I understand that pernambuco has been the favorite wood for violin bows for a long time. I also understand that pernambuco is endangered and the supply is limited. So carbon fiber bows have become popular in recent years.
CF bows are impervious to weather changes and some of them are considered to have very excellent balance and tone. Some are quite expensive, at least for my budget. I regularly use a CF bow and I think it's great.
Some CF bows have a wrapping of thin pernambuco veneer. Sometimes they are marketed as “hybrid”.
But I do not understand why a high quality CF bow would need to be wrapped with a pernambuco veneer. Does the pernambuco add something of value, or is this merely a cosmetic feature? Surely the pernambuco adds to the cost of producing the bow, so why bother? What's the point?
Do you have an example?
This suspiciously sounds like a decal.
There are different kinds of hybrids. When the idea first emerged, the pernambuco was just basically a printed wrap or a thin veneer that covered a carbon bow, and it was done solely because there were a lot of people who disliked the look of a bow that wasn’t made of wood on stage. Players would be told they couldn’t use their carbon fiber bows at concerts and teachers would rail against the bows and forbid their students from buying them. The workaround was to cover the carbon fiber so that it looked like wood. That made it possible to sell a lot more cheap bows, and the players ended up with more options.
Over time, though, the technology and understanding of material properties evolved, and what began as a cosmetic change began to be more of an experiment in bow handling. Instead of just using a thin veneer or skin, manufacturers began using a thinner carbon rod as the core and then put that into a pernambuco shell that was thicker. This design allowed for the benefits of both materials—the rigidity of carbon and the flexibility and tone quality of pernambuco. It’s hard to get good quality pernambuco, so this solves the problem.
Hybrid bows are a very good option for the lower end. They handle better than plain carbon bows and they’re easily affordable. If you spend more for a pernambuco bow you can get more nuance, but some of these bows are surprisingly good for the money. A few years ago when GEWA came out with one, it caused a bit of a stir in my area. Two or three players from the NSO came in and went through all of them and bought one, and a major teacher started recommending them to his students.
Edited by - The Violin Beautiful on 12/10/2025 06:27:53
My bow is a CF wrapped in pernambuco!
My old bow broke (head spline??) and the repair was going to cost more than the worth of the bow.
So I had to get a bow... They brought in a tray of 8 in my price range and I tried them all, and wound up with this one, because-
- nice sound (had the warm tone I was seeking)
- easy to handle, easy to play fast / cross strings
- so affordable!
(I think there were some CF bows in the tray...all I know is the black ones I tried, had a less mellow sound. My guess is that those were the CF bows. But I prefer a "mellow rounded" sound, not everybody is the same...)
Edited by - NCnotes on 12/10/2025 08:55:00
Good explanation, thanks Rich.
4 years or so ago, I bought a JonPaul "Fusion" bow, mail order, that has a Pernambuco "wrap" and I like the bow. The wrap seemed like it might be kind of a gimmick but the bow sounds and plays well. A few weeks ago, just for the heck of it, I bought a JonPaul "Matrix" which is the same bow without the wrap according to the info I have. It handles well and sounds good. It might be slightly "less mellow" but perhaps that's a new bow-older bow thing. Either bow represents a good value. I could happily play either bow for the rest of my fiddle life.
A couple of fiddling friends bought two "hybrid" bows each from International Violins. I tried all four and liked them a lot, so I ordered one as a backup bow to my Coda. Unfortunately, I misunderstood where they bought them and ordered one from Fiddlerman. The Fiddlerman hybrid is not a bad bow for it's $100 or so price, but we all agree that it's far inferior to the International Violins model.
quote:
Originally posted by WyoBob4 years or so ago, I bought a JonPaul "Fusion" bow, mail order, that has a Pernambuco "wrap" and I like the bow. The wrap seemed like it might be kind of a gimmick but the bow sounds and plays well. A few weeks ago, just for the heck of it, I bought a JonPaul "Matrix" which is the same bow without the wrap according to the info I have. It handles well and sounds good. It might be slightly "less mellow" but perhaps that's a new bow-older bow thing. Either bow represents a good value. I could happily play either bow for the rest of my fiddle life.
I found the jonpaul bows to be on the mellower side. The Matrix is a woven carbon fiber bow it is most likely going to be brighter than some of their other bows. Just my experience.
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