bow rehairing (cello)

gardenia

New member
We rehaired a bow (valued around 800) at our local Bow Maker.
The same bow previously had been chosen as it matched the cello wonderfully but its hair was thin so we thought the sound will only improve if we rehair. As a first step the Bow Maker reset the existing thin hair on the bow (until he would be able to rehair it) and that improved the sound. When the rehairing took place
we were totally disappointed.

The nice bow was now making a horrible "fuzzy" sound (on the same cello).

We suspect that the Bow Maker used low quality hair thinking we
were not going to be able to tell ? (We can... even though we are
do not know about bow hair which he understood...)
Is there a reason which we cannot think about that this has happened - hopefully a more innocent reason than the one
suggested?

many thanks,
Lyla
 

John Watt

Member
Lyla! If you're looking for some kind of reassurance, instead of a historic to hands on reply,
I might be able to help.
Have you ever watched The Antiques Roadshow when they were appraising an instrument and its bow?
Many times the bow is worth more than the instrument, an important piece of that musical equation.
You had one you liked, it got tuned up, sounding better, and then you rebuilt it.
Now you're in the hunt for another.
The world of cellos is in upheaval, virtuosos now saying carbon fiber is better than wood.
Good luck!
 
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