By Laurie Niles: I recently received my bow back after a good re-hair, and wow, everything suddenly feels fantastic!
Of course, it's all too easy to let regular maintenance slide, and time tends to fly very quickly between re-hairs. I realized that it had been more than six months this time around, and for me, that is just too long.
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I find that, for students, the time period between re-hairs can be much longer, despite my best efforts to educate and remind. The expense, combined with the busy schedules of young people and their parents, make it difficult for them to get this done.
Once, after weeks of frustration over a student's weak and mushy sound, I simply handed the student my own (identical Coda) bow and said, "I'd like to you to try it with this bow and see how it sounds." It made such a huge difference: suddenly the sound was focused and beautiful. The student noticed it immediately.
"How long has it been since your bow was rehaired?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said, still rather wide-eyed. "I can't remember, it's probably been more than a year!" By the next lesson a week later, he'd had his bow re-haired!
There's no doubt that time and expense keep a lot of us from getting re-hairs as much as we should. When is the last time you had your bow re-haired? Also, please share with us how often you feel it needs re-hairing, as different people have different views on the topic.
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