How to clean your carbon fiber bow: Tutorial with bowmaker Bernd Müsing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2024
- Cleaning the bow of a violin, viola, violoncello or double bass is actually much easier than you think. If you do it regularly it will help to mantain a good grip and beautiful sound of your bow.
(Rehairing a bow is only necessary when the bow has too little hair - meaning that 5% of the hairs are broken).
A lot of times, players are bothered by noises their bow makes. It's called string noise but it's actually not a string noise, it's a rosin noise: You either have a buildup of rosin (=you simply have too much on it) which you can fight by just combing it out with a little comb and/or wipe it off with a dry paper towel.
Or it's a combination of rosin and dirt (rosin works like a glue), and then you might want to remove it completely.
These are the single steps for cleaning all parts of your bow, including the stick and the hair:
(Caution! Some of the follwing steps are not recommended for wooden bows!!)
For the stick/silver parts:
1. Polish the silver parts of your bow with a silver polish cloth.
2. Regularly wipe rosin and dirt off the stick with a dry cloth (that you keep in your violin case)
3. If there's already a buildup: Wipe the stick with a damp cloth. Use methylated spirits/denatured alcohol.
For the hair:
1. Too much rosin on the bow: Simply wipe it off with a dry paper towel or comb it out with a little comb.
2. Easy method that also works for wooden bows to remove rosin and dirt from the hair: Pour some denatured alcohol/methylated spirits on a paper towel and thoroughly wipe the bow hair until all the residual rosin is removed.
3. "Radical" method (not recommended for wooden bows) for washing the hair: Pour denatured alcohol/methylated spirits directly over the hair. Wipe of the alcohol with a dry paper towel.
After cleaning the hair with alcohol (step 2-3), let it rest until it's completely dry. Now comb it to seperate all hairs. Finally apply a little fresh rosin and it's ready to go.
Make sure that you do all steps including denatured alcohol far away from your instrument, as alcohol is very dangerous for its varnish. Please be careful with this procedure with other bows than an ARCUS or MÜSING, as their varnish or paint may suffer.
More information for taking care of your bow:
www.arcus-muesing.de/en/servi...
www.muesing.eu/en/care-and-se...
Find out more great things about our bows on www.arcus-muesing.de/en/home....
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A big thank you to the fabulous Alexander String Quartet for letting us use their fantastic performance of the Dvořák Piano Quintet in A Major, Op 81 - III. Scherzo:
/ @alexanderquartet
I LOVE my Musing Bow. A best friend. Your vids on maintenance make it worthwhile.
Oh, we're so pleased to hear that, thank you!😍 Glad you found the video useful.
Thank you so much for the useful info. I think it's time to clean up my bow. ✨🎻✨
Enjoy playing with a clean bow afterwards! It safes you some money too (that you would spend on a rehair when it's not yet necessary)...
There are two other ways of quickly cleaning bow hair of excess or old rosin. One is to wipe regularly with a microfibre cloth whose fibres can also work between the hair. That is also good for the strings, greatly enhancing sonority. Another, which came from a cellist friend, is to brush back and front of the hair with an extra-soft toothbrush. This is perhaps gentler than a comb! Both he, the cellist, and I are minimal rosin enthusiasts.
Using a toothbrush is an excellent idea. I will try that for sure. I'm not so sure if I like the idea with the microfiber cloth as I expect that to get quite messy over time.
@@ARCUSMuesing Yes indeed the microfibre needs regular washing without additives, just the plainest machine detergent. I use a Germans brand with a slight pile - I believe we are not supposed to mention proprietary names on this channel
Thank you for your tips.
Sure, very happy to share them.
Thank you for the tips.
Happy if it helps you!
Thank you!
Thank you.
An excellent tutorial. Will 15-year old single malt whisky do the job as well?
Send a bottle over and I'll figure it out for you.
Hello ! :) Does all these tips work for a double bass bow the same way? Thanks in advance!
Yes, it's the same for every bow. But please be careful in case you own a wooden bow! With a wooden bow you SHOULD NOT (or at least very carefully) do the radical method (step 3 in the description: "washing" the hair with alcohol) because the alcohol can harm the varnish of the stick. Good luck and lots of fun cleaning your bow!
Thanks for this! What kind of alchohol is this? Isopropyl?
We are actually using simple Ethanol. That works pretty well for us.
@@ARCUSMuesing Oh ok thanks! I've seen a few types being used.. any thoughts on Metholated Spirits? I've also read that Isopropyl has extra oils in it that aren't so good for the hair and Metho.. let me know if you've had any experience is researching these :)
@@joshuavercobassist1594 I'd say it's a waste of money. Ethanol is cheapest and works great, so why bother using the expensive stuff? And no, we haven't tried it, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work. You might also use 12 year old Scotch. :)
@@BogenmacherD Hehe thanks, great reason
to go out and buy a bottle of Chivas Regal!
Hello! How can I clean / remove the stickyness from my Arcus violin bow FROG? Is there varnish on the frog, meaning that I cannot use alcohol, or is there not? Thanks for any advice!
No, there is no varnish on the frog, it is the pure snakewood, polished. Sure you can use alcohol to clean the frog, only you want to avoid the thumb leather as that is more delicate.
@@ARCUSMuesing Many thanks to you for the clear and prompt reply! :)
Hi could you please explain how to clean the frog screw and nut? Thank you
The button can use a dry swipe regularly to prevent a build-up of anything and if the silver tarnishes you use the same polish cloth as for the other silver parts. The screw can be cleaned with a paper cloth and then re-lubed with some candle wax for example.
I wipe my bow and bow hair with a microfiber cloth after each use. How often would you recommend a thorough cleaning with alcohol?
There is no general rule. If the hair does not come in touch with anything dirty, no cigarette smoke for example, oil, skin care products etc, you many not need to clean it completely for years on end.
Hello, I removed something like varnish from the bow with alchohol, what to do? And what do you say about cleaning violin with achohol?
Hi Aleksandar, please never use Alcohol to clean your violin! And never use alcohol to clean the stick of your wooden bow! That would totally destroy the varnish of the stick. It's only ok to use it with carbon fiber bows!
Hello Aleksandar, the shellack polish (varnish) of the bow can be restored without too much difficulties, but I would recommend to have that done by a luthier or bowmaker. As I explained in the video, stay away from the violin with alcohol. I would not even recommend to clean the strings with alcohol because you may cause damage on the varnish when you slip with the cloth etc.
Thank you so much for answers!
Can i use any kind of ethanol achohol for this?
Yep.
Just got a bow in auction. The hairs near the frog are exceedingly dirty. I will give this a try before replacing them.
In case it's a wooden bow with shellack varnish you might use acetone instead of alcohol. It solves the rosin just as well and won't damage the shellack coat. It's a lot more expensive though, which is why we normally don't use it on our bows and all other carbon fiber bows. You can also use acetone to clean a dirty wooden stick really nicely.
@@ARCUSMuesing Thanks for letting me know. Apparently, getting denatured alcohol in Canada is also a challenge due to regulations.
@@planet-karma Wow, that's weird, here in Germany you can buy that stuff in any supermarket. Are there really people in Canada that are so desperate as to be drinking such stuff???
@@ARCUSMuesing I really don’t know what the logic is but I can’t find anywhere locally (it’s easy to find in the US and I may be able to get it that way but unsure about import restrictions). On the other hand, I found 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) at the drugstore clearly meant for disinfection of surfaces or even wounds but I’ve read that that concentration is not safe to put on the skin and is dangerous to inhale. I’m assuming it will work to clean my bow hairs but I will need serious ventilation and to protect my skin. Alternatively, I could return it and a get 70% solution which I read will work and may be safer.
Any thought on using rubbing alcohol instead and the percentage of isopropyl?
I recommend a microfiber cloth for cleaning the stick.
The microfiber cloths that I've tied so far have not taken the rosin dust up so well. Maybe you found something better?