Glasser Bows

[Busker]

This week I have bought three new glasser bows. Two violin and one viola.

All three have been dificult to take up rosin. After considrable time I am winning.

Please tell me if their are any secrets in applying first rosin to these bows.

Also two of the three needed flaming - not what I would expect from new bows.

I am not delighted! Thanks

[Bowhanded]

I recently bought a Glasser Braided Octagonal shape

violin bow and it was slow to take so I got fairly fine sandpaper

and  sanded the surface of the roisin  before applying it

to the strings and then  the bow got a bite on the

strings  but it was a slow enough process . I really like the

bow now , it took a while for me to get used to it but I consider

it very good value for money.

[Brad Dorsey]

It could be the hair. Many new Glasser bows come with synthetic hair which doesn't take rosin as well as real hair.

[Andrew Victor]

I always found this to be a problem with Glasser bows (fiberglas, composite, and CF) - haired with real horsehair (not synthetic).

What I found to work was to hold the cake of rosin in my left hand and press the hair into the rosin with my left thumb (I was sure my hands were clean and DRY when doing this - and free from any imperfections that might snag the hair.

It still would take a few minutes to rosin the bow the first time and with some bows I had to do the rosining in small sections (to reduce the chance of breaking hairs on my thumb. But it always worked well.

Andy

[Sartory]

I noticed that nobody mentioned using powdered rosin first. That is usually the first step in gettng any bow with new hair to take rosin. I could be wrong about this but I believe Glasser has discontinued synthetic hair.

[Michael_Molnar]

For new hair I first scrape the cake of rosin with a knife to roughen and flake up the surface.

Mike

[brokenbow]

20 years ago when I was doing some rehairing I had a bottle of "Technical Rosin" which was a brown colored powder. I just powdered up the hair with it and then applied rosin from a cake. It seemed to greatly speed up the process. The late Bill Doolittle taught me that trick.

[Busker]

Thank you all for your responses.

I am pleased to know that I am not the only one to have this problem.

These were horse hair bows as glasser is not making synthetic bows now.

All bows are now useable but the effort to rosin them was time consuming. I will not sell new bows now unless I ensure they are playable first! New players can do without this hassle.

Thanks

[DonLeister]

I always wipe the hair with alchohol after a rehair or with a new bow, it will help it take rosin.

You would be surprised at how much dirt comes off with it too.

Don

[krugwaffle]

I've been trying to get a Glasser Carbon Braid to start performing since I got it two weeks ago but it's still fighting me. First it was very hard to rosin up properly. I could get the rosin to dispense onto the bow hair but it wouldn't stick. It was like dandruff more than a coating. Next, I noticed several fairly loose hairs in the center of the ribbon that would drag and make a buzzing sound when the hair was at tension. I trimmed a couple out and got the buzzing to go away but there's still a loose feel to the center of the hair.

The good news is that it's starting to behave better now and seems to be relatively unfazed by the cold weather I'm using it in. My old carbon fiber bow still works well but the hair is worn and it tends to get a little weak sounding outside in the cold air. Tonight I switched to the Glasser and it held up well in the 50 degree twighlight.

Maybe the long break in period is an indicator of a long life expectancy?