Bows with broken tips currently in my shop.
Bows Glorious Bows.....How Do Thy Tips Do Break!
One of the most frequent repairs I see in my shop is bow breakage. One of the main problems with orchestral bows is the fact that their hair has a tendency to stretch out. The player will eventually, over time, find that the hair will not tighten to the proper tension. Instead of realizing something is wrong, they just keep tightening the screw over and over hoping that somehow the hair will get tighter. The problem is, it never does! However, what the player doesn't realize is that the screw does in fact keep moving, it just doesn't tighten the hair anymore. The screw tightens past the point it's suppose to and then what happens is one of these two scenarios, if not both. Either the tip will break off, or the end of the stick by the screw will split in half. Once one of these occurs, the bow then loses it's value and it may not be able to be fixed and will have to be thrown away.
If a bow experiencing the above symptoms had been in for a maintenance check, I would have realized that the hair was getting too long and would have suggested one of the following things to the customer: If the hair is still in good condition and plenty of it left, I would have suggested having the hair shortened. This would have cost around $12.00. The other option would be that if the hair was no longer in good condition, I would have suggested a rehair which is approx $40.00. However, in the state that the bow is in currently with a broken tip or broken stick end, the repair costs would be much higher or worst case scenario, unable to be fixed and thrown in the trash. Quality student line violin bows start around $150.00 and can go up to basically whatever price you are willing to pay. Having to throw away that much money is down right painful when they could have gotten away with spending as little as $12.00.
Preventative maintenance is always your least expensive and overall best option to keep your instrument playing to it's potential.
One of the most frequent repairs I see in my shop is bow breakage. One of the main problems with orchestral bows is the fact that their hair has a tendency to stretch out. The player will eventually, over time, find that the hair will not tighten to the proper tension. Instead of realizing something is wrong, they just keep tightening the screw over and over hoping that somehow the hair will get tighter. The problem is, it never does! However, what the player doesn't realize is that the screw does in fact keep moving, it just doesn't tighten the hair anymore. The screw tightens past the point it's suppose to and then what happens is one of these two scenarios, if not both. Either the tip will break off, or the end of the stick by the screw will split in half. Once one of these occurs, the bow then loses it's value and it may not be able to be fixed and will have to be thrown away.
If a bow experiencing the above symptoms had been in for a maintenance check, I would have realized that the hair was getting too long and would have suggested one of the following things to the customer: If the hair is still in good condition and plenty of it left, I would have suggested having the hair shortened. This would have cost around $12.00. The other option would be that if the hair was no longer in good condition, I would have suggested a rehair which is approx $40.00. However, in the state that the bow is in currently with a broken tip or broken stick end, the repair costs would be much higher or worst case scenario, unable to be fixed and thrown in the trash. Quality student line violin bows start around $150.00 and can go up to basically whatever price you are willing to pay. Having to throw away that much money is down right painful when they could have gotten away with spending as little as $12.00.
Preventative maintenance is always your least expensive and overall best option to keep your instrument playing to it's potential.
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