How to Choose a Violin Bow 

So glad to hear that! Having a decent wood bow definitely does make difference. Thanks for letting me know! 👍

Glad to help and thanks for letting me know!

Glad you found the video useful. Thanks for letting me know!

Yes, I have the same issues and it make the situation much more difficult. I always try to make sure they at least have the same amount of rosin on them but the hair is another story. Many bows have too much hair and this makes the sound "fuzzy". You just have to visually inspect the bow (particularly the middle) and make sure it's not obviously overstuffed of hair. If it is, then it's excluded!

Kennedy Violins - Interesting.. If I may ask, how much hair should a viola bow have compared to a violin bow ?

@@shipsahoy1793Well, that's a tough question to answer. There is not only the thickness of the hair but also the width. The width of a viola hair may be on average about 2mm more than a violin. However, it's the thickness that is the problem. When you look at the hair in the middle of the bow, there really should NOT be a lot of thickness to it (from bottom to top of hair bundle). The more that the middle resembles what the hair looks like at the frog near the wedge, the better. It's difficult to explain by writing about it but if you took your average really cheap bow and a nice professional bow and compared the hair thickness side by side, you'd probably see what I mean. The hair is just kind of thrown in on a cheap student bow and not measured too carefully but the hairs are very carefully measured and even counted sometimes on the really good professional re-hair jobs.

Kennedy Violins OK thanks thanks for the info! I can actually see what you’re saying. My suspicion has been confirmed. Thanks for the great tips Joel, always very helpful. 😉

Sherylin - Yes.. a bit worse when relative humidity drops to less than optimal levels. 😉