Fiddler45

Testing search feature... Oh...I guess there really AREN'T any replies to this topic. I had the same question. Is bowhair.com any good?

Depends where you take it. Did this for a friend; converted peg box to 5 string, new bridge, extra bridge for Baggs pickup, 5 string tailpiece, new bassbar, top graduation, soundpost, brand new fingerboad and nut...$475.

Thanks! I'm going to use the piece of poplar I bought for.....um........sawdust.

One more thing....what is the best wood to use for the tip wedge? I had heard poplar, so I bought some, but when I try to cut it, I might as well be trying to cut a cheese puff...it just disintegrates. I've been using spruce, but I'm thinking that's still too soft. Boxwood? I have a bunch of scraps saved from peg bushing dowels. So far the easiest trial bow to rehair was an old aluminum one with what appeared to be a ceramic tip plug. Fit the mortice exactly except for a tiny gap for the hair, was hard as stone, yet fit like a glove.

Thanks everyone...I had pondered using rosin as an aid to add friction and some stickiness but didn't know if that was accepted pracrice or not.

Tangent fron Nathan's glued in slide thread... Out of curiosity, does anyone use anything to help keep the tip wedge in? After rehairing 6 bows in the past few weeks, three of them have had some substance holding the hair to the mortice/wedge. One looked like super glue, one some kind of waxy substance (which basically filled the mortice but came out fairly easily) and one looked like either hide glue or rosin.

I was going with glue being in places it may not belong, but I see your point.

....anyone?....

Wow. Ouch!

Interesting thread. The first violin I worked on had varnish like the French one here, but only on the top...which had been replaced by someone in Sleepy Eye MN. The color of the varnish on the top was similar ro these. It was a pretty nice fiddle...wish I still had it. Also picked.one up at an instrument show that was made by someone in Maine in the 1930s...same color, similar crazing all all over. I haven't worked on it yet, but I'll try to post some pictures if I can.

So out of curiosity, does anyone use anything to help keep the tip wedge in? After rehairing 6 bows in the past few weeks, three if them have had some substance holding the hair to the mortice/wedge. One looked like super glue, one some kind of waxy substance (which basically filled the mortice but came out fairly easily) and one looked like either hide glue or rosin.

Heard this yesterday...very sad.

It's sometimes amazing how one can think he is being competitive or being nice, but if the price is "too low" for an object/service, people tend to assume it's subpar and would rather spend much more, assuming they're getting something better. I think I have lost a violin sale or two by trying to be fair and not rip people off; instead they go to an expensive shop and get talked into a pricey hideous sounding instrument and...well....get ripped off.

So are you saying that you hair the bow purposely with more hair/higher tension on one side? (Not that I will attempt that at this time) I am planning on doing a couple more this week, and one will be a bow that I have used before that I know is straight when under tension, and see if my rehair changes that. All the bows that I haired a few yeara ago that didn't have any camber work/straightening attempts done to them turned out straight and played decently with fairly acceptable (to me anyway) parallel hair.

I woild guess the main cause is not keeping them at the correct angle, especially while changing strings. I have sold a few violins that were set up at the same time a couple I kept were; all the bridges were cut the same, from the same batch, and seven years later mine are still perfect, while a few I sold warped after less than two years....and some string changes.