Using the code CELLODOLL you can get 15% off any purchase from the Coruss online shop (expires 10/12/21): corusshop.com/. You can purchase bows for violin, viola, cello, double bass and Coruss rosin. If you don't nee a new bow but want to try their hair, you can also buy the hair on its own! Their vegan bow hair will fit on any bow and is installed like traditional horse hair.
I’m so impressed. And if I weren’t vegan, I’d be mildly conflicted. I’ll explain. In the first excerpt, I was surprised to find that the first bow was haired with Coruss. I found it to be the more sensitive, beautiful sounding hair and so I preferred it. I suppose my silly (albeit certainly popular) bias led me to believe that I’d prefer the horse hair. Wrongo! In the subsequent excerpts I felt that the horse hair had a slight edge over the Coruss. The Coruss was beautiful. Sensitive. Sweet. The horse hair had more bite and grunt and a little more fatness. Perhaps the Coruss was a little more articulate or unweighted which might serve well in more reverberant spaces or small ensembles in which clarity and blend are more important than body and texture. But here’s the deal: they both sound great. Here’s the other deal: horse hair is gross. “It’s just like giving the horse a haircut - they don’t mind.”
This purple hair bow is so you!! Hahaha I definitely want the pink one! I had my expectations really low for this bow and I'm really surprised how good it sounded, especially in the melodic phrases. Spiccato in the Popper Etude was a little noisy, but still good. Nice review =)
Thanks so much for your kind words Karolyni (fun fact, my birthname is "Carolyn" and we're both cellists?! WOW 😱)! Yes, I too have heard mixed reviews about vegan/synthetic bow hair in the past but I was also surprised at how well the bow handles multiple techniques. Very glad to work with them and collaborate to spread the word on this alternative bow hair option. Also yes, it was SO HARD for me to choose between the pink and purple hair! 🤣
Being an adult learner of cello (2 years) I was actually surprised that I could hear the difference between the two for both sets of blind tests! Though it's hard to describe the difference 🙈
That's excellent that your ears are able to tell a difference in just 2 years! Yes, I agree there are differences between the 2 in terms of the tone colors. Such as how dark/light the cello's tone sounds between the bows.
Question: I read a violinist review mentioning a slight hiss at contact point, due to smoother hair (the fix was applying a light coat of double bass rosin as base and normal rosin on top). Did you noticed any? I personally find the horse hair as more "chamber" sounding and synthetic as a "soloist" sound. Great and informative video!
Hi Jollkki, thanks for your thoughtful comment and excellent questions! When I first tried out a bow for Coruss I gave them similar feedback and they were very receptive to it (in terms of hearing that "hiss" during bow changes). Their solution was to use their rosin more frequently and it made a HUGE difference! That's why I made sure to mention that point in the vlog, since I am sure to rosin this bow every time I use it. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much for this great review. Can you clarify what you mean by experimenting on how tight or loose you have the bow? I think you are saying not tighten it as much because, as the hair will last longer, you don't want to tighten it as much as a normal bow. Is that correct? Best wishes.
You can actually tighten it more than horse hair because it can withstand more pressure. But you also don't have to, you can also make it looser and it will still sound stable. Just try it out, you have more of an expressive range with Coruss :)
@@ramiolsen , I am so grateful for your reply. Thank you so much. This is so helpful. I have been nervous to tighten it too much without being sure. Bless you for your reply. Wishing you a great week.
Hello Climerio! So Celli is a mysterious cello because he does NOT have a maker's label inside 😱! However, I've had some luthiers tell me that, based off of the varnish & body shape, it's most likely a German cello.
