ADM 4/4 Full Size Student Violin Bow, Well Balanced Handmade Brazilwood Bow with Horsehair, Ebony Frog with Pearl Eye and Pearl Slide, Brown

I recently bought a violin on eBay, and when it arrived the bow was cracked and unusable. As a beginner, I just wanted a functioning bow to learn on, and bought this with fingers crossed that it wasn't just a cheap piece of junk that I would have to struggle to play anything decent-sounding on. This product exceeded my expectations. It arrived carefully packed and completely loosened to avoid damage during shipping. It produces very good sound quality for the price, even in my hands, and seems like it will hold up very well. I'm no expert when it comes to strings, but have played instruments before; my two-cents is that this is a great product for beginning violin students and will hold up nicely. My only criticism is that the mahogany color doesn't match my violin's more amber finish, but hey--I can live with that! I would definitely recommend this product, and will buy it again should I need to replace my bow down the line.

To find out what this bow had to offer, I enlisted the help of my 11 year old nephew who is a member of the Denver, Colorado Youth Symphony. Prior to testing this bow on his violin, he applied an adequate amount of resin to the strings. These real and not synthetic hairs that makes up the strings on this bow, come from the tails of Mongolian horses. Because these animals are from cold climates, this breed of horse grows hair that is thicker and stronger than horses from warmer climates. Pulling the bow across the strings created no hesitations in the flow. He had no trouble executing the downbow and upbow strokes to create both strong and gentle beats. With this particular bow, the violin was able to produce smooth, broad sounds that had superb pin point clarity. The quick responses he was able to achieve are typical of a stiff bow such as this one.This beautifully crafted violin bow has the right combination of strength, resiliency, and weight. It feels quite natural in the hand and is well balanced from tip to frog, having equal weight throughout. I highly recommend it for both the student and adult violinist who is looking for value without having to compromise on quality.

I bought this bow to replace a broken one for a beginner's violin outfit. The outfit was recently returned after a long term loan to a friend's son to use for private lessons. The original bow broke and was not worth re-hairing, so they bought a fiberglass bow to replace it. The kid timed it perfectly, because the fiberglass bow broke shortly after he returned it when he upgraded his instrument! I can't complain about it since it broke when I tensioned it... argh!This bow is pretty good for the money. Compared to the other beginner's bows that broke, this one beats them both. This bow actually is pretty well-balanced for beginners model; both the original and fiberglass bows felt like there was a lead weight attached to the tip, but this one felt light in my hand when I rotated it 180 degrees. The hair is genuine and was able to pick up rosin easily, so you can get started in a few minutes. I was able to get enough tension so I can press firmly on the strings, and wasn't overly "bouncy".However, there were a couple of problems (at the price point, it's to be expected, but they weren't deal breakers). First thing I noticed was the the frog had a bit of slop at the interface with the stick. That was easily solved by tightening the frog by taking out the screw completely and popping it out of the shaft... then you tighten the nut a half a turn and put it back together. The other problem can't be corrected as easily but does not affect playing. The last few centimeters near the tip of the stick has a slight twist (no more than 1 degree if that), you can only see it if you are lining the stick up with the hair in your line of sight. It's not enough to affect playing of beginners, and advanced players wouldn't be using this bow anyway.Although this bow can be re-haired, the cost of having a luthier do it can easily exceed the cost of the bow itself, so you would treat this as a disposable item.

I'm a professional violinist and ordered this bow for my 10 year old kid who practices over 2 hours everyday. I didn't expect much of it because of its low price, but I'm pleasantly surprised by its quality. Of course it doesn't have real mother of pearl and other fancy stuff, but bow hair was new and nicely put, well-balanced as described, it plays perfectly well. I almost think it's worth buying more rather than spending $55 on future re-hair, if it wasn't for an environmental issue ;)

Absolute garbage and completely unusable. The bow was warped.