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Secondly, the shaft should always be kept clean. Dedicate a piece of an old tea towel to this task, wiping the entire shaft each time you return the bow to is case. This can help prevent wear as well as keeping the polish smooth. No chemicals should be used to remove built-up rosin. Allow your violin shop to clean it next time you have it rehaired. Wash the towel regularly. 

Change your ways with the next rehair. Place the cake against the hair beginning at the frog, draw the bow slowly and evenly across the cake, once up, once down. Try it before you carry on. Rosin only when necessary, not each time you extricate your bow from the case.

Follow this advise and your hair will last considerably longer.

We have seen bows with hair 50 years of age arrive in our shop in playing condition.

Normally hair breaks, it does not "wear out". Over rosining will cause the hair to become slippery and brittle. When more than ten per cent of the hair is broken the bow will begin to pull the head to the left, Not advantageous in playing. At ten per cent replace your hair.

For a more scientific in-depth report on horse hair and its properties, click here

So, you found a Stradivarius violin!



 I receive numerous e-mail messages every month from people who have inherited or purchased a "Stradivarius" violin.

I will not tell you that it is not the genuine article. That would be unethical and foolish of me, but I will share some information with you to help you judge your course of action.

Since well before the turn of the twentieth century, manufacturers of violins, often nestled  in the valleys of southern as well as western and eastern Germany, were producing tens of thousands of violins annually, labeled "Antonius Stradiuarius, Cremonenfis Faciebat Anno 17  " and had a circular embellishment on these labels which included a cross above the initials "A" and "S". More often than not, the last two digits of the date were penciled or inked in by hand. Sometimes it was left blank.

These manufacturers, housed in such  towns as "Bubenreuth", "Mittenwald", " Markneukirchen"  to mention a few, mass produced these violins, in part by hand or completely by machine, and, until 1957, labeled them exactly as the master did. After that date, the words "Copy of" were often included on the labels.

They were also made world-wide in such places as Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Japan, England and elsewhere.

Millions of these instruments exist today.

Antonio, along with his sons are believed to have made more than 1,100 instruments during his lifetime of which roughly 512 violins are thought to still remain, depending on who you're asking.

It is also known that many were destroyed either by fire, accident, lost at sea or floods, during the fire-bombing of Dresden, etc., which leaves virtually none unaccounted for.

To determine whether yours is the genuine article you need to take it in person to an expert near you. Such experts may be found among members of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers listed in the pages of this web site. These experts may and often do charge for their time and opinion

The odds that you have found a genuine Stradivari will be very slim indeed.

Nonetheless your find might be compared to an oyster; - "if you don't find a pearl inside, you can still have a good meal". In other words, make beautiful music with it.

Pernambuco is the name of the wood species Caeselpinia echinata, a relative of the mahogany family of woods. The best of this wood grows in the Brazilian province of Pernambuco.   

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I have always believed that the instrument played with the bow is merely the  body that produces the sound while the bow is the soul that produces the music. We hardly ever think about the fact that music for bowed instruments  is not written so much for the instrument as it is for the bow!
 
 Lets have a quick look at the argument. Without going into obscure corners  of musicology, just glance over the two paragraphs below. In the first you'll find the composer's instructions (in Italian, French or German) for the bow. The second paragraph has the instructions for the left hand not including the notes themselves;
 
 1. pianississimo, (ppp); pianissimo (pp); piano (p); mezzo piano (mp); mezzo
 forte, (mf); forte (f); fortissimo (ff); fortississimo (fff); staccato /
 detaché; legato; sostenuto; crescendo; diminuendo / perdendo; ritenuto /
 rallentando / ritardando; marcato; spiccato / sautillé / saltando /
 ricochet; martelé; sul ponticello; tremolo; flautando; sur la touche;
 pesanté; energico; leggiero ; maestoso, and so on.....
 
 2. Vibrato, pizzicato, portamento, harmonics..........
 
 The score is twenty five to four!
 
 There was a time not all that long ago when dealers would simply "throw in"  the bow when a client bought a violin. Often it would be a fine French bow made by a Peccatte, Sartory, Vuilleaume, Vigneron, Fetique, Henri, Maire or Tourte. This practice was still going on in the second half of the 20th century. However, when the auction house prices of a fine Dominique Peccatte violin bow started reaching $100,000 and Tourtes reached a quarter of a million, we found this practice quickly cease. These early bow makers were generally poorly paid for their work and often died impoverished. One was found murdered under one of Paris' many bridges for whatever he still had left on his possession.
 
 Today's musician will seek out the modern bow maker who can make a living wage with their craft.
 
 Today's maker has a tendency to build stiffer bows demanded by the writings of late 19th and all the 20th century composers and the playing styles now taught. Some of the fine early French makers created bows for their time, which can't stand today's rigors and become the property of collectors.
 
 I have also found that players change as they mature and as technique develops. They may stay with the same instrument their entire lives but find a need for a different bows as time goes on. They also develop composers prejudices. I hear them speak of the "Mozart" bow or their "three B's" bow, likely referring to Brahms, Bach and Beethoven.