Violin Bow Rehair and Repair [Spiral-bound]

Harry S. Wake (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0960704817 | ISBN-13: 978-0960704811 | Publication Date: June 1975

The complete violin shop guide to proper bow maintenance by Harry Wake. This book is highly recommended by our Technical Department if you're interested in rehairing bows. 96 pages, softcover.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 93 pages
• Publisher: Violin Video Assn (June 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0960704817
• ISBN-13: 978-0960704811
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,923,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There may be some good info here but be advised..., September 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Violin Bow Rehair and Repair (Spiral-bound)

I used this manual to do my first bow rehair. I read and reread that section until I was familiar with it. Everything went fairly well until the time came to make the final cut of the hair. Cutting length according to the instructions caused the hair to be too short. This caused the bow to always be under tension. Fortunatly I used a throw-away bow to learn on, so I went ahead left the hair on it. My advice is to leave about 1/2 inch more hair than the author suggests. Worst case, you'll have to recut and retie but you won't have to buy another hank of hair.

Also he didn't spend enough time explaining how to get the hair lined up and even. This seems to require a certain amount of practice.

As I recall he also doesn't explain anything measuring the hair. I couldn't understand how I could cram all that hair into such a small place. I didn't find out until later that there are tools for measuring hair

The author seems to have several decades of experience working on violins, but little, if any, formal training. So his knowledge may not be as well rounded as someone who has graduated from a luthier school. I got the impression that this is the way he always did it and his dad did it, so there was no need to research how others might do it. Still, I have no other book on subject to compare it against.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Violin Bow Rehair and Repair., March 14, 2000

By 

David Brown (Brisbane, Australia.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Violin Bow Rehair and Repair (Spiral-bound)

Before I got this book I was totally perplexed on two important issues - how to get the hair into a nice flat ribbon and how to get all the hairs to tension up evenly. I am now able to accomplish these tasks although I must admit I did need to read and re-read the relevant sections a number of times. I also found myself peering very intently at the photographs in an attempt to pick out fine details. (Colour photos, I feel, would be much better although this would undoubtedly add to publishing costs.) I would recommend this book as a worthwhile resource for repairers. It has already paid for itself in work that I have been able to take on since reading the book.