What do you think about this bow?

[szuper_bojler]

I'm trying to find the ultimate budget friendly professional level bow and stumbled upon this Chinese maker. Here's a bow he's selling for little more than $2k, do you think it's worth buying?

The bow looks good to my untrained eyes, and the maker is quite reputable in China, and has won a few prizes, so I've heard. 

The only thing is that he'll need to ship it to the States, which means it'll be a hassle returning it if it doesn't work out. On the other hand, a top quality bow for 2k is a bargain.

What do you guys think?

[Strad O Various Jr.]

Chinese mystery wood, you see it on the cheapest bows

[GeorgeH]

No, not worth buying. Spending $2k on a Chinese bow you have not even tried is a fool’s errand. 
Go to a reputable dealer where you can try the bows before you buy. 

[Wood Butcher]

4 hours ago, szuper_bojler said:

What do you guys think?

I think you have already decided yourself, and are looking for others to validate your decision.

[martin swan]

There are all sorts of great German bows from the early 1900s that you can buy for $2k.

[LCF]

5 hours ago, Strad O Various Jr. said:

Chinese mystery wood, you see it on the cheapest bows

If it was made from pernambuco it might fall foul of the import restrictions!

[IBK]

2 hours ago, martin swan said:

There are all sorts of great German bows from the early 1900s that you can buy for $2k.

That is for sure

[szuper_bojler]

2 hours ago, Wood Butcher said:

I think you have already decided yourself, and are looking for others to validate your decision.

Not quite true? I do like the look of the bow, and the idea of getting top quality bow for cheap, but I'll need second opinions to decide though.

2 hours ago, martin swan said:

There are all sorts of great German bows from the early 1900s that you can buy for $2k.

For sure, but I'm not sure where you can find them for a good price? Reputable dealerships are nice, but their prices seem inflated.

[szuper_bojler]

7 hours ago, Strad O Various Jr. said:

Chinese mystery wood, you see it on the cheapest bows

How do you see that though?

[Skeezy Bojangle]

For 2k you should be going to shop and trying them in person. If that is not an option then go to violin auctions online or online shops. I would not put any stock in chinese merchandise these days. I am not saying there are not good chinese makers, there definitely is. However they do not hold their value the same. So if you ever want to upgrade later, you'll end up paying more. Also, I know of least two shops (and even more luthiers) who will just simply not stock it anymore because of fakes or misleading "mislabeled" items and then getting into sticky situations of being stuck with the items because the seller magically disappears or simply refuses to answer back, etc etc.

My opinion goes pretty much with everyone else. Go find a local shop or luthier, or even online if you must.  For 2k you can find a good solid turn of the century german bow.

 

[martin swan]

3 hours ago, szuper_bojler said:

For sure, but I'm not sure where you can find them for a good price? Reputable dealerships are nice, but their prices seem inflated.

When considering shop prices it's worth bearing two things in mind ...

1. it's complete madness to buy a bow without trying it, probably a 2 week trial for most buyers

2. One out of ten customers actually buys (this seems to be an average which most of my colleagues agree on).

So if you put these two things together, you are paying for the privilege of taking your time and making a sensible purchase. 

Many shops also offer a 100% upgrade policy.

Pay peanuts and you get monkeys.

[Foldejal]

7 hours ago, szuper_bojler said:

Not quite true? I do like the look of the bow, and the idea of getting top quality bow for cheap, but I'll need second opinions to decide though.

For sure, but I'm not sure where you can find them for a good price? Reputable dealerships are nice, but their prices seem inflated.

Top quality for cheap.. how can you see from photos? I mean you can't tell anything bad about it, but anything good too, except good looking glossy bow, before holding it in your hands. Btw, can you post some reviews or opinions on this maker? I found nothing about him.

[Guido]

17 hours ago, szuper_bojler said:

I'm trying to find the ultimate budget friendly professional level bow...

I think the online advertisers know that already; and you'll succumb to the click bait that tells you what you want to hear.

If you are looking for a bow to physically use, you should look for it and it's properties in the real world.

[szuper_bojler]

4 hours ago, Foldejal said:

Btw, can you post some reviews or opinions on this maker? I found nothing about him.

Honestly I can't find much about him either. The only thing I can verify is that he won silver at the 5th International China Violin Making Competition for both his violin and viola bows, with the jury being Yannick Le Canu, Sylvain Bigot and Jianfeng Li. But yeah, I'm not sure how much that competition is recognized outside of China, since most of the competitors seem to be domestic.

 

 

[Brad Dorsey]

Some violin shops will send you a few bows to try out.  You can compare them, buy the one you like and send the rest back.

[JonnyFW]

Just to add - you’d be surprised how even an objectively “good” bow can in fact not be right for you/your instrument when you try it out. I had a really nice W E Hill & Sons bow on trial for a couple of weeks that just really didn’t gel with my violin (I ended up buying a different one from the same shop in about the same price bracket). I was really thrown by how bad a match it was, despite clearly being beautifully made, from a good maker and in good condition.

If you’re buying one to actually play, you really need to try it properly and with enough time and breathing space to assess it.

[Alto Ego]

Chinese or not, I would not buy a bow thats in a different country without a reasonable ability to return it. Sure, it looks good, but you won’t know how it plays until you get your hands on it. And how a bow feels and plays is more important than how it looks. To be honest, aside from specialty bows, the vast majority of $2k bows look the same.

[MikeD]

if you don't rush your search,
then for 2 thousand you can find a very good bow!

it is also worth considering, in addition to its playing qualities, how you can sell it later if necessary

[fiddlecollector]

Just commenting that it might be pernambuco , which can look very unpleasantly red if treated with anything .

[szuper_bojler]

10 hours ago, Alto Ego said:

Chinese or not, I would not buy a bow thats in a different country without a reasonable ability to return it. Sure, it looks good, but you won’t know how it plays until you get your hands on it. And how a bow feels and plays is more important than how it looks. To be honest, aside from specialty bows, the vast majority of $2k bows look the same.

Fair, the seller said that he's accepting returns, though I'll have to pay for shipping. I have no idea how much it'd cost to ship a bow from US to China. Or even which carrier I can use... 

[szuper_bojler]

7 hours ago, MikeD said:

it is also worth considering, in addition to its playing qualities, how you can sell it later if necessary

That's the hard part right? If I go for Chinese bows and want to sell them later, then my options are basically limited to those who are known in the "West", which basically is J.F.Lee and Long-gen Chen. Whose bows are prohibitively expensive. Any established makers in the States/Europe would charge 3k minimum