Category: Resources

Violin Bow

One of the prizes I plan to include in my upcoming sweepstakes is a carbon fiber bow, worth about $125. Yes, I know I’m running kinda long with this sweepstakes, but I’ve had some other events pre-empt my efforts on this. I’ll try to get something together by the end of January.

Meanwhile, in my various searches for comparable deals in bows, I ran across a couple on Amazon which appear to be pretty good. One is a Full-size 4/4 Pernambuco Nickel/silver Mounted Violin Bow sold by Vio Strings for $27. It has some good reviews, and Pernambuco is definitely better than the typical “Brazil-wood” bow. “Brazil-wood” doesn’t actually identify the type of wood at all, but includes several different very cheap varieties of wood, some of which aren’t even from Brazil. Considering that a good re-hairing job costs about $40 plus tax here in Plano, this looks like a super deal.

A similar deal is listed as Violin Bow Pernambuco Wood Full Size 4/4, Ebony Frog, by D Z Strad for $28. Even though the list price is a bit higher, D Z Strad has lower shipping charges, so the total delivered price is a little less.

Both of these bows are advertised with an inflated MSRP, which I think you should pretty much ignore, but I think that either of these bows would out-perform the “Brazil-wood” bows that come with the typical beginner violin kit (including mine). I really don’t think you can go wrong with either of them. You might want to jump on one of these deals before they go away!

Update 1/8/2012: The price on the first one has jumped up about $10 since the last time I checked, which would probably make the 2nd one a better deal. If I was personally shopping for a “spare” bow, I’d probably pass on either of these if the price went over about $55, or maybe wait for another sale.

Update 1/17/2012: I see that the price seems to be fluctuating quite a bit. If you are thinking about getting a bow that cost more than about $40, I think that most student violinists would be happier with a carbon fiber bow for about $70.

I’ve already written about the Don’t Fret, which is one of the accessories for violin and viola that I keep in stock. I was notified last week by the manufacturer that there is a new version of the Don’t Fret available, called the First Fret. These are shorter decals that only indicate the finger positions in the first position. Since the typical beginner will remove the fingerboard decal fairly soon after learning 3rd position anyway, I expect these to sell quite well. They are less expensive than the original Don’t Fret, and I expect them to be easier to install. The price for the violin First Fret will be $2.95 plus $1 shipping. I have made my initial order, and I expect to get them in sometime next week.

I have done some importing from China, with fairly good luck, and for a while, I had a fairly brisk business selling violins and accessories via the internet. I have pretty much dropped trying to import violins lately, for several reasons.

First of all, it is a pretty labor-intensive undertaking, since I just refuse to sell the type of junk you typically get on eBay, and every violin I got from China needed some basic setup. For instance, none of them ever arrived with properly-fitting pegs, not even the higher-end models. I bought a peg hole reamer and a peg shaper, and after quite a bit of practice, I managed to get to the point where I can fit a set of pegs properly in about 15 minutes. Changing out the horrible strings that come with the violins, installing a Don’t Fret, fitting the pegs, and installing fine-tuners takes me about 30 to 40 minutes. Occasionally, I discover that there is something else needed that I don’t have the tools or the skill to fix (like the occasional badly-warped fingerboard), which causes me to chunk the whole thing in the trash because it isn’t cost-effective to repair (that eats up any profit I might make on the next several instruments). This is the sort of thing the typical eBay merchant expects the end-user to do, and all too often, the end-user has to spend $200 or more to get a $150 violin set up, just to find that it’s worth less than $150.

Importing was an adventure, too.

(Around the time I was doing my importing, I did a series of book reviews that were mostly related to the import/export business, or in some cases, sales in general. I recently ran across that old web page, and I have re-posted it here.)

In order to get the shipping costs from China down to a reasonable level, you have to order about $6,000-$10,000 worth of stuff at a time. Then wait about 60 to 90 days, hoping that most of the shipment will turn out ok. Especially since there is no hope of doing a return on anything. I dealt with four different vendors in China, and with each one, I got a fairly good (but expensive) sample order, only to find that when I placed a regular order, there was something missing or not per my specifications. With no recourse, naturally.

While I learned a lot about setting up violins, and I learned a lot about the import/export business, it just hasn’t been enough of a money-maker to hold my interest over the past few years, especially since I was able to find a good day-job writing software. I still have several violins, and my wife is starting to make noises about wanting me to get them out of storage and get rid of them. I have been selling them to my students (and occasionally to other local folks), just as an alternative to the risk of getting an expensive piece of violin-shaped firewood from an eBay vendor.

These are not world-class violins, and anybody claiming that an under-$250 violin is a “great” instrument is simply lying. They are, however, suitable for a beginner. After a couple of years, a beginner who is serious enough to practice diligently will want to get a better instrument. At that time, the student will also have a much better idea of just what he or she wants, too. Occasionally, I will sell one to a more experienced player who just wants a “rain-fiddle”, or something to perform on outdoors or in circumstances that might be an unacceptable hazard to a really expensive violin.

I have been offering a fairly generous trade-up and buy-back offer, but relatively few of my buyers has taken me up on that over the last 5 or 6 years. Usually, the student wants to keep the original instrument as a back-up, or in some cases, another member of the same family will get it as a hand-me-down.

I have performed publicly on some of these violins myself. In one performance, I took my Drozen and one of my $170 fiddles and switched out for the cheap one after the first break — and nobody except me noticed. The main things I noticed were that it was a bit more effort to get a really good tone from the cheaper fiddle, and the dynamic range wasn’t quite as good.

Any rate, with my wife wanting me to get rid of the current stock, I guess I’m going to have to do an inventory, and start getting them ready to sell. I’m thinking about taking some down to a local instrument store and placing them on consignment. I will probably stop dealing in violins after the current stock is gone.

Unless, of course, I find a way to make it more profitable. I expect that I will still deal in accessories like strings and fingerboard decals, which I can get in smaller quantities, and the shipping doesn’t cost a fortune.