Bow Rehairing

Bow hair wears out over time, even when not in use. The quality of your bow hair will in turn affect the sound produced by your instrument. So, in order to generate the best sounds from your violin, you are encouraged to rehair your bow from time to time.

In extreme cases, it may cause damage to your bow, or even your violin. For example, the shortened hairs on affected bows will bend the bow out of shape.

There are a myriad of factors affecting the durability and quality of the horsehair. Some of these include:

• The quality of the horsehair
• The temperature and humidity of where the bow is stored
• The frequency of playing
• The type of strings on the instrument

These factors will cause the time for bow rehairing to vary. For non-professional players, we encourage you to rehair your bow every [insert date].

Of course, the most obvious sign is the breakage of the bow hair. You may notice that the horsehair is blacked in certain spots, or you need extra rosin to make the hair stick to your strings. All these are signs that you need to send your bow for rehairing.

We offer rehairing services at Tong Ming Xi. Book an appointment with us today!

The bow is an integral part to your violin playing, so you must take as much care of your bow, as you do your violin. Remember to always loosen your bow after playing, so as not to damage the hair. Avoid touch the hair with your bare hands, as sweat and other substances from your hands might remain on the horsehair. Lastly, try to wipe of the rosin dust with a cloth after you play.

If rehairing is not done, you risk damaging your bow or even your violin. Here’s what could happen:

• End up having a very poor sound quality
• Deforming the stick of your bow (permanent bending)
• Friction on the stick, which will weaken it

Of course, if your bow is not worth much, you may not have any problems with this. But if your bow costs a few thousand euros, it will inevitably have an impact on its price and future performance!

An imbalanced camber may produce any of the following effects in a bow:

• Instability or nervousness in one or more areas of the bow.
• Difficulty in making spiccato with ease.
• A sense of ‘jumpiness’ which the player will often be working to control.
• The bow is too slow of fast in response to pressure.
• A lack of articulation (or ‘bite’), either throughout the bow, or in a specific area.
• A sense of disjointedness, as if the bow is subtly split into different segments.
• A tone which is ‘held down’ or over-focused.
• A sound which is lacking in a more colourful, free open and projective quality.
• A sound which lacks focus or definition.
• A sense of ‘laziness’, either generally or in a specific area of a bow.
• A sense of stiffness in one area of the bow.
• The bow does not cling or grip the strings as well as it could.

When the proper adjustment of the camber is overlooked it is always the player who suffers, often trying to make up for the shortcomings in his or her bow by making unnecessary changes in their bowing technique. Such changes may help them to work with a badly adjusted bow, but later when a finer tool comes their way these may prove to be parasitical elements in their technique which will have to consciously be dropped.