Not long ago I was rummaging around in some of the old posts on this forum and I came across a discussion of the Incredibow. There were several positive comments, so I ordered a base-level Incredibow. It arrived a few days ago and I have been putting some mileage on it since then.
Overall, it plays pretty well.
The Incredibow is very light — just 41 grams. My other bows weigh close to 60 grams so this is a massive difference and you might expect it to feel very light in the hand. But it does not feel unsubstantial at all. The weight of the bow on the strings seems pretty normal. And with reasonable rosin it has good adhesion with the strings.
The bow’s balance is a little different, and that takes a bit of getting used to. I’ve experimented with exactly where to grip the stick and it’s starting to feel good.
The Incredibow’s tone is a little bright, but it’s not objectionable.
I especially like the convenience of this bow. I like to have my fiddles hanging on the wall and ready to pick up at any moment so I can rip off a few licks. The Incredibow is permanently tensioned so it’s not necessary to turn up that pesky little tightening screw — just pick up the bow and rock on. (Yeh, I know — the is not something that a serious musician would do, but t suits me just fine.)
This bow arrived in two weeks or so and came packaged with a lovely red wrap and even a fake red rose. Not bad for $139.
This Incredibow does not really replace any of my other bows, but it does fit right in. I understand that there's a condition called Fiddle Acquisition Syndrome, where ya gotta keep adding stuff. I guess I have FAS, but maybe it's not the worst disease in the world.
I found it too odd for me. THe only thing I can see as a real benefit is when playing outside in really humid weather -I;ve had standard bows not being able to be tightened enough, with the hair going slack and floppy. Curious though - how do these get rehaired? Can a regular luthier handle them? Rich, you know?
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Originally posted by wrench13I found it too odd for me. THe only thing I can see as a real benefit is when playing outside in really humid weather -I;ve had standard bows not being able to be tightened enough, with the hair going slack and floppy. Curious though - how do these get rehaired? Can a regular luthier handle them? Rich, you know?
Incredibow can't be rehaired, so essentially it is a disposable bow. Albeit a high quality disposable bow. I have 2 nice artificial roses with matching bows.
Wrench, you’re right -- it certainly looks quite odd. It looks more like some weird kind of carpenter’s saw than a violin bow.
But I find the bow’s performance only very slightly odd -- certainly not nearly as odd as some of the el-cheapo bows that I tried when I was first getting started. Them were some dawgs!
I have one that I was given years ago. It was sent to the shop where I was working as an introduction. The owner of the shop took one look at it and said “What the heck is this thing? Get it out of here! If I showed this kind of junk to my customers, I’d have to hide under the rug for the rest of my life.” He told me I could have it if I wanted to take it home, otherwise it was going straight into the trash.
I’ve played it many times and have to admit I really don’t like it very well. It can be useful for occasions where there’s high humidity because it has plastic bow hair and it won’t stretch out like horsehair. The problem is that it makes everything sound strident. I sold the bow I had been using to test instruments after setting them up and made the mistake of using my incredibow instead for a couple violin setups, and it really threw off my adjustments. I had to change the soundpost position drastically to make it tolerable to listen to the violins. When I tried them with another bow later I realized how much it had thrown things off and I’ve never again used it to test a violin.
I can get an even tone with it, just without much color, and it will not bounce well at all. Its best quality is a quick response (not quicker than everything else, but quicker than some entry level bows).
Two of the fiddlers at the Renaissance Faire use them during the summer to avoid humidity issues. Their convex shape makes them look more like early bows from the medieval, renaissance, and early baroque eras. They don’t fit into the bow holders in some cases.
When one bows, one's grip is such that the bow rotates on the axis of the hair. One controls what string(s) to play by arm, forearm, and wrist. But, the rotational axis controls how much hair is engaged as the bow is drawn. Some use "thumb under frog" grip to give a more preferable control of this axis. When a bow has anti-camber, like a hacksaw or an Incredibow, the bow is essentially not helping you. Fiddlers/violinists pay for a bow that has good camber and stiffness, so the hair is still close to the stick when the hair is tightened. Thus making the bow easier to play.
Flippy-floppy adds to what one must control when bowing. Flippy-floppy is taxing. Flippy-floppy may be fun for five or ten minutes. Not for three hour gigs, or six hour jams. Thanks for listening to myTedtalk.
Right humidity! Big problem for me, much of our work is on or near water (pirate!) - sometimes, even maxed out, the hair is like a loose rubber band. A section of wine cork shoved under the hair by the frog helps.
But i get what Farmer sez. The mass of the reverse curve is opposite to mass of a standard bow, so the effect of gravity and rotational mass (along the axis) is working against you. If I remember right, it felt like the bow wanted to twist in my fingers a bit.
Felt weird.
I don’t notice any issues with the bow turning as I play. What bothers me more is that the balance feels so distorted. After playing on it, it takes a couple minutes to re-acclimate to my regular bows. I played with my incredibow last night and found that I could get it to bounce after all, but the bouncing point was so much closer to the tip that it was almost impossible to control the bow when I wanted to stop it. It just doesn’t work like my other bows.
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