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Double Bass A thread of substance for pro luthiers

Jan 26, 2009
686
9
Lilburn, GA
Disclosures
Ronald Sachs Violins
I thought I'd share my trick here for those of you who rehair bows. I recently had a Carvalho bow on my table where the ebony had expanded significantly. Coming from Brasil, I'm not at all surprised. It probably doesn't help that the humidity today is really high. Even after performing surgery to get the wedge out, the ferrule was not willing to come off at all. For fear of breaking the frog, I didn't want to continue to pull on it.

Desperate, I decided to try my repair blanket.

7183027630_0fdc49d01e_o.jpg

flickr

I got the idea for these repair blankets from this thread (thanks again Doug and Jake!). I got the bottom of the frog up to ~160 degrees for a couple minutes. The ferrule and slide came right off!

I now have another trick up my sleeve for stuck slides/ferrules, thought I'd share my fortune.. :hyper:
 
On a recent rehair, I couldn't get the pearl slide out of the frog. I rapped on it a bit hoping that that might loosen it, but in the end, I stuck it in the freezer for a while. Things must have contracted a bit because it then came out fairly easily. Once I had to Dremel it out and make a new one--PITA. I put plenty of pencil graphite in the slots for the next guy.