In Europe, I had built up a little network of luthiers and bow-makers who I knew would do a good job on my beloved instruments and bows... much like every other person builds a sort of little network of tradespeople who they call for electrical, plumbing, or other jobs. You start to get to know who you like to use who will both do a decent job and not be also crazily expensive.

So, since I have returned back to Australia... I have been sort of putting on hold some minor maintenance on the tools of my trade. Out of sheer terror and indecision about who to ask and who to trust... and over the last year or so, I have collected recommendations from various colleagues... but like many similar things, sometimes there are conflicting recommendations!

Anyway, in the last couple of weeks, I had to bite the bullet and just get some things rolling... the hairs on these two bows were now definitely too thin and too old... On the romantic style bow picture above, it was too thin, and the bow was starting to get a bit of a disturbing twist in the stick when I used more weight closer to the tip end.

Meanwhile, the baroque bow beneath was starting to feel a little slow in response... under the microscope, the horse hairs have little hooks that help grab and grip the string to help it start to vibrate... and over time, these get worn away. It is a slow process, and generally you need to replace the hairs once a year or so... depending on how much it bothers you and how much they get played. Like many slow changing things, you sort of get used to it... until at some point, you start to wonder why things are a little less easy than they should be... and even at that point, you start still blaming yourself!

Anyway, I had long past that point... and I knew that was definitely (probably...) starting to be the wearing of the hairs that was more likely to be the main contributor to the problem!... and that was the impetus to get off my arse and just book an appointment to have the two bows rehaired.

Thankfully, the luthier that was recommended to me was really quick and not too expensive... the turnaround was less than a full day... drop off on one afternoon, and ready by midday the next! Not over-haired thankfully, and with a decent tension to it...

So, they came back un-rosinned... something that I prefer... without rosin on the hairs, the bow will just slip smoothly over the strings, and they will make no sound. Some luthiers will comb through rosin to have an even dusting through the hairs before returning the bow... but often, I find that they use a very coarse and sticky rosin that I'm not so fond of... and it tends to be quite a lot of it! I had forgotten to request no rosin, so I was quite happy when he didn't do it!

That does mean that I will need to spend a bit of time dusting the bows a bit more than usual over the next days... but at least I can't blame anyone when they turn out bad!

But thankfully, the bows feel like they have new life in them again! It's like they have turned back into little kids again and are dancing around the strings with newfound agility!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
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