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Permalink Reply by Josh Melby on April 21, 2008 at 9:17am

I use horsehair, mainly because of tradition, but mostly for the playing characteristics of natural hair. I don't really feel all that bad about it because it's only hair cut from their tail, and I can't feel it when I get my hair cut...

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Permalink Reply by Clare on April 21, 2008 at 9:47pm

That's true I guess. Apparently there's also pearl something or other in the bow too. But I suppose that not putting my insturment to waste is the best way to make up for it :]

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Permalink Reply by pradtf on April 23, 2008 at 9:40pm

there are 2 misconceptions people generally have:

1. acquiring horsehair does not involve cruelty to horses
2. synthetic hair is somehow inferior

regarding #1:
while some horsehair is taken from live horses (which brings on the ethical issue of whether horses should be exploited for their tails so humans can have bows - for instance, if you had a horse, would you sell off the tail for commercial gain?), most of it comes from slaughterhouses:
http://www.johnsonstring.com/horse.htm
mongolian horsehair is acquired from horses who are imprisoned for their meat
"Horsehair is not harvested like wool. It is harvested like leather. Mongolians are horse eaters."
http://www.caringconsumer.com/products_musical_instruments.asp

regarding #2:
synthetics have come a long way baby!
despite 'tradition' yearnings, synthetic products repeatedly show their superiority in various arenas.
here are 2 sources for synthetic bows:
http://www.nashvilleviolins.com/ (don't know much about them)
http://www.incredibow.com/ (known them for 3 years)

Ed and Carolyn at Incredibow produce superb bows for stringed instruments replacing the antiquated horsehair with advanced synthetic materials. We and many others can attest to the fine balance, responsiveness and quality sound generation of these bows not to mention the great service! This excellent company has received a PETA award.
reference source

we have used incredibows for 3 years now. i've found them far superior to my moderately priced tourte bow which i've used for 20+ years.

what is most interesting about them is some of the innovative thinking that went into their design. they have a 'baroquish' orientation which possibly results in less bouncing than the tourte style. the synthetic hairs stunned my master luthier (who was trained in germany) who initially refused to believe that you can ever get quality sound from synthetics. (these hairs won't be eaten by those beetles either.)

here's what ed has to say about the bow:
Consider this: relatively little has changed in bowmaking in at least the past 250 years! Only the stick composition is new in some cases. Line up several brands and price range bows - from $80 to $8,000 bows - they all look alike - and they all look like the bows of hundreds of years ago! What other technology stopped changing it's product 250 years ago?
(ed died recently, btw)

their bows come with a variety of cosmetics, but all are built from the basic design. you can get just the hair too.

while many who purchase are fiddlers, there are plenty who are classical as well. they also have a discussion group on yahoo:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Incredibow/

in friendship,
prad

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Permalink Reply by Clare on April 24, 2008 at 5:19pm

oh that's good to know... i'll consider that whenever i will get my bow "rehaired"

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Permalink Reply by pradtf on April 24, 2008 at 6:22pm

the incredibow hanks cost around $20 each i think and they have it for every type of bow including doublebass. i'm planning on getting a few from them and learning how to rehair at some point. the incredibows are guaranteed for something like 3 years though i wouldn't be surprised if they go much, much further than that - in the 3 years i've had the violin bow i started with and played with the most, i haven't broken a single strand!

in friendship,
prad

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Permalink Reply by Michael on July 8, 2008 at 1:56pm

I hate to tell you this, but if you're a cello player the horsehair on your bow is the least of your ethical dilemmas. If you have an oil-based instrument, the varnish is free (mostly) of animal products, but may have a little beeswax. If your instrument has a shellac finish, then it's covered in the excretion of the 'lac' beetle, and those little guys are killed to create the finish.

Varnish issues aside, every quality instrument in the bowed string family is assembled with hide glue.

There are no vegan stringed instruments.

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Permalink Reply by pradtf on July 8, 2008 at 2:19pm

true for now.
however, one does what one can when alternatives exist.

in friendship,
prad

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