I`m getting good at posting on the wrong forum, for which I apologise.

I`ve just bought a cheap carbon fibre bow (I`ll probably go for a better one when my technique is up to it).

This one weighs in at 66 gms while my 2nd hand pernambuco is 61 gms. Now, I was not surprised that it sounded louder but it also felt easier to bow. Is this an inevitable result of the extra weight or, is because I`ve found a weight that (at the moment) suits me?

I just read an article somewhere about bow weights. If I recall correctly the ideal weight is 58g (?)...yours sounds a tad heavy...

...but hey! If it works...enjoy!...

I thought that when I first weighed our bows, but we don`t seem to be getting anything here that weighs in below 62g, not even the flimsy Chinese ones which you`d think were really light weight. Perhaps it`s a matter of having accurate scales, ours certainly seem to weigh things at 4g more than the post office scales (which is just as well because we don`t like going to the post office and finding it`s a couple of grams over the 2kg cut off weight for special delivery!). I guess we could take a few bows down to the post office to weight them!

According to the maestronet people (who know more about this than i do!) if a violinist could bear to play with a viola bow (much heavier) they would find the tone was helped considerably.

Liz

You`re going to end up with a huge bow collection there, Jeff!!

Liz

And me being bald.

It (the collection) won`t be that big. My original will probably come back to you when I upgrade (I hope) or go with the fiddle to my cousin`s lass if she`s still playing. And the cheap carbon fibre will probably be part exed as well.

I`d keep them as spares, Jeff - accidents do happen and any bow will do in a pinch.

...okay...found my info., I was right, but missed a bit!...

"A finished bow ideally weighs 58-60 g; according to....considers 58 g the idealwight and rejects bows weighly less than 54 g because they require too much energy to obtain the necesaary pressure at the tip....tendency to prefer heavier bows since ca. 1900, possibly because of the ever rising concert-pitch...Currently 61 g is the norm..."

This was taken from page 47 of The Amadeus Book of the Violin, Construction, History and Music by Walter Kolneder. Reprinted 1999, Amadeus Press, Portland Oregon.