Got my hands on some incredible bows the other day

[Calvin Marks]

I was fortunate enough to get a call from my old teacher the other day and since being recently retired he's taken up the dangerous hobby of acquiring bows for some sort of master collection. Regardless, I was fortunate enough to try (for the first time) some truly exceptional bows. Among them was an original E. Sartory bow, 2 Vigneron's, an original Prefchner (sp?!) French Bow, and a lovely Fetique that weighed about 128g.

All the bows had such incredible sound qualities but I truly loved the Fetique's attack and sustain.

Just thought I'd share my little experience in heaven!

[Ken Smith]

I was fortunate enough to get a call from my old teacher the other day and since being recently retired he's taken up the dangerous hobby of acquiring bows for some sort of master collection. Regardless, I was fortunate enough to try (for the first time) some truly exceptional bows. Among them was an original E. Sartory bow, 2 Vigneron's, an original Prefchner (sp?!) French Bow, and a lovely Fetique that weighed about 128g.

All the bows had such incredible sound qualities but I truly loved the Fetique's attack and sustain.

Just thought I'd share my little experience in heaven!

First off, the spelling is Pfretzschner (P-fret-z-schner, that's how I memorized it.. lol).

I have played a few V.Fetique's and one by his brother Jules and they 'stay' on the string regardless of being about 10 grams or so lighter then the norm in old French. I also owned a Sartory for almost 20 years and I must say it's still my favorite 'old' bow.

With modern makers around today, you can get lucky and have one duplicated. With this thought there are 3 problems I can see off that bat (or stick..lol). First, does the bow maker have the quality of stick (not all were pernambuco) to duplicate the bow? Second, can the maker duplicate the bow design 100% to the original in all its parts? And third, is the maker good enough to step in to the ring (so to speak) with the likes of a Sartory, Fetique, Bazin, Vigneron or whomever?

I had owned 6 different Sue Lipkins Bows in the last few years, each of them a different bow as 5 of them were made special order for individual players and one was a competition of her personal model. When it came time for my 'personal' order to finally be made 3 years from my 2 year wait (she was just busy..:)), Sue, knowing my past as a player as well knowing each and every bow of her make that I had or had recently asked me as a return favor 'would I like for her to make me a Sartory?'..

Can you guess my answer? Sue does NOT make copies. She makes her bows her way based on the old greats but they are 'her' bows and easy to tell as well. When she was in College many moons age she bought from me a Bazin bow from my stock (yes, I sold basses and bows back in the '70s and '80s as well) and reminded me about this when I first called to order my bow as it was her first 'good bow' as she called it. In that 3 year period I had to wait, I bought 6 others from which 5 were used and one was a competition model. She knew from the old days that I had a Sartory back then as my main bow and she also acquired a Sartory as well at one point in time. Knowing that I had already been thru 6 models of her bows she offered me what I thought was the nicest thing possible. A Sartory model (from memory) to somewhat replace what I had used most of my professional career and sold in the '90 a few years after I retired.

One thing of note here about new and old bows. Old bows made well back then have been played in over decades if not a century or more. New bows even if made 100% identicle still need to be played in. My Lipkins-Sartory has been breaking in very nicely now that I've decieded to play on only that one bow. It is 100% better now in every way than it was a year ago. Just like new basses, Bows need to break in as well.

[Eric Rene Roy]

Thanks for that Ken, good post! I had the pleasure of having dinner with Sue & David not long ago. They were in town for the boat show and after a tour of our workshop we had a nice dinner on the river in Mystic. She is a remarkable person and I hope to get to know her better over the years. She spoke fondly of you Ken.

[Ken Smith]

Thanks for that Ken, good post! I had the pleasure of having dinner with Sue & David not long ago. They were in town for the boat show and after a tour of our workshop we had a nice dinner on the river in Mystic. She is a remarkable person and I hope to get to know her better over the years. She spoke fondly of you Ken.

You know, if not for her mentioning it I would have never remembered selling her a bow some 30 years ago.. lol
I have not met her in person since that time she came over to get the bow. She missed the ISB this year and the VSA about 4 years ago, both here in PA. She is about an hour or so north of Arnold so one day, I will make the trip up there and meet them both as I have only talked or emailed with David as well.

Sue also does all of my re-hairs as well. Recently a friend of mine here near Philly asked if I could get her to do 2 of her 3 bows as one was a Lipkins her bought from me. I shipped them up and when he got them back he said he will never let anyone else re-hair his bows from now on.

I have a nice Fuchs here as well I am practicing with that She also re-haired for me. I usually carry a spare/2nd bow and need to know how it handles so I picked this one to ride in the case along side the Lipkins-Sartory. While they are two completely different bows, they both have the exact same hair on them.

She is quite a talented artisan. Sue also knows old bows too. She was the first to let me know that my 3rd Bultitude was authentic. She also re-haired my unstamped but Raffin Certified CN Bazin bow and confirmed that it was the real deal and also that Raffin is the man! She is a top professional in the field deserving only the highest respect.