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we do something similar in percussion! the tam-tam speaks much more fully and responsively if you tap it gently before a note. I've noticed the same thing for the triangle too, gently rubbing the triangle beater against the side of the triangle makes the following speak much more purely and openly
That took me back 15 years in my head remembering yelling at my daughter feom the other room 'dont u be messin up that bow!' Then mumbling 'that schools gonna get me for 70 bucks'
Damn that’s pretty crazy, I can definitely hear the difference on the impulse of the sound😂 I have another trick that helps, if you bounce the tip bow using the finger tips (idk if this would be very helpful with German grip lmao), and really focus on the feeling of the bounce in different zones of the bow, it can really wake up the hand and pull the bow into the knuckles more naturally. It gets a similar kind of snappiness on violin at least!
It sounds more likely that you’re warming up the strings. Horse hair and rosin wouldn’t have enough heat capacity to change the tone for more than a few seconds. Sustainable heat of in the strings because they’re more thermally conductive. How does your tone quality change when your bass has been sitting in a hot area versus a cold one?
I mean with that logic you could get enough friction if you perform a more vigorous tuning and use the native motions of a bow stroke and not have to submit your strings or Bridge or bowstrings to any unnecessary abuse.
It could be that it helps liquify the rosin more since when you apply it, it’s really just a bunch of tiny crystals but if it’s warmed up it can be more throughout the bow than in little specks.