Overall Comments
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This bow is one of Yita's AAA Top Models, snakewood, with "gold" fittings, and a snakewood frog. The craftsmanship is excellent, in all respects. Not a thing amiss to note. The hair quality was excellent, as was the job of hairing. Only one hair broke when I rosined it, and I've yet to lose another. (I've only lost two hairs on my Coda Diamond GX since it was new.) The bow is well balanced, biased a bit toward the tip (tip heavier), which suits me best. This was a factor that I considered in my purchasing this particular bow. Yes, it is heavy, 10 grams heavier than my Coda, but I knew that when I bought it. Yita clearly posts the specs for each of their bows.
The weight didn't seem to be much of an issue . . . until I hit dance-tempo, with some quick shuffles. I was used to the lighter bow, thus my right-hand wasn't used to pulling the extra weight at that tempo, and I could tell that it ever so slightly affected my timing. Some tunes I noticed this, others I didn't, but as the night wore on, I got more and more used to it, as I figured I would.
The tone was every bit as good as the Coda Diamond GX, only bigger, in ever sense. The extra weight is a blessing, and actually what I was after. Since I play off my chest, the fiddle is canted quite a bit. This allows my right-arm to hang naturally, and I only have to raise it a little for crossing onto the G (yes, the bridge is flatter). That's nice for ergonomics and speed, but provides that less of the bow's weight be transferred onto the strings, owing to the angle of the bow in relation to the ground.
The bow does its best work by allowing it to work. No extra pressure at all, ever. The stick is very resilient, and recovers rapidly. Not as quick as does the Coda, but this is all very subtle, and only noticeable whilst looking at the sticks. As stated, the tone does not suffer, so I consider this a necessary part of its design. Different materials, different taper, etc., so it should be different. Also, I find that it takes less tension on the hair for this stick, as opposed to the Coda, and yet I never bump the stick. I have about 1/8" of air between the hair and stick.
As far as the bow goes, I couldn't be happier. The price was quite reasonable for what I got. Actually, it was more than reasonable.
Yita's service was exceptional, too. I paid on a Tuesday night (here), they sent it on a Wednesday morning (here), and I got it Monday. It was sent via China's EMS (Express Mail Service), then picked up by USPS after clearing customs. It was sent in a rigid, plastic tube, to which was taped a large piece of foam. This foam provided a flat place for the paper-work (customs), but also made it difficult for the postal services to lose. Wrapped in a bright, yellow tape, it looked like a flag.
Buying a bow sight/sound unseen like this is a potentially risky venture. Knowing what I wanted in a bow minimised the risks, but there is always the potential that it wont be as good as the photos, or the tone will not be sufficient. Yita offers 14 days for returns. The loss would be shipping both ways (shipping to me was included in the price of this bow). I would have attempted to sell it, rather than shipped it back, though.
Yita Music has 11,800+ positive feed-back ratings on eBay. That says it all about their devotion to a high level of quality and customer-service. |
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