TuneWeaver - Posted - 12/29/2024:  16:07:55

I've been doing an amateur's job of rehairing several bows lately.. and began to wonder. I see fiddlers with hair-bare bows and they sound pretty good often.. So. The width of the bow hair (the number of hairs) on the strings gives the sound but is there an improved sound with MORE hair touching the strings? Fewer? Is it just Tradition that has the bow hair the width it currently is?

Edited by - TuneWeaver on 12/29/2024 16:08:15

ChickenMan - Posted - 12/29/2024:  16:40:52

I often get down to 2/3 hairs before I get it done. Easier to pull good tone with a full "head of hair."

TuneWeaver - Posted - 12/29/2024:  16:44:16

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Originally posted by ChickenMan

I often get down to 2/3 hairs before I get it done. Easier to pull good tone with a full "head of hair."

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That is the question.. Maybe a full head of hair should be wider?? Remember, the hairs don't all touch the strings..!! just those on the bottom..so, HOW MANY hairs is best touching the strings?

Edited by - TuneWeaver on 12/29/2024 16:45:27

TuneWeaver - Posted - 12/29/2024:  16:53:53

Consider this: say, you have 200 bow hairs and you break 100...well you still have 100 that have the possibility of touching the string... So, what is the optimal number of hairs to give good sound? Could one get better sound with a wider (more hair on the strings) bow?

Lonesome Fiddler - Posted - 12/29/2024:  17:10:03

I enjoy having a bow that has lots of hair. Or is that thick with hair? It's much easier to draw richer and more consistent tone. The bow feels more secure under the fingers when you play. It adds confidence and power.

farmerjones - Posted - 12/29/2024:  18:05:54

You do turn half the hairs around so it's not an upbow bow, right?

TuneWeaver - Posted - 12/29/2024:  18:09:37

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Originally posted by farmerjones

You do turn half the hairs around so it's not an upbow bow, right?

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Yeah, ever six months I flip the hairs over soze they don't just wear on one side!!!  THat is what upbowing is all about, right?

Flat_the_3rd_n7th - Posted - 12/29/2024:  18:22:36

Textbook bow--full hair at the tip and 1/4-1/2 at the frog. Take away half the hair and you're messing with your technique.

The Violin Beautiful - Posted - 12/29/2024:  19:35:29

The hair width is determined by the bow’s mortises.

Putting too little in makes the ribbon thin and the bow will slip too much. Too much hair will make the bow flabby and sluggish.

James Tubbs was very concerned about people getting the amount of hair wrong in his bows when they would eventually be rehaired, so he made his frogs so that a spread wedge couldn’t be installed and the amount of hair used was therefore precisely dictated. Rehairers modified the frogs over time, so now it’s rare to find an unaltered Tubbs bow. Tubbs is considered by some to be an inconsistent maker because some bows play well and some play very poorly, but there’s also a strong argument that many of the disappointing Tubbs bows are simply not rehaired properly. Getting the amount right can transform one.

Vuillaume was interested in the question of hair contact with the string, so he invented a frog design with a rounded ferrule that would allow the player to bow with more hair flat on the string. Bows of that type have to be rehaired specially, which is why the design never became standard.

ChickenMan - Posted - 12/29/2024:  21:59:48

What is a spread wedge? Is it standard (seems like it is not standard or at least not standard according to Tubbs)?

Edited by - ChickenMan on 12/29/2024 22:00:04

pete_fiddle - Posted - 12/30/2024:  02:46:49

quote:

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Originally posted by ChickenMan

What is a spread wedge? Is it standard (seems like it is not standard or at least not standard according to Tubbs)?

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Sounds like the wedge that spreads the hair at the frog?

TuneWeaver - Posted - 12/30/2024:  04:26:52

With my own rehairing experiences I've decided that STRAIGHT hair is critical to sound..Crossed hairs keep multiple other hairs from making good contact..Am I correct about that?

ChickenMan - Posted - 12/30/2024:  05:40:56

I guess I want to know what makes the wedge a spreader. There had to be a wedge/plug in the top to hold the hairs, right?

The Violin Beautiful - Posted - 12/30/2024:  07:09:04

quote:

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Originally posted by ChickenMan

What is a spread wedge? Is it standard (seems like it is not standard or at least not standard according to Tubbs)?

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The spread wedge is the small piece of wood that fits between the hair and the ferrule in the frog. As the name describes, it spreads the hair out into a flat ribbon of hair. Without it, the hair clumps together in the middle of the ferrule. Spread wedges had already been standard long before Tubbs started making bows, but poorly fitted wedges and the over abundance of hair in many rehairs prompted Tubbs to seek a method to thwart poor workmen.  While his idea did work, enough people were frustrated by the design and willing to vandalize his bows to change it  that most of the bows ended up altered. Of all the Tubbs bows I've seen, only one was unaltered. 

The Violin Beautiful - Posted - 12/30/2024:  07:11:26

quote:

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Originally posted by TuneWeaver

With my own rehairing experiences I've decided that STRAIGHT hair is critical to sound..Crossed hairs keep multiple other hairs from making good contact..Am I correct about that?

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Yes. Crossed hairs prevent the bow from tracking well on the string and make the bow skip. 

The Violin Beautiful - Posted - 12/30/2024:  07:18:29

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Originally posted by ChickenMan

I guess I want to know what makes the wedge a spreader. There had to be a wedge/plug in the top to hold the hairs, right?

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See above for an explanation of the spread wedge. There are plugs at the head of the bow and inside the frog to hold the hair in place in the mortises. The spread wedge just distributes the hair. It has to be fitted firmly enough that the hair won't shift toward the middle, but it doesn't actually do much to keep the hair in the frog, which is why the hair can pull out if the knot in the frog slips. The plugs are trapezoid shapes to lock the hair into place, and while the sides are usually undercut a bit, they aren't wedges so much as fitted blocks. The spread wedge is a true wedge, tapered from its wide end where the hair exits the ferrule down to its thinnest point where it touches the tongue of the frog. 

ChickenMan - Posted - 12/30/2024:  12:44:45

Thanks for clearing that up, Rich.

Bertram31 - Posted - 05/08/2025:  16:01:50

Very interesting post. I have a Tubbs that needs to be re haired. The bow hadn’t been used since the 50’s and was kept well over time. I’m bringing to my luthier tomorrow for evaluation..