adjusting to new bow-German spiccato ?

[Rodger Bryan]

I found a German bow that fits like a glove. It pulls a sweet tone from my bass, the balance is perfect and the weight (144g) suits me. Also, the spiccato is very easy to execute on the bow. It sounds like I've found the perfect bow, but I'm having to adjust my technique with the immediate transitions from spiccato to sustained notes.

On my old, cheap bow (136g), the balance point was roughly in the same place but the spiccato wouldn't speak nearly as easily as the new bow. but- the transition from sp. to sustained wouldn't "chatter" as much.

If I start a sustained note anywhere on the string with the new bow, there is no problem, but if I'm starting above the string, I have to start the stroke closer to the frog than what I'm used to to avoid the bouncing- between the location of the winding and the frog.

Since the bow trial is over and I love what this bow can do, I will have to practice to work around this technical issue. When working on some Mozart, I was able to make it happen, but I welcome any suggestions.

So, I guess my question is: where along the length of your bows do you typically make the safe "landing"? thanks for your input

[Rodger Bryan]

an addendum to my previous post-

to avoid the "chatter", it helped somewhat to tilt the hair away at the start of the sustained note. I'll keep working through it...

[Cory Palmer]

Tilting the bow towards you is the easiest way to avoid "chatter."

How tight is the hair when you play? I would think that it would be harder to control this if your hair is too tight.

[Rodger Bryan]

I'll experiment with a little with the lessening the tension. My habit with the older, lightweight bow was to press too much when playing loud passages. The new bow says- uh, no. Pull!!

Cory- I noticed you studied w/ Jack Budrow also... he had me pull the pinky off of the bottom of the frog slightly upon landing. adjustments, adjusments