It is the best violin bow I own.
I made a rash decision last night. I decided to go buy a bow. Originally I wanted to buy a JonPaul Avanti. The going price for these are around 700. Well reviewed as a value buy, a tremendous instrument that will last a lifetime. I called around - I know that the local store had it on their website, but didn't know if they had it in stock. I didn't get a call back. I know that there was another store in Kitchener that has one - but the pricing for that is on the high side, around 1000.
The rash decision is going for the Carrera - a model that is higher in quality and pricing than the Avanti. I thought, "Do I truly deserve such a deluxe bow?" And I wondered if it was worth spending the equivalent of a return plane ticket to Europe on a material possession. I don't often make these kinds of choices without deliberation.
Remenyi had the Carrera, but they didn't have the Avanti. I walked into the store, and encountered the Russian storekeep at the violin section. I asked her for the Carrera and for the price again (even though they already told me over the phone). "It's 1195." I asked to see it. After feeling below her booth (I imagine disarming a boobytrap while opening a trap door), she pulled up and out a lizard skin wrapped rectangular case that had some size, depth, and heft. The lid opened up 90 degrees, blocking my view. It looked like the kind of case that held AK-47 parts. I moved and tried to take a look at what was inside but she shoo'ed me away. I glimpsed the inside of the case out of the corner of my eye - it was a bow case with internal brackets and cushions - fitting about 20 bows.
She took out the Carrera and passed it to me. It was red brown, with the letters JONPAUL CARRERA stamped on the frog. The bow hair was loose. The winding, tip, and fittings were tarnished silver, the stick itself carbon fibre. I asked a few nervous questions that the storekeep deflected easily. "No we do not rent out or trial out instruments. You can take it for a day or two at the most."
I bought it without hearing it.
It was frigid outside. I had the requisite long clear skinny plastic bag that does nothing to protect it. It's carbon fibre, able to withstand any cold. Horsehair - horses run outside in all kinds of weather. The final element - the handcraft - it should survive the Toronto winter. And it did.
I came home with cold hands. I let them warm up. Took out my violin. Gave the button a few twists to put tension on the hair, and started "As the Sun was Setting," which was the first song I learned to play. Then moved to "Cape Breton Jigs as played by Howie Macdonald," and then to "Boil Them Cabbage Down." And that was when I ran into trouble. The bow wasn't resonating. There is a part on the D string that sounded beautiful and full of ringing resonance when played with my old Fiddlerman carbon bow (which cost me 100 bucks, or less than 1/10 of the Carrera). On the double stop portions on the A and E I ran out of bow tension - I was pushing too hard and the hair was collapsing against the stick, causing stick noise. I was miffed. Do I need to return this bow? Why did I do this? Why did I not go for an instrument trial like normal people do. Did I get a dud? My deepest fear was that my partner, my musical life partner, my love - my fiddle - does not agree with this thousand dollar bow. What do I do?
I took out my black Fiddlerman bow - and started again on "Boil em Cabbage Down." It sounded flat and loud and forward, but the playability was back. The string crossings worked, the doublestops worked, the resonance came back. Do I just have bad habits and terrible technique? Have I been pushing so hard on the stick that I can't use a more refined bow?
I switched back to the Carrera and tried to play those 2 exact segments. At this moment, the E string gave away its sound into silence. The E string is the strangest string - often times it sings, but sometimes, it croaks and just goes silent if the bowing technique isn't right, or if there isn't enough rosin.
And the lightbulb goes off in my head. I didn't rosin the bow yet. When I examined it, it seemed like the bow already had a light dusting. Not enough. Not the right kind. Probably old rosin from the time the bow was shut in that AK-47 case in the darkness.
I rosined it liberally with Magic Rosin Ultra and started again with "Boil em Cabbage Down." And literally the magic came. The resonance came back. The doublestops brilliant. The bow speed and bounce and string crossings started working. It's smooth and sharp at the same time. It liked to go fast. My gosh did it want to go fast.
Moving on to Irish jigs Lannigan's Ball, Swallow's Tail, TenPenny Bit, Lilting Banshee. Back to the slower well known Welsh tune "Ashgrove" (you probably know it if you heard it). Magnificent tones, the Carrera is generous. Very generous with me.
My fiddle likes it. And I think the bow just wanted out of that case so badly. I remember talking to the storekeeps at Remenyi about it a year ago, before I even got my fiddle. It was there then I think, the same one.
And now it's out here, in my house. What if I drop it? The silver tip is so delicate. A slight bump crumpled it a bit as I put it back into the case. I was crestfallen. But I know that it wouldn't be me if I didn't have an accident of some kind on the frigging very first day I got it. I don't think I can return it (not that I wanted to...)
So into the case it goes, sleeping cradled above my fiddle. I think it came home with me, and there was nothing I could do to resist its magic. And hence I am the owner of a JonPaul Carrera bow.