Topic: Incredibow, have you seen this thing?

[marktheharp]

...and also, I wanted to do the 100th post. Hurrah!!!

[Jack002]

...and also, I wanted to do the 100th post. Hurrah!!!

Wow, 100 replies! This thread is a monster!!!!

[Eric C.]

Hi y'all:  the Incredibow® site, on the "Colors" page, says they also have alternate colors for frogs & tips:
white, blue1, blue2, red, and traditional black.  Sadly, no pixs!

Now, although the bow for fun I'd buy HAS got to be the "Aurora Bowrealis"  (groan!) and I think a black frog&tip would look best w/that color, I'd sure think someone sometime has ordered red f&t-- with the plain graphite that might be quite striking.

Anyone got any pix of the other colors in use?

[marktheharp]

The aurorabow is amazing, particularly when it's under a "hard" light source like the sun, or those little lamps they have in jewellery shops to make the diamonds sparkle. Having seen a lot of these things, they're all pretty gorgeous. I guess my favourites are the gloss black, the stardust ones, and also the brass finish, which looks amazing - but actually really hard to choose between the finishes. The wood ones are very accurate but perhaps my least favourite - as I know they're not actually made of wood!

[madmat]

I'd sure think someone sometime has ordered red f&t-- with the plain graphite that might be quite striking.

Red and bare carbon... kind of like a Ferrari Formula One car?

[madfiddler]

I have a Realis, and the photos that have been taken while playing look awesome...

[Mia]

alrighty, well i'm just going to have to give in and get one of these now! i usually play with slightly looser hair than most people, so maybe the adjustable tension one would be better for me?

the idea that you can't adjust the tension on a regular incredibow just bugs me out a little...

[Eric C.]

I have a Realis, and the photos that have been taken while playing look awesome...

There's two types of the "AuraraBow Realis"  (snort!)-- the 'regular' skin and the 'holographic' skin, which is more expensive.  Is the difference in appearence worth the extra cost?

It only seems a slight difference.  (Not that I should be buying either.)

[martyn]

alrighty, well i'm just going to have to give in and get one of these now!

Yep! Same here!  I'd love to try one, but no one around here stocks them. I'm hoping to try one at FH-Buxton if I can prize it out of someone else's hands 

[marktheharp]

Hi Martyn,

We've got a load more on their way, including no-frills and various finishes (black, wood, sparkles, aurorabow, snakewood) and a couple of adjustable tension violin bows - all featherweight. We're based in Gloucestershire / Worcs borders so not physically near you. But you'll see them in the shop in a week or so, and if you want to try one just pick the one you want and pay for it, and we'll get it to you the next working day - then you can play with it for 60 days and if you don't like it we will refund all your money. Hope that's useful to know and may get you playing with one before you set foot in Fiddle Hell!!

All the best,

Mark

[martyn]

Tempting! But my dear wife is sat right next to me......   

[Mia]

yay!! mine should be here by the end of the week. just in time to bring it on my european tour!!

*siked*

[rudi]

I have been using a aurora bow I bought from Mark & Alison since 20th February. I knew I could exchange for a less ostentatious colour, but find I actually like it. One day I'll gig the violin and look forward to the stage light effect on the bow.

[Mia]

i'm still getting used to mine. so far, it doesn't appear to sound compatible for pretty, long tones with either my acoustic or electric, but that may just be because i haven't had much alone time with it yet. it sounds great for rough playing though! i used it this weekend on a new kayo dot recording and it got completely bloodied in the process! i was trying to make panicked barnyard animal sounds with my violin and thought the incredibow would be perfectly durable for it. i got a little too carried about with the panicked cow though, and accidently cut the tip of my index finger on my E string. the entire bottom 1/10 of my incredibow became colored with blood... oops! but being the incredi-bow that it is, it was very easy to wipe off with water the next day. they should mention this amazing anti-stain ability that the incredibow possesses on their website! 

[Devlinski]

After "all this time" whats the verdict? are they any  good, whats the general opinion of the "lightweight compared to the normal weight? and any other pros or cons!

[Devlinski]

Please ignore above question! I wasn't aware that there were lots of other pages full of interesting answers!

[fidla]

Devilinski I'd like to quantify this with a few things

1.  I'm classically trained - 22 years
2.  I've been fiddling since I was 8 years old
3.  I'm 44

I've owned 2 Incredibows.
I find them ungainly and difficult to hold, peform, produce

The two bows I owned were useless.  I couldn't control them, they were too heavy for me.  There was no frog or way to grip the bows using a classical grip.  I had to teach myself a new way to hold them, and there was minimal control as a result.

Because I had little or no control, I had no diction, no projection.  The 2 gigs I played with them were pathetic.  Usually I get a huge standing O for "Devil went down to Georgia", and "Sweet Georgia Brown", but the nights I used the incrediclunk, I didn't get much other than a handshake for "trying hard" during the break!

Normally the band earns $800 for the gig and another $600-800 tip for performance.  The 2 nights I played with my incrediblows, we didn't get a tip.

Incredibow=incrediblow 

[Eric C.]

Too heavy!?  I'm surprised: aren't the featherweights considerably lighter than a standard bow?

[JohnP]

I've had both a standard weight and a featherweight, and the featherweight was much better. The standard seemed much less controllable but (counterintuitively when you're used to "normal" bows) the lighter bow is more controllable. I'm surprised that fidla found it "impossible" to use a normal grip, though. The shape of the grip is slightly different to standard, but I had to make only the smallest adjustment to how I hold the bow - basically, just shifted less than 5mm away from the frog.

But, then, everyone has their own preferences and style! Even standard bows have huge variations in what people will tolerate, and the incredibow is quite different.

[madfiddler]

I'm surprised that Adam found them too heavy too - the lightweight bow is approx. 30 grams I believe. Think he's very much in the minority there. Just goes to show that something which works for one person isn't always going to work for someone else.

Personally I'm very happy with my Incredibows, and I've found the speed, balance and grip of the hair really good.

I also use Adam's Beta bow which is entirely different. I prefer to use that when I want a large sustained sound with long slow bows... but for the fast stuff, it's Incredibow every time.

[simon]

I have a featherweight, but I must admit I rarely use it now. My experience is that it's a little easier to control (than my normal bow) if I'm playing long slow bows. That's more noticeable at the frog, because there's so little weight to counterbalance. I still don't really use it though, because I find it produces a thinner tone than my regular bow.

For faster stuff, it really doesn't suit me at all. I find I have to work too hard to control the Incredibow's tendency to bounce. That means pushing down into the string, or playing closer to the tip and thereby increasing the range of motion my right arm has to go through to cross the strings. Either way, it ends up feeling like more of an effort to play than it does with my regular bow.

I have to work to play every note - the bow doesn't help me at all. With my regular bow, I can let the centrifugal force at the tip of the bow work for me. With the Incredibow, it's much harder to control that force whilst keeping the bow from bouncing. I lent the bow to another fiddler at a session recently, and he said he couldn't "get the flywheel going". That maybe describes it better than I have.

I feel kind of bad writing negative things about the Incredibow, because I do think it's great to see folks coming up with innovative ideas, and having some success with them in an arena where innovation doesn't always get a fair fight against tradition. I want to encourage that, and I hope Ed won't remove my "Lament for Pernambuco" from the Incredibow site when he reads this! The bottom line for me though, is that a convex bow design probably isn't going to work for my playing style. It works for plenty of other people though, and I certainly think it's worth finding out for yourself. Even if the Incredibow doesn't work for you, getting to know it can give you a better understanding of what does work for you.

[Eric C.]

Well said Simon:  while the Incredibow may not be for everyone, there's plenty of people here who ARE enthusiastic, and it will certainly open some people's eyes to the effect that bow differences have on their tone.

AND, since Ed is actively engaging the fiddle community and soliciting feedback from his customers, it may be that he will discover how to address any shortcomings specific players find, or he may split his line to address one concern or another with differing products, as he's already done with the "Low Profile" frogs.  (I've started to grip my frog around the outside, and find it keeps my hand more relaxed.)

Kudos to the innovators!

[rcc]

Devilinski I'd like to quantify this with a few things

1.  I'm classically trained - 22 years
2.  I've been fiddling since I was 8 years old
3.  I'm 44

I've owned 2 Incredibows.
I find them ungainly and difficult to hold, peform, produce

The two bows I owned were useless.  I couldn't control them, they were too heavy for me.  There was no frog or way to grip the bows using a classical grip.  I had to teach myself a new way to hold them, and there was minimal control as a result.

Because I had little or no control, I had no diction, no projection.  The 2 gigs I played with them were pathetic.  Usually I get a huge standing O for "Devil went down to Georgia", and "Sweet Georgia Brown", but the nights I used the incrediclunk, I didn't get much other than a handshake for "trying hard" during the break!

Normally the band earns $800 for the gig and another $600-800 tip for performance.  The 2 nights I played with my incrediblows, we didn't get a tip.

Incredibow=incrediblow 

Adam, sorry but I have to ask ...

If you thought the bows were that bad, why on earth did you try and use them for a gig?

- Ray

[Eric C.]

TWICE!

[Happy Camper]

I had a feather weight and exchanged it for a regular weight.

Really like the bow, but recently had a bad problem with it.  I was in an area that had really high humidity and got it out of the case to play at a jam and it was not useable due to the hair hanging way down from the bow.  No way to use it and it not being adjustable, had to get out one of my regular bows to play.

Ordinarily at home where the humidity is low, it works great.