An Excellent Bow and an Excellent Experience
First off, I will say that the Fiddlershop went far, far above and beyond helping with a complicated shipping issue that was due to a problem on my end. I’ve already been happy with past purchases, but this experience has made me a customer for life.
As to the bow, it is balanced so that it plays effortlessly. It allows me to draw a smother sound, and is capable of a much greater dynamic range. I repair and resell violins, so I typically have a variety of bows laying around, and even after only an hour, the Joule outperforms everything I have. This includes my personal bows, which are a standard Fiddlerman Carbon Fiber and an old Cadenza that I always liked for fiddle music and that I rehaired about a month ago.
I have tried the bow so far on my NS 5 string, a mid 20th century German trade violin that is my current personal violin, an Eastman, and an old Pfretzschner I am restoring. It is miles above the other bows on the first three, and merely very, very good on the last.
Although this bow seems to lend itself well to fiddle, rock, and other energetic styles, I was very surprised how well it seems to work both for slower Irish folk music, as well as old gospel hymns.
The NS violin has Helicore strings, the Markneukirchen trade violin has the Fiddlerman strings, while the Eastman was fitted with Warchal Karneol, and the Pfretzchner with Warchal Ametyst. The bow came unrosined, and I am using Cecilia Signature Formula rosin. I cleaned the strings on all of these instruments.
Based on this bow, if it continues to excite me, I will try Luma in the future. Certainly, the build quality is superb.
