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Double Bass new bass player hates her current bow, seeking advice

C

CherylTheSinger

Jul 19, 2013
66
13
somewhere in the woods in PA
#1
Hello everyone. I am a beginner (started last May), have a cheap rental bass, and what I think is a low end Glasser bow that I am falling in hate with.

My German bow doesn't seem to tighten very well, feels heavy at the tip and gets stuck at the frog when I play. I know much of this can be my fault, but I also know from playing violin as a child for 10 years that even a $500.00 violin bow made me literally cry with the realization that it isn't all my fault!

What is a good German bow for a tiny, short, small handed, middle aged woman with a little tendinitis in her right elbow/forearm?

Any help would be appreciated. I think I read all of the posts here, but there is SO Much information. It can be overwhelming. I contacted a bass luthier about making an appointment to try various bows. I am hoping I can take some to lessons with my teacher, but it's quite a drive to their showroom, and again, I currently don't have a decent budget. Still, something to save for would be nice. The local place I rented from had NO advice, just here's what we have in stock. play them. Too overwhelming for me at this point, not gonna crack my wallet open with that lack of help, but there has to be something better for me out there than this Glasser.

I am in Pennsylvania.

Thanks for any good advice.
 
#5
Hey Cheryl,

I agree with the advice to check into Gollihur wood stick bows- they are a great value, and Bob and Mark (and company) are great to deal with.

What part of Pennsyltucky are you in? Near Elizabethtown by chance? If so, please make an appointment to go see Mike Shank. He usually has lots of great bows in stock that you can audition.

It is my opinion that you don't have to spend a ton of dough to get a decent, serviceable bow.

Good luck in your search!

Joe
 
#7
Depending on your bass, finding a good matching bow can take a bit of trial and error, even more so if you haven't decided between a traditional wood bow and CF. For the price, CF is an excellent choice for a beginner, especially if you are shopping for something under $ 750. I have no experience with Glasser bows, and thus cannot comment on your current issue.

If you search the posts here on bows, you will find some consensus about "matching" a bow to a particular instrument and about the generally greater "warmth" of wooden bows. While I like the playability of the more highly rated CF bows, I do prefer the sound of well-made pernambuco bows.

That said, my first (inexpensive) German bow was a CF Shen Ophelia. For me, the Ophelia was quite decent, in terms both of sound and playability.

You should be able to locate a new Ophelia for just over $200. There appears to be one available here for about $ 220:

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Some folks have liked the Ophelia as well as, or better than, the Finale. On my bass, the particular Ophelia I selected drew a better sound than either the Coda Infinity or Revelation, both of which are considerably more expensive.

Eventually I moved up to some better pernambuco bows but I kept the Ophelia, even though I also later added a second version of the Coda Metropolitan to my own quiver.

There's a Metropolitan on consignment at the Bass Violin Shop at the moment for $ 750. It may be the earlier version; if you were interested, you could call Bob Beerman and inquire further. Bob (whom I highly recommend) may also be able to give you more advice, depending on your own needs.

Here's the page with his current inventory of German bows:

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In my view, a decent bow is integral to making solid progress as a beginner. Best of luck in your search!!
 
#8
Ideally you want to match the bow to your bass and playing needs. Therefore buying a bow without trying it is not the best. But if you're going to buy one without playing it, carbon fiber bows are consistent so you have a better chance of getting what you want - assuming you know what weight, length, etc you're after.
 
#9
CherylTheSinger said:
...a low end Glasser bow that I am falling in hate with.
Click to expand...

You could have stopped right there and we all would have understood.

Many shops will ship bows to you on trial, meaning you give them your credit card number and they ship you a few bows to try out for a week or two. Anything you don't like you send back, and if you find something good you pay for it and keep it.

If you prefer a more tactile experience over online/phone shopping, you may be near J.R. Judd Violins in Williamsport. Nice folks, beautiful shop, good selection.

What does your teacher think?
 
#10
Cheryl, do you think you need a smaller-than-normal bow? I ask because several folks have mentioned Gollihur, and I was also thinking of getting a smaller than normal bow, albeit for students and not for me. If you decide to go that route, let me know and maybe we'll get the boys down there to order a few smaller bows. I was thinking of getting at least one German and one French bow sized for a 1/4-size bass.

-S-
 
#11
I am a small woman, but not so small that I would think I would need a smaller than average size. Probably just about anything would be better than the mush I am playing at the moment, but I don't want to settle for just anything. Hoping to visit Shank's strings. They emailed me back with some suggestions, but no specific kinds, just some prices. Waiting to hear when I can make an appointment, as I would love to visit a bass and bow stocked shop. It's about 3 hours away. I'm fairly close to Pittsburgh. Thanks for the responses.
 
#13
DC Bass said:
You won't regret making a trip to see the Shanks, but there has to be someplace in or around Pittsburgh.
Click to expand...

I would think so too, but haven't found it yet. If anyone knows of one, please feel free to speak up about it. I am about an hour and a half from Pittsburgh, but I sing in the opera and am there quite a bit in the fall and spring. I rent from Volkwein's at the moment. Our school's rental guy (I am a chorus, guitar and general music teacher) came by with some replacements of the same type, but I think that they may possibly be worse. None of the sales people were helpful when I was there last fall, so I think I caught them on a bad day. Their bass luthier was extremely helpful and responsive in setting up my bass, but as far as bows and new instruments I got an indication from a sales person with a hand in a general direction to a dimly lit area with four basses of varying sizes, no person around, and no bows that I could see, and then they walked away. Although I know I need to have some knowledge going in, I expect some help when it comes to trying things out from any store I would go too. I always got good help at other places when I tried violins and violin bows, (one place in Pittsburgh,without appointment, and one in Hershey, Kain, with 50 high school kids in tow as part of their chorus/band field trip) I would think or at least hope a bass luthier would provide the same thing. My ex husband gave more knowledge to moms at Christmas time when he sold cheap electric guitars!

I made an appointment at Shanks. Bass store, bass store bass store time yeah! I haven't rented this bass for very long, so I wouldn't be put off blowing off some of my rental money and purchasing from someone who actually knows their product AND is willing to be nice to me.
 
#15
CherylTheSinger said:
I made an appointment at Shanks. Bass store, bass store bass store time yeah! I haven't rented this bass for very long, so I wouldn't be put off blowing off some of my rental money and purchasing from someone who actually knows their product AND is willing to be nice to me.
Click to expand...

How was your visit? I live about 20 minutes from Mike Shank-- he's an excellent guy to do business with. He won't try to sell you a $400 solution to your problem when he knows a $100 solution will work well. Setting up the appointment is usually the hardest part!

If you want a bite to eat for dinner, I suggest checking out the Black Gryphon, just north of Elizabethtown. Their food is sourced from local ingredients, and they have a fine beer selection!
 
#16
I couldn't get an appointment until January. Soon, soon !

I don't have money now anymore, but at least I can figure out what I want to get when I do.

I look forward to it. In the meantime my rental place replaced my bow with the same type, but this one has more "hair," or whatever it is that is filling in for hair, on it. It is a little better. They looked around for a wooden bow that they could lend me, but all they had were French bows.

Time and money are hard for me to come up with simultaneously, and it took a while for me to get an appointment, so I am keeping it! I have a zillion questions, and I hope I can find something to purchase when I get a little more cash in February or March (of course when there isn't time for me to think about sleep or breathing, let alone driving three hours to play with new toys).
 
#17
calypsocoral302 said:
How was your visit? I live about 20 minutes from Mike Shank-- he's an excellent guy to do business with. He won't try to sell you a $400 solution to your problem when he knows a $100 solution will work well. Setting up the appointment is usually the hardest part!

If you want a bite to eat for dinner, I suggest checking out the Black Gryphon, just north of Elizabethtown. Their food is sourced from local ingredients, and they have a fine beer selection!
Click to expand...

They had a bow for me, one choice, a carbon fiber. It seemed nice, $75.00. I am holding off, though, because I found out that they rent. I may rent from them, I just have to come up with a larger chunk of money than where I am currently renting from. I would get the bow with the rental; that's why I am holding off. I don't see giving them $75.00 and then turning around to rent two months later when I have more money.

I would have liked to spend a little more time there. Michael was busy, but came down, slapped some rosin on the bow, and handed it to me. I didn't bring my rental, as I didn't realize I had to, so they showed me three basses. Apparently, I shouldn't be playing a 3/4, so they dug out a 5/8, nope still too big. Linda dug out a 1/2, lectured me a bit on how I held it, my teacher selection in allowing me to play a 3/4, my choice of deciding to play bass in the first place since I don't make a lot of money at being a public school music teacher, but did inform me that they did rent, and I would get a chance to learn a lot about my bass set up if I did purchase/rent from them. I had to talk a bit about where I rented from, as I was trying to figure out the better deal. After thinking, their's is, even if it's cause of gaining more knowledge about this instrument. Michael poked his head down the stairs, saw I had the 1/2 size, said I was hooked up, then back up he went. Then, she showed me the way out. I didn't really get to play the bass for more than 5 minutes, or less, appointment took about 25 minutes. I wish I could have stayed longer and tried that 1/2 size, but being that they didn't expect that part of the visit and had another client upstairs, it's cool I suppose. I was happy to learn what I did. One point I think was driven home to me was that a violin bow and a bass bow experience aren't necessarily the same. It's apparently not worth it for me to try anything but basic at this time. I did gain confirmation from Michael that my current Glasser bow is a hunk of junk.

I am planning on going back. Is it normal to have a 25 minute visit at a bass shop? At least it was a nice day for my 2.5 hour drive there, even if my visit was painfully short. (I took four hours to get home, cause I was too cheap to use the PA turnpike. It was a nice day outside, and I had beer on the way home.) I bombarded Linda with questions via email when I got home. I could have asked more, but I figure 10 is far too many anyway hehe. I can ask more when I actually spend money there.
 
#18
I'll second their advice to play a properly sized instrument. My experience, and this is also from having taught guitar to countless children over the last 40+ years, is that there is nothing worse than trying to learn on a too-big instrument. It can be OK for someone who knows how to play already to elect to play an oversized instrument, but if you're early in your studies, it's _way_ better to err on the side of the instrument being too small.

My experience with less than 3/4 sized basses is that I come across more in 1/4 size than in 1/2 or 5/8, and you might be OK with a 1/4 size, too.

-S-
 

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