Hi All

Just wondered what type of bows you all use?

and also what the main differennces are between Carbon fibre vs Wood.

I have a normal wood bow at the mo (it came with the violin) but alot of articles im reading suggest that carbon fibre is the new pernambuco (sp?).

What are your thoughts?

The best advice I can give is try as many bows as you can. Some people love CF bows and others loathe them. I have used bows that were "supposed" to be fantastico, better-than-the-best-wood bows and hated them! I always seem to prefer wood bows.

CF is well worth a try though, it seems that *if* they suit you, they can be great.

Thanks...

I was gonna try a cheapish one to start with and compare to what im already using.

I read on violinist.com that £250 and below, CF is hard to beat but above that price, the wood used is much better and so generally outperforms the CF.

I guess it wont hurt to try one.

CF can withstand temperature changes and can take more abuse than the wooden bows. So they are good if you live in an area with lots of temp and humidity changes that would otherwise affect wood. They also never warp because they're CF so if you are forgetful and always forget to unscrew the bow after playing then CF would be a great choice. Other than those differences are of course how you like the feel of it and how it plays. Weight wise I'm not sure if it is much lighter than a wooden bow.

As others have said, it is a very personal decision and there is no substitute for trying different bows. I thought I would get on very well with CF as I have a neurological condition which can cause me to struggle with heavier bows, but after actually trying a range of CF bows, I seem to be much more suited to wooden bows, albeit lighter ones than many cellists would choose. Definitely worth getting to a specialist shop and trying bows for yourself and probably with your own instrument if you can manage it. I was able to take five bows on trial before I finally decided and it took me about an hour to narrow down all the options so that I only had five to try at home!

this is true in a very general way, except i think £250 is too low; at that price, you can get good wood bows and good CF bows; but the best bows (once you're starting at around £1'000) are all wood. but as everyone else said - the only way to know is to try; and you really want to try a lot of bows if you can; see if you can find a couple of hours to spend in the shop trying things out. (and don't be afraid to try things that you can't afford; doing that will give you more experience of what's available.)

one thing to be aware of with CF: you'd think that being artificial, all examples of one model would be quite similar; but from what i've heard, even among the same model of CF bow, each can be quite different to play.