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Double Bass rehair
- Thread starter SAlcott
- Start date
Yes...This is the trickiest part of rehairing a bow.
I like to tighten up the strands (esp. "loose" strands) by holding it (VERY carefully) over an open flame on my stove, before tensioning. You can visibly see the strands contract.
IMFE, of course...I only rehair my own bow.
Can you post a photo of your bow hair at tension?
Thanks.
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I don't have a photo; about 1/16" of the hair on the bottom side in playing position was pretty loose. I removed it and it seems to have had no effect on playability. The guy who did it has offered to redo it, which I'll take him up on after the upcoming concert.
The hair should be even tension across the entire ribbon. Depending on how loose/old your hair is when you loosen it all the way and start to tighten it, it should all come together/to tension at the same time right from the start, not just at playing tension. Sometimes you will find a hair or two that doesn't cooperate, but if one side is looser than the other that's no good, if the middle sags when the edges get tight that's also a problem, it should all be about the same.
Don's rehair looks great side to side in those photos. It's often easier to judge when you look at the side of the hair, you can hold it horizontally and see if there are danglers. Moisture and/or heat to stretch/shrink everything even is very common in rehairing. Getting the hair even in a bass bow is probably one of the hardest parts of a good rehair because of how wide it is. You have to get the tension really consistent at the width it's going to be before tying a knot that's significantly narrower where the tension isn't consistent, the tongue of the frog needs to be flat at the mouth of the ferrule, the ferrule flat needs to be flat and often ends up being bulged out because the flat can be too thin or someone put a wedge in there that was way too big, etc.
Bass rehairs are not easy work, but you shouldn't accept bad work just because it's hard. If he's offering to redo it go for it and hopefully it was just not his best day.
Don's rehair looks great side to side in those photos. It's often easier to judge when you look at the side of the hair, you can hold it horizontally and see if there are danglers. Moisture and/or heat to stretch/shrink everything even is very common in rehairing. Getting the hair even in a bass bow is probably one of the hardest parts of a good rehair because of how wide it is. You have to get the tension really consistent at the width it's going to be before tying a knot that's significantly narrower where the tension isn't consistent, the tongue of the frog needs to be flat at the mouth of the ferrule, the ferrule flat needs to be flat and often ends up being bulged out because the flat can be too thin or someone put a wedge in there that was way too big, etc.
Bass rehairs are not easy work, but you shouldn't accept bad work just because it's hard. If he's offering to redo it go for it and hopefully it was just not his best day.
