A critical consideration is that a bow, at any price, must be selected for the particular instrument for which it is intended. One must take the instrument along while bow shopping and be very sure to play a number of candidate bows through the same pieces and exercises.

If you can't do this yourself, take along someone who plays well to try each bow on your instrument. Other things being equal, buy the one that consistently sounds best on your instrument. You will be able to hear the difference.

Of course a bow will sound different in the hands of different players so, if you can do the testing yourself, you should.

      - Mark