Recently I brought my bow in to be re-haired and the violin shop kindly lent me a bow of similar value to use for the week until I got mine back.
If you play the fiddle you know what a difference a bow can make. Using a different bow feels so foreign. It’s like getting into someone else’s car and trying to figure out how to turn the lights on.
The bow is just as important as the instrument and finding that sweet spot to where the sound is at its optimal spot takes some time.
With this particular bow though, it felt much heavier in my hands and I found it difficult to actually get a good sound out of it without pressing so hard that it sounded tight. I wasn’t crazy about the bow. Sometimes though bows sound and work differently with different instruments so it could just be my fiddle and this bow did not attract.
Regardless, When I went in to return the bow the woman behind the counter asked what I thought of it. I told her that it felt heavier than mine and I had to push down hard to get a good sound out of it. She said “I’ll make a note of that, it might be a better bow for a fiddler then.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I am a fiddler.
I don’t think she meant it as an insult in any way, one would assume that since lots of fiddlers play double-stops it could be beneficial to have a heavier bow.
However, it’s just a reminder not to judge a book by its cover or a girl by her bow.
Session Obsession 
Katrina, does it take time to “break in” the bow after getting it re-haired? Or is it like getting a new set of great tires on a high performance machine? ~ Deana
Funny you should ask because I just changed my strings on Friday and I have gig tonight – Yikes! It usually takes a bout 2 weeks for strings to break in but usually it doesn’t take more than a couple of tunes for the bow hair to settle.