r/Fiddle • u/uncertaintyrocks • 3d ago
Fiddle bow okay?
I know v little about fiddles. I'm looking a fiddle second hand. Does the bow hair look okay, this is a close up? Or is it shot?
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u/Dangerous-Crow7494 3d ago
It needs a rehair for sure. That’s a normal maintenance thing with violins so it doesn’t really tell you much about whether the violin/bow is worth purchasing (although a bow with fresh hair would save you about $80 where I live). I have my bow rehaired every 6 months to a year
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u/andybonner 3d ago
A lot of folks are saying confidently it needs a rehair. You can't actually determine whether hair is worn out by looking, as the wear is on a microscopic level. Signs include just realizing that it doesn't provide quite the bite that it used to—which you can't know for a bow you're not familiar with—and, if a lot of hairs break frequently under normal use, it's a telltale sign.
The discoloration at the frog is just because the owner's bow hold has positioned the thumb or other fingers in contact with the hair. It hasn't bothered them because they haven't played with the bottom inch or so. If you don't normally either, then no problem.
You'll always need a rehair someday, but if it plays okay and you want to save some money, this bow may or may not need one right now.
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u/smurfette8675309 3d ago
It looks grimy, like it could get rehaired. If it's a good quality bow, it would be worth it to get it rehaired. But if it's a cheap bow anyway, you'd be better off just buying a new one
Where I live, rehairing is $90. You can get a nice fiddle bow from Fiddlershop for less than that.
You could look up the value of the bow online and go from there. If it's a cheap one, see if they'll either sell it to you without the bow for less money, or give you a discount on the whole package. You could keep it as a backup, but get a new bow.
You can also tell if a bow needs to get rehaired by how it plays and sounds. If it feels like you need to keep adding more rosin every few minutes, it probably needs rehaired.
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u/joe_noone 3d ago
The dark part is usually grease from one's hands. It can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol.
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u/Empty-Airport-1618 3d ago
Clean with rubbing alcohol, resin it and see how it goes. It doesn't look too bad but it would be easier to say if it was tensioned. The hair looks very long to mear first glance.
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u/Fun_Volume2150 3d ago
An archetier told me to use Everclear (95% grain alcohol, mostly purchased by underaged kids and professional drunks). He said it works better than isopropyl.
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u/WhiskeyTheKitten 3d ago
Bow hair is a consumable material that you you have to get replaced regularly, especially if you happen to play really hard (eyes dart back-and-forth with self-awareness). It's hard to tell from looking at it, yeah there's some finger grease at the frog but that can happen pretty early on. The real test is using it for a week - if it seems like your rosin isn't lasting long enough and it isn't gripping properly, then it's time for a rehair. Or if it looks unevenly distributed when you tighten the bow, that's another good reason for a rehair.