Yesterday, I spent a whole afternoon at a violin maker`s store (local). He brought out 6-8 cello bows out. One was permunbuco wood and cost about $500. This was a good bow, but not what I was looking for. The main bows which I wanted to try was Coda Gold (Classic) and the Spicatto costing about $1000. I first check these two bows on open strings.

A string: Coda Gold:...not as sweet as Spicatto and seemed to have a lot of surface noise.

Spicatto: Crystal clear and projected well and and played at low volumn as well.

String D: Could NOT see any difference here.

String G: Coda Gold: needed a lot of bow pressure to make decent tone and seemed to fall apart when played softly.

Spicatto: Strong tones, flooding with over tones and played at all volumns very well.

String C: Coda Gold: This bow on this string....pretty bad. Tones were also a bit muddy.

Spicatto: Strong tones both loud and soft and did not need a lot of pressure to create tones.

Now the Eastman Gold (Brand new graphite)($1200-1400)

This bow is simply awesome, in my never to be humble opinion....well worth the extra money and then some. This bow was `head and shoulders` above the other two...I asked the violin maker, if this bow was a lot lighter in weight than the other two. He placed them one ata time on the scales, and it was within 1 Gram of the same weight as the other two. Obviously, well balanced. The Coda Gold seemed to be frog-end heavy and the Spicatto seemed to be better balanced that the Coda bow. The Eastman Gold was by far the best in all departments. HOWEVER, just remember, this is just one man`s opinion, I am sure that others will have theirs. :-) I welcome comments/questions....Russell

In addendum: I just have to get that Eastman Gold. This bow may not be available in many stores. Eastman USA is local here, and that is why the local violin maker already has them. Also, while at Eastman USA, today, they told me that they were about to introduce a high end pernambuco bow (retail about $1000, soon.)