Andrew
Victor
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(3/13/01 11:42:54 am)
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Rosining slick hair: shortcuts!
Just what trivia I (think I) have
"learned" about this:
Many shops will pre-rosin your new bow
or a newly rehaired bow. Some will use spray canned rosin that is
commercially available - you could buy a can too. Others will keep
some powdered rosin (of their choice) around and apply that. I have
often found that such a pre-rosined bow has too much rosin for me
(and often not my first choice of rosin brand or type), and although
this condition can be remedied with time or by wiping or even
solvent-cleaning the hair, for a while I must frequently clean my
strings (worst on cello, next on viola - not so bad on violins) of
excess rosin. The rosin collects on the bowing srface and affects
the tone of the instrument and the responsivness to
bowing.
When I received my first Glasser Composite bow (with
real horsehair) the hair was so slick that it seemed it would never
grab the rosin cake (same for all subsequent ones - and the Glasser
CFs and the CF DUrros too).
I washed and dried my hands to be
sure all skin oil was gone and applied my left thumb to the back of
the bow hair to press it harder into the rosin cake while rosining.
I had to be careful that the rough skin of my thumb did not snag and
break hair, but this extra force did gather up rosin on to the hair.
You can tell by the slight resistance that the hair is engaging the
rosin cake - and that's all you need - quit!
Since then I've
also found it is safer, especially with thin bow hairs, to use a
corner of the cloth the rosin is mounted on to protect the hair from
direct contact with your thumb. This has proved to be a speedy way
for me to get rosin onto any new hair, not just Glasser - although I
always first just do a normal bowing of the rosin to see if I can
feel any resistance at all.
Do any others have any similar
(or different) approaches to this common problem?
Andy
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