Carbon bows and their technology

ARod

Carbon fiber allows the maker to control the properties of the base material for the bow.  With wood, the maker must search for the piece with the properties they desire.  Carbon fiber if fundamentally a lighter, stronger, and stiffer material so it allows more control over these properties of the final product.  To date, most bow makers employing carbon fiber have attempted to simply emulate a good wooden bow, but a few, such as Arcus have utilized the potential to create a bow that has properties than cannot be achieved with wood (in this case ligher and stiffer).  This requires the instrumentalist to aquire new techniques, but in this specific case, most reports are positive in the possibilities it opens up for the musician, expanding what can be done with the bow.   Also the resonance properties can be controlled.  I have heard from 'experts' both that the bow should resonate and be completely damped and not resonate, so I don't know which is correct, but a composite material should be able to afford the maker control over this property as well.  Beyond this, composit materials offer the possibility of mechanized manufacture thus lower cost and environmentally speaking does not tax the supply of a possibly endangered tree (Pernumbucco).   From my experience it definitely provides, at the entry and intermediate level, a much better bow for the money.