I own some very good pernambuco/hair bows made by famous bow-makers, expensive, beautiful, collectable, wonderful. After one time almost forgetting an expensive bow at a bar gig, I decided to only use bows that were, frankly, cheap at most of my jobs unless I was recording, at home, or in a well-lit high end venue.
I also was tired of the expensive, frequent rehairing. I bought five Incredibows. They were good but I like to chop and the Incredibow frogs could not take the pressure. With research, I found Coruss bows, which have standard frogs, handle chopping well, and are durable synthetic. The showy colors are an added plus.
I bought one viola bow (I play extended range violins so the heavier weight helps) to test and it worked great. Then I bought four more because I like to keep one bow in each case. Now I have five, each a different color, and I am very happy with them.
My trick to get rosin on the bow the first time is to sandpaper the rosin with 180 grit. Do NOT sandpaper the hair. The rosin then goes on quickly and easily and subsequent rosin does not need to be sandpapered. The hair does require more frequent rosin IMO but not extreme. Once a show is fine.
Coruss very kindly gifted me with a packet of hair I can have have put another bow, thank you very much. It is a color I hadn't ordered - that was very nice of Coruss. So maybe I should say I have six Coruss bows. Synthetic hair is so much stronger than natural hair, the money you save from not needing rehairs will make this a very good buy. Thank you, Coruss.
Oh, and shipping from France to California was free and surprisingly fast.
