Fiddlerman Carbon Fiber Violin Bow 4/4

Well add me to the chorus that is singing praise about this bow. This was intended to replace a bow that came with a student outfit (Stentor II). The Stentor bow was...ok, I guess, but it just didn't have a balanced feel to it, which wasn't a surprise. I think the packaging bears mention, though there is a fine line mentioning that in an Amazon review. I was disappointed that it was only secured in the box with some crumpled up paper. The bow was rattling about in the box some, but fortunately this is a strong bow (how strong? Check out Fiddlerman's video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOjs84ShSp0) and it didn't seem the worse for wear. Still, I'd prefer that it were packed a little more securely. The bow I received was a little different than the photos...the "Fiddlerman" name is simply engraved, no gold to it or anything. However, it was in good shape. I have to say, when I picked it up it seemed much lighter than the bow it was replacing, so much so that I had to weigh it. Nope, came in right around 60 grams. That's what proper balance is going to get you...the bow is going to feel much lighter than it actually is. I found it quite easy to hold with no pinkie strain at all. I decided to go dark rosin with this bow, and though the hair was not pre-rosined (really, thanks Fiddlerman for that...I like to be able to pick my own rosin) it only took me about five minutes to get it all set up. And then, heart in my mouth, I drew some notes. Wow. In the back of my mind throughout this process, I confess to thinking "how good can this thing *really* be?" Had I fallen for a gimmick and cheap marketing talk? Am I doomed to wander the Earth forever in search of a decent, reasonably priced bow? Well, it's pretty darned good and there is nothing oversold about this bow. It's balanced. it's agile. The weight is appropriate and drawing it is effortless. In short, it's a dream to use, and before I knew it, a half hour had passed with me just jamming on the violin. That's when I knew I could not give this to my kid. Or at least...I'd have to get another one. After all, if you're going to learn, why not learn with a great bow? I don't know how I found this bow. Honestly I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to these things and wasn't looking for a bow made of space-age materials. But found it I did, and I couldn't be happier with this. It's a very good bow.

So let's get it out of the way first. I own a Codabow Diamond GX. This bow is nothing close to it; even my 9 year old in a blind listen can tell the difference. So no; you aren't gonna be getting the same tone, warmth, control, or playability out of this compared to an expensive pro carbon fiber stick. A little background; I'm not a great player; just a regular player that now plays for fun. My move to carbon fiber bows and my abandonment of regular wood bows happened because I was playing in an outdoor performance with my orchestra when I was in college; and it was hot that day; and my bow was hot; and it snapped in the heat. Traumatized by this experience; I ended up purchasing a carbon fiber bow afterwards. In that same season; my bridge also sank deeply into the varnish of my violin; so when I changed to a new violin; I too purchased a Luis and Clark carbon fiber violin. Having moved up in quality of violin; I purchased a matching Codabow Diamond GX. So my bow hair to string; started sounding a bit scratchy, and so I had changed my strings and that improved greatly; but still a bit scratchy; and so I went I started searching for a local store that would re-hair a bow for me. But when I started looking; I thought; this is my ONLY bow; so while it's out for rehair at the shop; what am I gonna use in the mean time? I didn't want to spend a lot of money just to have a bow to hold me over for a week or so. The store offered to lend me a bow of equal quality while mine was getting rehaired; but I just didn't want the liability of using someone else's bow for a week. So I started searching for a bow that I can buy with the following criteria: 1) Carbon Fiber (I live in Houston; humidity and heat are guarantees here) 2) CHEAP (under $100, because I'll probably only use it once a year or once every two years when I rehair my bow..) 3) Doesn't play like a $20 student bow, need it to be better Having gone online and listened and read some reviews; everything pointed me here. Ordered from amazon; less than $70 shipped; and away we went! Initial impressions; I had a cheap glasser carbon fiber bow back in the day; and so I thought that the fiddlerman bow was definitely a big step up in quality and refinement compared to the old glasser carbon fiber. The balance was ok; the hair quality wasn't bad; and it was playable without too much problem. It was the "Toyota Corolla" of carbon fiber bows IMHO; reliable; not great at anything but not bad at anything either. I feel that for the price; this is a backup bow everybody should have. Back in the day; my old backup bow got very little play; and sat in the case all the time; and over time; dropped a bit to one side. That won't happen with this bow. It is impervious to heat and humidity damage; and will sit happily in your case without being played for months or years. For the price; and it's playability; it's just a great bow to keep as a backup. Again; does not play like my codabow Diamond GX? Not even close.. but given the price; it definitely punches way about it's price. Buy one; keep it in your case; you won't regret it, even if it's only used once or twice a year. Still worth it.

(Update!) This an update to my previous review which you can read below. I just spoke with Michael on the phone and he is sending me a new hand picked bow free of charge. But not only that he said he was refunding my money too. I'm speechless, I mean who does that these days? I have heard good things about Michael but customer service like that is unheard of in this day and time. Even though I haven't got the new bow yet I'm changing my rating from 1 star to 5 stars just on customer service alone. When you're dealing with hand made items such as this there's bound to be a clunker in there once in awhile but I have no doubt the new one Michael is sending me will be free of any defects and play just fine especially since he said he would pick one out for me and also have his luthier check it before sending it out. You just can't get any better than that when it comes to customer service and you can bet when it comes time to get a new fiddle that I'll be taking a good look at what Michael has to offer knowing that he will stand behind it should there be any unforeseen problems. Thanks again Michael, you now have a customer for life! (This is the original review) I had high hopes for this bow considering all the great reviews but it failed to deliver in pretty much every category. First of all let me state that I am a beginner and have only been playing about 4 months. I've made a lot of progress in that time but one thing kept plaguing me and that was bow bounce. No matter how much I tried to relax the bow would still bounce. Never the less I thought it was mostly my technique and not the the fault of the bow. Up until now I hadn't had any formal lessons but today I took my first lesson with an accomplished instructor. I told her about my bounce problem and she said "let me see your bow." She then proceeded to play and low and behold it was bouncing with her too. Not near as much as with me but it was noticeable. After taking a closer look at it she showed me how the hairs were not all laying flat as they should be under tension and said someone did a bad job of installing the horse hair. She showed me her Coda bow and what the properly tensioned hair should look like and there was no comparison. My bow hair looked wavy with a large percentage of hairs not completely taut. She said she suspected that was causing the bouncing. I played her coda bow and had no bounce issues and she said my technique looked good. When I returned to mine the bounce was back. Another thing she pointed out was the excessive amount of side to side play in the frog. This was less noticeable the more you tightened it but still there none the less. Also when she sighted down the shaft she said it was crooked. It could be straightened by slightly twisting the tip but you had to keep a constant eye on it. All in all I'm very disappointed with this bow and to top it off I'm discovering all this after the 30 day trial has run out so I'm stuck with it. I ordered an Eastman fiberglass bow yesterday so i guess I'll keep this as a back up but it's really not worth using as a back up. I'm not knocking Fiddlerman because I hear he is a good guy and I'm sure he would have replaced this had I returned it in time but being a newbie I didn't know what to look for when I got it. These are probably good bows but I guess I got one that slipped through quality control. Never the less I have to give it 1 star based on my experience.

This is a good bow, but to save time, purchase it from the official site instead. They function with professional musicians who will inspect the bow before shipping it over, which guarantees a straight bow, but that's not the case with Amazon - you may get a crooked bow without the inspection. I had to return it because the one I got from Amazon was crooked. Otherwise, still the same item from the same company, and Fiddlerman has fantastic products.

Okay, first of all I have to admit I ordered this bow with a great deal of skepticism. I've been playing the violin for...gosh, over thirty years now, and my degree is in music ed. Bows, while admittedly a mixed lot, tend to be a "you get what you pay for" kind of thing, and a decent bow at this price range tends to be scarce as hen's teeth, as they say. I was pleased when I first pulled this bow from the box with its appearance--the black carbon fiber is very sharp-looking, especially with the clean fittings. But when it comes to bows, looks aren't everything--or even the most important thing. I compared this bow to three other bows, and admittedly some of the comparisons weren't fair. I used a student-level Erich Steiner bow, an intermediate Josef Schuster pernambuco bow, and a fine pernambuco bow. The results were not what I expected. This bow outperformed the Steiner bow, hands down. What surprised me was when it outperformed the Schuster bow as well--I did not expect that. This bow had less bow hiss, and better handling. While a good bite could be gotten from either bow, it was easier with this bow. The fine bow did outperform this bow. That I would have expected. I was surprised to realize that, unless you are willing to spend several times what this bow costs, you are probably better off with this bow. I used this bow only for several days' worth of practice, and found that when I returned to my fine bow, I could handle it better, and it was easier to achieve the sound and techniques I wanted. The only negative I found with this bow was that it arrived with broken hairs--somewhere between 3 and 6 if memory serves. I just clipped them close to the ends and didn't worry too much about them. If the bow continues to lose hair, I'll adjust my review accordingly. For any student, this bow is a step up from what likely came with your instrument. This also makes a great backup bow, practice bow, or bow for outdoor or otherwise unpredictable performance venues where you wouldn't want to take your fine bow. Update 6/10/2016--This bow has been in daily use since its arrival, and has become my go-to bow for most practice sessions. I haven't had any further trouble with hair loss. I have also noticed that the bow tends to hold rosin longer than my other bows; it doesn't need to be rosined as often and produces less dust when it does. Still happy!

Nice bow

Works as advertised, appears more stable during humidity changes. After a year and a half in the deep south of the US it hasn't warped. This is important as it does not relax completely when unscrewed; the carbon fiber composite doesn’t take a set like wood. It is relatively heavy, 59 or 60 grams depending on whose report you read, but it is balanced so well that it feels lighter than a 52 gram tip heavy bow. I play mostly old time American fiddle tunes and Irish fiddle tunes and it reverses well, keeps up with 16th note runs and syncopated runs very well. It is stiff enough without being too stiff. This bit of stiffness gives good definition of those same runs without making them choppy. It has pretty good feel of the string vibrations, but then I don't like a bow which is too sensitive in its feeling. It needs a forthright playing style, doesn't do as well as some other bows I have when I try excessively light bowing. It is good enough for student fiddles and my carbon fiber five string Glasser battle tank, but I recently got a luthier made fiddle and it is there the differences stand out. Comparing it to my old German bow it doesn’t give at all as much complexity and warmth for low notes and the high notes are harsh, sounding at times like its being played too close to the bridge. This is most obvious playing hymns and Scottish laments, the sort of tunes which are meant to sound more violin-like. I keep a couple of cheap student bows for emergencies and to take with the carbon fiddle, since they would be no great loss if exposed to the environment, a 1980ish Lark in The Morning and a new Stew-Mac cherrywood. The Lark is bright and focussed without so much harsh edges as this one. It is a tossup whether this one or the cherrywood sounds better. That being said, it is perfectly OK for a student fiddle or a carbon fiber fiddle. And it is much cheaper than what it would cost to replace my good bow. Edited to add that as I advance in my fiddling I am seeng this bow is too bouncy for consistency playing double stops and also for those long end to end sweeps which are one of the thins you have to learn on the old hymns and for Texas swing songs. Those need a stiffer, harder feeling. Having said this, I’m reducing my rating to three stars. Edited again to add that I’ve decided the Vingobow is a better buy in terms of a cheap CF. The latter has a better feel and is more sure for fiddle tunes. This one is still dependable and has held up well, but not more than hree stars worth.

Arrived today, well packaged and in a very nice box for the bow, which was a pleasant surprise. I am a beginner to intermediate player, and purchased my violin and bow from an old man in an alley for practically nothing. It is a student model which was well set up twenty years ago but was very worn. The bow I started with was what I now believe to be a Vale student model. It was breaking down and half the hair was missing so I went looking for an affordable alternative. I'm very traditionalist in my selection of most everything, and was hoping to acquire a well made brazil wood bow at the very least. However, after noticing the many positive reviews of this product I decided to take a chance. Also I live in a very unpredictable climate, and with a carbon fiber bow, you eliminate a great deal of worry over environmental stress on the bow. After the bow arrived I inspected it and found no obvious defect. I rosined it and tested it and am fairly pleased with it so far. I have spent much time looking for an affordable quality bow and I believe this one is a very reasonable selection for a beginner such as myself. Is it a professional quality soloist piece? No. It is priced and manufactured very appropriately for a beginner to intermediate player. It produces a very clear tone and is decently balanced. There are some people who may tire kick this bow and that is to be expected of people in general in this day and age. They want it all, and they want it for nothing. Don't listen to them. This is an extremely high quality bow. For the price point. If you are working with a very tight budget, I highly recommend this bow, in terms of design and quality. This is an excellent option for those of us in need of a workhorse for a low price. And did I mention it comes with a warranty?

best buy carbon fiber violin bow!

The product was received in good condition. No hair was broken.

جيد للتمرين

As a beginner I love how smooth and good this bow is.

A mi hijo le encantó, muy ligero y fácil de manejar.