When do you get your Bow Rehaired?

[bankerwithabass]

Hi everyone, I have been playing upright for about 7 years now, but this year right after I got my new fully carved bass I started working on my Arco technique. My question is when do you know that you need to get the bow rehaired?

Do you wait until a lot of the hair breaks or falls out or is there a time when the bow doesn't grab the string and needs to be replaced? Both?

Or do you just wait until a specified time and do it then?

My bow has been going for 2 years with not much use in the first year but now I play it every day for 30 minutes to an hour. It seems fine but one side is noticeably thinner than the other side but still plays and grabs the string ok.

Thanks for any help on this subject!

Darrell O.

[KSB - Ken Smith]

Hair old, dry, dirty, doesn't hold good rosin etc. Any one of those reasons individually or combined.

Also, I have bought Bows with what I call 'bad hair' jobs. Lumpy or cheap hair. Another reason to have it done right.

[downneck]

my upton workshop bow's stock hair hit the wall at about 8 months (1-2 hours daily practice), just wouldn't hold rosin anymore. i'm about 3 months into the rehair, so i suppose i'll check back when this one goes south

[bankerwithabass]

Thanks for your input. I will keep playing it until it doesn't hold rosen any longer or until there isn't enough hair to play. I'll show my teacher when I start lesson's again next month.

Thanks all.

[JoeyNaeger]

I've heard anywhere between 6 months to a year. Personally, I do it every year, but I wouldn't push it further than that. As you get better with the bow, you'll begin to notice when it needs a rehair.

[JimGullen]

Greetings!

Bow hair is also effected by temperature and humidity. It shrinks in the winter and stretches in the summer. Many people rehair around Thanksgiving to get slightly longer hair so that it's an appropriate length when it shrinks in the dry of winter. It can then be rehaired back to a shorter length in May so that when it stretches in the humidity of summer it's an appropriate length. The difference is quite small 1-2 millimeters, but it makes a big difference.

Basically you want to be sure that you are always able to loosen the hair to remove tension and be able to tighten enough to play without having to drag the eyelet all the way to the back of the mortise which will strip your eyelet.

Best regards!

Jim

[toman]

I just try to get it done around once a year. I never seem to break many hairs, so that's not a problem, and I don't use a ton of rosin, so it doesn't get funky. I always keep my bows loose and in a case when not playing, so basicically, yeah, just ty to keep it on schedual as much as possible.

[Teijo]

I got my first bow as a present from a friend. Man that was a slow start. I just figured that this was supposed to be difficult at the beginning. When I finally took my bow to the local luthier, he said that this bow was made somewhere around 1945-1955, and looked like the hair had never been changed. For sure the hair was not changed since the sixties. He figured that out from the method used to in the hairs. It was like glass, the old hair I mean. The luthier said, that the local players get their bow hair changed at least once a year. So I desided that I am not going to wait for another 50 years. I do know how it affects the playing when the hair goes bad, so I can get it rehaired when it happens.

[cadence]

I've had my bow for 8 years and haven't had it rehaired...somehow it still holds rosin just fine and very rarely will a hair break. That's with quite a lot of play too. It's a great bow but it has really been a suprise that the hair has held up so well.