Selecting a Bow

Bow Advice and Tips

Just a couple quick tips about selecting a bow for the beginner.  There are two common materials that you will have to choose from in a beginner bow:  

Wood vs Fiberglass

You can get a “decent” fiberglass bow for around $40 or you can get an intermediate wood bow for about $100.  This is an area where you don’t want to be cheap.  You will be able to tell a HUGE difference in sound quality between the fiberglass and wood bows.  A beginner may not be able to hear the difference between a $100 bow and a $2000 bow (yes they exist)…but I guarantee anyone can hear the difference between a $40 fiberglass bow and a $100 wood bow.

So basically……      WOOD WINS!

Tips on Bow Maintenance

    -When you tighten your bow, never tighten it to a point that it straightens out the bow. You should be able to hold the bow and strings between your fingers and squeeze them together until they touch using very little effort

     -When choosing a rosin, get the more expensive dark green (or seemingly black) rosin.  It will cost you about $8 more but it is easier to apply and creates a much better sound.

     -Always release the tension on your bow before storing it.  If you neglect to do this your strings will become brittle and break while you are playing, or if left long enough they will snap on their own in the case.

     -It doesn’t hurt to keep a mothball somewhere in your violin case to prevent “bow bugs.”  It’s unlikely that you will get them, but if you do they will eat your bow hair.

     -Always wipe the rosin off your violin strings after each time you play.  This prevents the rosin from crystallizing on the strings, which will cause squeaky bow noise the next time you play along with drastically shortening the life of your strings.  (Just to be clear, I am talking about the metal violin strings here, not the bow strings.  You can leave the rosin on the bow strings.)

Hope this Helps get you started…and Happy Fiddlin’!

-Joe