As someone new to double bass, it's fascinating to hear the difference in tone between the different bows. I wouldn't have guessed they made that much of a difference. Love the Korus bows. Just need them to drop a zero on the price and I'm in! lol.
I had the pleasure to trial two of Les’s Pernambuco French Bows this last summer. They were so wonderful and an incredible improvement to the bow I had been using. An immediately noticeable change in depth and complexity of tone and felt like I could achieve more without working as hard. I ended up purchasing one and I couldn’t be happier. The pernambuco you tested looks and sounds a lot like the other one I tested. I had quite a time deciding which one to go with! Thanks for sharing this!!!
Best advice I got early on was get a good bow ($400 -$800) range when starting out. No need to struggle with a poor quality bow. You can always upgrade as needed. I appreciate that advice to this day.
I wanted to give German bows a try and got a brown weave Finale bow. I hate to say it but, after a bit of practice, I actually love it over my spare French bow that's valued twice as much 😅
Les Korus Pernambuco sounds the nicest to me... other Korus bows, too... Dolling was also nice... (speaking as a listener, not bass player) If I were the producer of some double bass record and different bows were offered - I would suggest the Les Korus Pernambuco if the player would be comfortable with it, too.
As I listen to these sound test comparisons, i feel like we would need a blind test (playing AND listening) to see if all of this is just snake oil ;P. I understand that the feel is different on different bows, and sustain and attack are better on a "better" bow. And that the feel is what musicians go for mostly. A test without the influence of knowing what you're playing or listening to would be interesting. :)
Thanks Jason. My fave was the German Korus Jatoba. I liked Korus Pernambuco too but in the fast runs the one with more low-mid frequency dominance and less white noise (string friction sound) sounds more pure and musical so Korus German Jatoba. The French is good too but less speaking which could be the effect of some of the resonation improvement by heftier Herman bow frog area. Thanks again. 👍🏽
Nice! My German bow technique isn’t anything to write home about 🤣 - glad that the tone of that Jatoba bow came through. I really like that one as well.
Jason, Thanks for your videos! You have a wealth of info available to us. One thing I didn't see in your bow videos was about the hair. It would seem that would make more of a difference in sound vs. the type of wood or material in the stick for a given hair tension and set of strings. Please share your thoughts. Bear with me. I played some years ago then got away from it. I restarted this past year so there is still some learning curve. Thanks.
Great demo. My ears tell me it’s a tie between your bow and the pernambuco. Both drive your instrument beautifully. Thanks for your research on this video.
Very interesting to hear these different price points in the hand of the same skilled musician. It is quite the experience to see that while there is a difference (especially facilitating sound production with faster playing as price point goes up) it is quite hard to say that the 4k bow is as much better (10x) as an inexperienced player might think. What are you thoughts on how they differ? Best wishes from Germany!
@@jamesmarkham7489 The wood bows were all noticeably nicer sounding than the carbon fiber finale, but from then, the tonal differences are a lot more miniscule than one would think, especially as prices get higher and higher. The overall craftsmanship though will generally be higher, offering a better feeling, well balanced bow that will do what you want it to do without having to work so hard.
Could you please make a video showing how various bow strokes are notated and played? It would be a huge help for players like myself, who don’t know the difference between a portato and a potato!
@7:24 Yes...yes...excellent... Join the dark side... "Emperor Palpatine, you're needed in the throne room. Emperor Palpatine, throne room, please. Thank you. 😁 No shade, I find the French bow intriguing, and players should play what feels most comfortable for them. That said, all of these bows sound AMAZING! I'm glad to see Jatoba making it's way into the double bass world - Ibanez has been using Jatoba for a few years now, over on the bass guitar side of the "wall".
It's a shame that it's so much harder to tell the differences over video, even with nice equipment. The bow really is a large part of the sound, and I didn't realize that until my teacher told me "go save up a thousand bucks and get yourself a decent bow"
That’s basically what he’s wearing. He has a problem with his bladder, so the belly band ensures that there’s no peeing in the house. He’s a very sweet boy!
