Physics of sound production - does the bow stick actually make a difference?

Michele

Hello! I have come from a long hiatus to try and understand one particular component of sound production: does the bow stick itself actually have any impact on sound?

The question seems to be at least somewhat controversial, given that lots of bow marketing is somehow based on the effect the bow has on sound. Yet to me, taking into account my simplistic understanding on how sound is produced on the violin, would seem to dictate that the stick itself would have no direct effect at all. The resonating body is the violin; and the vibration is produced by a three-way interaction between strings, bowhair and rosin. Given this, how could the stick ever impact sound (other than the indirect impact of regulating the tension of the bowhair)?

Regarding sound and sound only, does it really matter if the stick is round, octogonal, pentagonal or any other shape, and does it matter if it is made out of wood, carbon fiber, fiberglass, etc? If yes, what is the physical mechanism contributing to this (taking into account that if I put a vibrating tuning fork on the stick, it hardly produces any sound at all)?

ARod

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LocationIreland


Posted 12 November 2013 - 01:33 PM

Yes, I think that the bow has an enormous effect on the sound.

The bow isn't just a stick that keeps the hair at the right tension to play the string. One could argue that a violin string of the right thickness, weight and tension should do it's job, and sound on a fiddle, but we all know that there's much more to strings than that, and that they can make or break a fiddle's sound. So too the bow.