Astute wins over the VN45 in my testing

I have been spending some quality time evaluating your Voxy Astute carbon-buco bow as well as Fiddleheads' Simpatica VN-45 Pernambuco bow. Both are wonderful bows and I wanted to keep them both! But I needed to make a choice.

I loved how clear and articulated the notes seem to be with the Astute. I wasn't sure about the weight at first, but then I had been using a very lightweight brazilwood bow previously. It 's just something to get used to as you play the bow. I do enjoy not having to be overly concerned about breaking it and its good for the trees right.

As for the Simpatica VN-45 bow, I also liked the feel and the warm tone it produced, but I felt I could draw more tone out of my violin with the Astute.It seems very smooth in bowing. It's also slightly lighter than the carbon I find.

Since I had a lesson anyways coming up, I offered both bows to my teacher to try herself. Being classically trained, She initially curled up her nose at the thoughts of a carbon bow, so I offered the VN-45 first. She liked it, but was not entirely thrilled. Her response was the same as mine, that it was somewhat muted but warm in tone and well balanced.

When she tried the Astute, she immediately perked up with a look of surprise on her face. She looked at me and asked, "This is carbon? It's nothing like I remember carbon bows sounding like."

I asked her to elaborate and she expounded on how it seemed very much clearer in tone and brighter sounding. She also mentioned that the balance was very good.

She also took a moment to look it over and was impressed with the Pernambucco "skin." She thought it was very nice looking and she couldn't tell it wasn't solid wood.

She not only tried them both not once, but many times! Switching back and forth and listening intently. In the end she had to admit she was very impressed and that I would do well with the Astute bow. I'm glad she agrees with me.

Decision was easy after that! I'm keeping my Astute.

May 7, 2013
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