Full-size 4/4 Pernambuco Nickel/silver Mounted Violin Bow

I purchased this bow because my daughter's plastic one was coming apart. I don't know a lot about violins or bows. I don't know about Brazilian or penumbuco wood or the type of hair. I DO know that this bow does not have a name attached to it, so whoever made it is either the actual manufacturer for a lot of companies who sell bows, or is one that would rather not have their name attached to it. The listed retail price and the discount made it suspect. However, other reviews were positive, there were quite a few pictures, and its being serviced by amazon.On arrival, I checked over the bow for any obvious defect. I did not find the splits, cracks, or broken hairs a couple of reviewers mentioned. The packaging didn't seem damaged at all. Overall build quality seemed acceptable. I didn't notice any crooked, warped, frazzled, or rough looking parts. The hardware seemed to be placed well, and there weren't any major gaps between the various parts. The knob used to tighten the bow seemed to work, moved without being excessively rough, and I didn't notice any untoward tension or movement of the shaft that would take it out of parallel with the hair portion. The black leather band near the wrapped string portion is going to come apart. The silvery string section seems to be held on with a sort of tape. And if I am going to be picky, I'd say that the... far end of the bow is not really symmetrical. I don't know if its supposed to be or not, and I don't think it affects anything, regardless. The overall build quality is acceptable, fairly nice, but not particularly outstanding.Overall, at the heavily discounted price, I'd say this bow was worth it at just a tad over the price of a plastic one. If I had payed the supposed retail price, I would not be happy. However, what I think is secondary, since I do not use it. I only hear it being used. My daughter likes the bow quite well, and her teacher thinks its pretty nice. That works for me, and it didn't break the bank to boot. That's a win in my book.

I was not as lucky as some reviewers here. My bow arrived warped. Fortunately the warp is to the left, so that when I roll the wood forward when playing, much of the warp disappears. Well, more or less.My luthier said the wood seems to have a knot in the middle which means it would probably break in half if he tried to bend it straight. And he said the plastic covering on the nickel/silver winding probably should stay on since it indicates that the nickel/silver is so cheap that any sweat from the fingers of my bow hand would turn it green in short order. He had a hard time imagining that anyone would pay the almost $300 the bow supposedly lists for.His and the advice of some other professionals I know? Even though I'm a beginner of almost a year, I can probably go ahead and use it without instilling any bad habits in trying to correct for the warp. It's a bit lighter than my fiberglass bow and the sound is a bit thinner, but then I'm still having trouble getting the hair fully rosined.Nevertheless I'm keeping it as a backup to my fiberglass bow, which actually cost more. Someday I'll benefit from this relatively painless lesson in cheap and buy a Pernambuco for the $600 or so that a nice one really costs.UPDATE: In the more than one month I've had this bow, I've discovered that, despite the warp, it's actually an improvement over my fiberglass student bow, and I use it all the time instead of as a backup. It's not lighter as I first thought, but actually heavier at 64 grams, and that works better for me. Nor is the sound thinner. It pulls a nicer tone from the strings. So the experience will be further useful when I do acquire an unwarped Pernambuco.MORE: The warped bow is back to backup status. I found an unwarped Karl Becker Pernambuco for just about the list price of this one. No buyer's remorse so far. ;-)

This really is an excellent bow, especially for the price. It has a truly fantastic weight to it.It worked great for me at first as a beginner, but slowly it started sounding awful. I thought it was poor quality hair that was deteriorating and kept clipping hair off to try to get deeper into the hank for unused hair. I finally bought a new bow that ultimately faced the same problem until I got new strings and, incidentally, a new rosin, Larsen's red rosin. But that bow still just faced serious issues even after being rehaired for my new violin and being used with an again different rosin, a P. Guillaume rosin.I finally ordered a gold rosin made by Laubach Violins, a small violin shop, in Germany, and once I started using that, my problems were all solved. It's a truly spectacular rosin that gets an amazing sound.I've since tried that rosin on THIS bow, or what's left of its hair, and it sounds even better than my more expensive and heavier DZ Strad bow. The wood of this bow resonates so much better, and the weight is really good. I would have it rehaired, but I'm honestly embarassed to take my luthier a bow with half the hair cut off!Instead, I am planning to buy a new one of these soon which is at least cheaper than a rehair. The hair wouldn't be near as high quality as what my luthier uses, but I'm just too embarassed. I may find the courage to just go ahead and have them rehair this bow, though.But in a nutshell, this really is a truly excellent bow. Just make sure you find a truly decent rosin for it! The really bad rosin I was using was Pirastro GoldFlex. A big name or a big price or a big reputation do NOT ensure quality with rosin!

Balance is not as good as expected. 😒

Very nice bow.

Good product,,good price

いい弓だ。いろがちょっと違うけど、バイオリンに弾きやすくなった。特にペルナンブコで作った弓だ。