Sorry for those groaning... here she goes again but I really need some advice.
Ive now started looking for a bow, thought I had a decent budget set aside and have had a shock. The place I got my violin from isnt very local and they had loads and loads of bows from a few pounds upwards to over a £1000 but choice isnt good for me as Im just so indecisive, I think mainly because I just dont have a clue what Im looking for apart from the obvious. I went to a shop nearer home and was given about 8 to try, they started at £550!
So apart from a named maker (which this one wasnt) what determines the price of a bow and what should I be looking for? I could be sold a bow for hundreds and wouldnt have a clue if it was worth a few pounds. Its really awful not knowing anything.
Its laughable really as all them years ago I played much better than I do now and my bow was a 3/4 size cheapy.

General advice tends to be to spend a quarter of the price of the instrument on a bow. At least that is how it is with cellos. If you are very indecisive and bewildered by the choice why don't you just set a strict budget of how much you want to spend, and ask to try out bows in that price range. That should narrow the choice down. Then just pick the one you feel is most pleasant to play with.

I think quality (and price) are largely determined by the quality of the wood. I might be wrong, but I believe that if a maker has a particularly good stick he or she might make that into a more generally high-end bow. E.g. mine has silver parts where most have not, but it is not the silver that makes it relatively expensive - the maker used silver because it was a particularly good stick. Someone with more knowledge might correct me though.

Most of us are not experts. You have to feel you can trust the person selling the bow, and most luthiers/ dealers will know their stuff and be trustworthy. Not half as bad as buying a car!

Suggest you contact forumite Liz at www.elidatrading.co.uk. She will be able to offer some bows on approval in £100-£300 range. We had seven of them for a few days and bought one. She wont rip you off either.

The usual figure suggested is anywhere between 30 and 50 percent of the cost of the fiddle - obviously this is just a rule of thumb, you may spend much less or much more, but at least it gives you a starting point.

Ask for a selection and then try as many different bow strokes as you can, play long slow bows too, play something fast and challenging and something slow and singing - try out different positions to see how the bow completes the fiddle's sound up there.

Bows generally are priced on the maker first, then the quality of the actual bow second. Things such as silver or gold mounting don't add anything to the sound, but usually the bowmaker will only use these things on his best sticks (although not the case for many chinese bows).

There really isn't any advantage to buying an old bow - I'd go for a modern maker where you'll get a great stick for a lot less than a corresponding old stick would cost you. Handmade bows tend to start around the 1600 euro mark over here and go up to around 15 000 euro for the best makers. If that's out of keeping with your fiddle and / or your budget, check out some chinese bows that have been given the go ahead by your luthier or even carbon fibre.

Good luck !

Wow, so much
The bow I chose was an c1950 unnamed bow with silver mountings, this didnt influence my choice, it just seemed the comfiest, weight wise etc. Took it to my teacher and she noticed it was slightly warped so Im back to the shop again this weekend. It was £550, I really didnt want to spend much more although I can stretch a bit more. My other bow cost just over £100 and I cant tell any difference, as in if someone asked me which was the dearest, I wouldnt know!
As I got a new violin I thought I should get a new bow to hopefully compliment it. This bow was the cheapest he had and nothing else really took my fancy. He is however getting more in so we will have to start again .
I will have a look at Elidatrading, thanks.

If I remember right you chose your violin in preference to several costing considerably more, so you should forget all about violin/bow value percentages and buy an appropriately nice bow to suit the fiddle that you like so much. I think you want something much better than £100-£300 price range stuff.
I agree with Rosfrog about new bows. No reason whatsoever to go for an old one, and I think you'll get much better value from a new maker. From a price/exchange rate point of view it's rather unfortunate that most of the best makers are in the Euro zone, but there are also some very good UK makers to consider. You might want to go along to the RNCM in January during the chamber music festival (8th-11th January). They will be having a violin & bow makers exhibition on every day of the festival, where you'll be able to see and try lots of nice new violins and bows. There are usually at least a couple of bow makers there (most notably Noel Burke, one of the best around,IMO).

Thanks Discopants, I know its like 'how longs a piece of string' but what do you reckon approximately I will need to spend to realistically get something nice. Im only asking as a very rough idea as 6 mths ago I would have thought £550 was a fair amount to pay for a violin!! Ive since been on a very steep learning curve and for what Ive seen these last few months wont be suprised by what you suggest ....... ok Im ready, Im sat down

Recently I bought a very nice carbon fibre bow for £490. So £500 can get you something very good, especially when looking in the correct places!

From my own experience, you can get a really top quality bow for £500. After that, the difference for every £100 you spend is very minimal and anyway you can develop a very sound bow technique on a £500 wooden bow. Unless you're prepared to go into 4 figures then I would stick to £500 as a rough guide. But for under £500, I would say go Chinese. I heard a bow which is easily as good as my 2nd bow (£600 Finckl) which apparently goes for around £20 in China. Not as pretty and not an investment but if you're just going to play on it, £20 well spent IMO.

But before you can buy, you need to know what you like in a bow. Things you should experiment with are how it is balanced (where the weight is in the bow, sometimes they feel a bit dead at the heel or too short at the tip), the bounce (where/how much), tone (consistency and clarity) etc. If possible, get someone else to play them to you while you listen. A teacher is useful for this! It's surprising how different bows sound when you're just listening, not playing.

The final thing to consider is investment value. If you're not sure what kind of bow you'll want in 10 years time, be sure to buy something by a known maker in good condition (esp. the tip, if it's an older bow, if it's new look for something in mint condition).

Hi, thanks for your reply, Ive currently got 5 bows on approval til the New Year. I tried each one a few times and compared them, finding my favourite 2 or 3. Went back the next day, tried them again and liked different ones . I originally liked something with a bit of weight to it, I suppose this is the ones weighted at the tip but now Im liking the ones that feel lighter???? One is an older bow and the rest are new bows. All are arround the £650 mark.
Ive googled the makers and a couple seem long standing makers, one with there own web site but apart from that, Im getting a bit confused as each time I try them a different one stands out. Ive got a lesson just before they are due back so hopefully my teacher will help me make my mind up. Im so so indecisive

Quite surprised to hear you say this tbh. My 2 violin playing daughters (one now a professional, the other a 6th former at Chet's) did the upgrade path £200, £1000, £2500 and the difference at each stage was really considerable.

You haven't actually read what I wrote properly.
The difference between say, a £10,000 bow and a £45,000 is not all that great compared to the difference between a £100 and £200 bow. Ditto £45,000 to £100,000. It becomes more a matter of preference at that level since they are all perfectly playable with no huge problems. £500 is often considered the start of professional standard bows. I wonder whether what you noticed about your daughters was more down to technique rather than anything else. If they were upgrading while fairly young (up to around DipABRSM standard I suppose) then of course a better bow will make learning technique easier. If you got the pro daughter to play a range of bows to you from the under £500 category and over £500 category I'm sure you would find it easier to rank the first lot by price. Do you really disagree that the difference between a £100 and £200 bow is greater than between a £500 and £600 bow?

Sorry. I thought you were saying that there was little point spending more than £500 on a bow because more expensive ones are only marginally better. I wish that were true. My bank balance would certainly be a lot healthier

Same...I hate spending so much money on a bit of wood