| Author |
Subject |
etn69
Registered User
(4/5/01 3:56:57 am)
Reply |
Buying
a bow
Hello, i'm an amateur cellist who
just spent
10 years playing with a rather low-end bow.
I
consider now buying a better one. Can you provide
me with advices
to try a bow, for example *how* to
actually try it, and the
things I should be aware of ?
Had any of you ever tried
graphite bows ? What are
their advantages and disadvantages
compared to wood
bows ?
Thanks,
Etienne
|
DWThomas
Registered User
(4/5/01 6:59:56 am)
Reply |
Re:
Buying a bow
I'm sure you'll get more input from
others here, but a good thing to read is the "Resource Guide for
Bows" at Shar Music.
www.sharmusic.net/home.htm
Click
on "Fine Instruments" then look for a link to the resource guide.
(You'll see a picture there of Dick Mattson who occasionally
shows up on this board.)
Have fun!
Dave
|
Dick500
Registered User
(4/5/01 9:00:17 am)
Reply |
My
photo, bow approvals, and my writing
I just looked at my photo again and
I have to admit that it is not quite up to date. A couple of years
ago, when my daughter and her boyfriend were home for spring break,
he had brought his electric hair clippers so that she could give him
a haircut. My wife, who had styled the elegant coiffure you see in
the photo with a scissors and comb said: "Hey, that looks neat. Come
and sit down, Dick." I heard two things in rather quick succession.
The clippers said "RRzzzz" and my wife said "Ooops." Closer
inspection on my part revealed the beautiful beginnings of an
inverse "Mohawk" up the back of my head. As striking as it was, I
did have to agree with my wife that it probably wouldn't do, so the
new "Do" became the buzz cut I sport to this day. Sometimes we learn
a lot of wonderful things by accident. I learned that it is much
easier to take care of, AND I don't have to use anywhere near as
much rosin on my hair as before. :-)
Actually, very soon, ICS
members should be getting an e-mail which offers, among other
things, the opportunity to get fees waived on a bow approval
shipment in the month of April. Just visit the link that Dave was so
kind to mention, submit your request using the secure on-line
"interactive" form, and mention in one of the free-text fields that
you are an ICS member.
It seems like I'm always writing,
revising, and rewriting things--the Bow Resource Guide, the Bow
Approval link, the new Instrument Approval link, and certainly not
least, my thoughts which I post here in the I&E board. My
writing is a process which I'd love some feedback on. So if you have
any thoughts or suggestions for additions, changes, or new topics,
I'd be delighted to hear from you.
Dick
|
mycatmarti
Registered User
(4/5/01 9:55:19 am)
Reply |
buying
a bow
Decide what price range you can
afford and try bows on your cello. A bow that sounds good on another
cello might sound gnarly on yours.
I have a Coda Classic bow,
which I truly love.
Mia
|
Andrew
Victor
Registered
User
(4/5/01 5:30:20 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Buying a bow
Etienne,
Take all the replies
you get here seriously, even when they may not agree with each
other.
I play variously with a number of cello bows - A Coda
Classic, an Arcus Concerto, a Marco Raposo (silver) modern Brazilian
bow, a late 19th Century Albert Nrnberger, and a couple of other,
somewhat lesser bows that I reserve for students who may borrow an
extra cello.
Each of these bows has a place. It is most
important that you test a bow on your own cello - and just about
equally important that in addition to playing the bows yourself, you
listen while someone else plays them on your cello too. The bow you
play with will affect your technique and it will definitely affect
the sound from your instrument.
Cellos seem to have their own
individual sound (as heard by a listener) more than violins do,
which seem to strongly depend on the player, even if they sound
different under the ear. You would think a cello would sound the
same out front as it does to the player, but it doesn't.
So
take all these variables into account - also test the bow over the
entire range of the cello - up two octaves on every string (the bow
does make a difference). Also, be sure that you keep your cello
strings relatively rosin free while testing the bows, because rosin
collected on the strings can totally change the sound and
playability.
Finally, yest, the graphite bows can be very
satisfactory - but it can depend on your cello. I've never heard any
of my cellos sound sweeter than with an Arcus Concerto bow and the
sound is very good from a distance. On the other hand, when I want
weight from the bow - then I might want an 83 gram (or so)
pernambuco bow. The Coda bow is very pernambuco like in the way it
performs - I'f compared several (as well as a couple of Spiccato
cello bows) to a range of pernambuco cello bows from $3,000 to
$8,5000, and for my uses at the time, the Coda did OK. The less
expensive Coda Conservatory is also worth looking at.
You
have to be very lucky to get a reasonably priced Pernambuco bow that
will do as well as these grapite composite bows. And that takes a
lot of testing.
If you have a good microphone, and a way to
play it back through your amplifier into a headset, and can place
yourself 10 or more feet from the microphone, you can listen to your
playing from "out front." I do that often on violin, to see how I'm
doing, but I just did it on cello for the first time earlier today
and was quite amazed by the differences between two cellos and the
three bows I tried on them. (Actually, today I was trying to assess
my new Bois de Harmonie tailpieces.)
My review of composite
(graphite) violin bows ( members.aol.com/bowedstri...eview.html
) is relatively applicable to the cello bows I've tried also. I have
no intention of writting up the cello bow tests - too much time has
passed.
Andy
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