a new bass and I am in the market for a new bow. Mine now is a wood bow with white horse hair. I can't spend more than ~$200 USD on a bow and I was curious about the quality of this bow.
What do you think of its overall build quality as well as the looks?
What type of hair did you use and how does it perform?
Please send me a couple of pictures if if you can so I can see more than the couple pictures on the website. My email is guitarfreak664@aim.com.
Thanks in advance! |
I see that you've posted in a few threads around asking basically the same question. Thomas Stone hypothetically asked what else you could get for $99. I'm asking you what you can get for your $200 USD and under price range.
The fact is your price limit is actually limiting what you can get. Every bow at that price will definitely be made in China. This is not to denigrate all bows made in China; in fact, I currently use a pernambuco bow made there that I love. The KSB, Upton, and the Bob G bows are all made there. All of them have their happy owners and advocates.
At that price point, however, you are basically taking a leap of faith on buying your bow simply by asking other people if they're happy with their bow. You're not going to get the consistent and excellent work of a Sue Lipkins or other top bowmakers, and you certainly aren't paying for that excellence and consistency. Instead, you'll be getting yourself a bow that is made by some unseen face in a bow factory in China. Who knows what's really going on in these factories?
You might be getting an excellent bow that plays and sounds beyond your expectations. Or you might be getting a mediocre bow that doesn't play that well or sound good. The point is that the quality of the bows at that price is going to be very inconsistent from one bow to the next. You really don't know what you're going to be getting by buying a bow blindly on faith and a review of someone else's bow.
So the best way to go about is is two ways.
First: increase your price range. You'll find that you'll be getting a lot more choices if you increase your limit to, say, $1,000 or so. You say that you just bought a new bass. Besides a proper setup by a good luthier, the best upgrade is going to be your bow. No doubt about it.
Let's say you're going to buy one of the under $200 bows. That's fine, but say you're in the market for an upgrade in a few years. Why not save the trouble and expense of a cheaper bow, which you may or may not have trouble using, when you can be playing with a much better bow right now? Trust me: a good, easy playing bow goes a long way in good technique and your enjoyment of playing. The last thing you want to do is fight your bow and compensate your technique for a poor bow; it'll only hurt you as you progress in your technique.
Second: try out as many bows as possible. This goes for those $200-and-under bows as well as bows at any price, even the in the thousands. Lemur Music allows you to try out a bunch of bows through the mail. And if you have a local bass luthier, he/she may have a bunch of bows to try out.
When you're trying them out, know a few things. First, try them out on your own bass. Every bow and bass combinations sounds different.
And when trying them out, play the same passages with each bow to find their strengths and weaknesses in the passages. Also play many different types of passages, slow and fast, with spiccato or legato, and so forth.
But most importantly for you, I think, is getting your teacher or an orchestra professional to try out the bows for you. Your experience and your technique is limited at this point. A professional will be able to discern the differences between the bows as well as the strengths and weaknesses much, much more readily than you can right now.
Your preferred bow may cost you a thousand dollars or more, but not necessarily. You may find that you've found the perfect bow at the $200-and-under price limit. The point is that you don't know until you've actually tried out the bow firsthand. Words can only mean so much.
