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loy - Posted - 06/27/2007: 13:08:41
What's the best way to break in a new bow?
fiddle and clawhammer banjo:priceless
fiddlerdi - Posted - 06/27/2007: 14:36:05
I'm not sure you reallly to "break it in" but you will really need to rosin it a lot at first. Be sure you don't use the kind of rosin that is in a rectangle with wood on the sides or anything extremely cheap. I learned from one of my luthier friends "Paula Keller, of Keller Strings" and "Wild Hair Bows" that you should use rosin that is made to go on easy and come off easy. So one of those round-cake rosins are usually the best. You may have to rosin it a couple of times while you are playing depending how long you play. I usually can tell there's enought rosin on my bow when I can run my thumb across the hairs real fast and a light puff of dust is visible. 
FiddlerDi
beegee - Posted - 06/27/2007: 16:05:14
I always scratch some rosin from the cake and make sure it's very powdery. I'll then tap the hair up and down on the powdered rosin up and down the length of the bow, making more powder as needed. Next, I scrub the bow hair against the rosin rapidly up and down the length until I'm satisfied with the amount of drag. I like the more expensive dark rosins and there are many compounds to choose from. You'll get better adherence, more consistent drag and less powder residue on the fiddle. Like fiddlerdi said, avoid the cheap wood-block rosins and get the better stuff. Clean excess rosin off the fiddle's belly, even though some old-timey players like that dark gooey dirty look that results.
How can scratching cat-gut with horse hair possibly make a pleasing sound?
krugwaffle - Posted - 06/28/2007: 03:39:45
Now here's a topic I have some experience in. I've just gone through two re-hairs and three new bows recently so getting new hair started has been on my mind.
I've found that the amount of time it takes to get a suitable build up of rosin going on new hair can vary considerably. Some new hair seems to have a coating or some residue that can make it very hard to establish a good rosin layer. Other hair seems to just suck the rosin off the cake and get going immediately.
I tried something different with the last two bows I've had to rosin. I rinsed the hair in alcohol before I began applying rosin. Two samples do not a trend make but these were the easiest to get started of all I've done. Both were carbon composit style bows so getting alcohol on the finish wasn't a consideration. I just removed the screw to release the frog and wrapped the hair into a loose coil that would fit in the bottom of a pie pan, then poured in enough 90% Isopropyl alcohol to cover it. I took an old toothbrush and used it to swish around the hair until it had all been agitated then removed it and spread it out to dry. I used paper towels to blot out as much alcohol as I could before it evaporated to prevent the redepositing of any residue that may be present. After about an hour of strong breeze from a ceiling fan, the hair was dry and ready for rosining.
For me, rosin application occurs in two stages. First, there's the application of rosin from cake to bow. In this state it's a gritty dust that's clinging to the hair by static and it's natural tacky nature. Next comes the actual smearing of the rosin onto the hair in liquid form. This occurs when the grit gets caught between the hair and the string and is heated to the point of melting and actually flows onto the individual hair strands. This is the most desireable form for playing. The hair is sticky without being gritty. Bow noise is reduced and the performance is enhanced.
I've been experimenting with ways to speed up the process of converting the gritty rosin to melted with some success. It involves running the newly rosined hair back and forth over a warmed polished glass edge.... I'll let the forum know when I have something definitive.
loy - Posted - 06/28/2007: 14:50:01
Hey,thanks for all the great advise everyone! Loy
fiddle and clawhammer banjo:priceless
