Loveri Bow

[Charles Arms]

Since this is Ken's place, I think it is appropriate that we start a thread to share experiences with Ken's Loveri bows.

My bow is the Loveri, not the "C. Loveri," which is Ken's higher grade stick.

I have been playing my Loveri for a couple of months now. I used it for the Christmas production stuff that I did and have been practicing with it almost exclusively. In fact, my "main" bow, a old Roth Shop bow, is not getting much playing time these days at all.

I really enjoy playing this bow. It is very balanced and responsive. It starts as well as any bow I have ever played. It plays well all the way to the tip.

The short frog took some time to acclimate to, but I actually have modified my hold a bit to get my middle finger more on the outer edge of the slide. This has given me overall less tension in my hold and really a more comfortable hold.

The bow is very loud and powerful as well. I am unsure of how much to attribute to the black hair and how much is the bow. Although, it makes sense that the hair can only do so much.

The tone of the bow is pretty agressive. My other bow does produce a more mellow, sweeter solo tone. But this comes at the cost of less power and volume.

So, if you shopping the Loveri price point, I would really encourage you to investigate these bows. The compete very favorably, IMO.

[Drake Chan]

Well, this is an old thread, but I think I finally have enough experience with my bow to comment.

It is also a C. Loveri bow, but this bow is somewhat different than the other C. Loveri bows that Ken sells.

It is apparently the first bow that Ken received as a sample. The color is a lot more of a richer, deep red than the color of the C. Loveri bow on the website. Ken said that they probably made the bow a little nicer to get his business.
The other difference is that it is not stamped C. Loveri or with anything other than KSB on the bottom of the stick between the frog and the button.

The reason I picked this bow amongst the others that I tested at Ken's shop was that it produced an incredibly warm sound that the other bows just didn't have at that point. It was also older than the other bows, so that it probably warmed up from more time and playing.

I love the low frog. My Upton $99 bow feels absolutely crude compared to this bow, and part of the reason is the frog is much higher. I am completely used to the low frog by now, so bows with higher frogs feel weird now.

The bow plays evenly from frog to tip, and produces a really powerful sound in the lower strings. The overall sound is very warm and complex, quite beautiful.

Now for the gripes.

-The bleached hair is pretty lousy. Ken had a good reason to switch to black hairs for the newer bows.

-The mortise at the tip is crooked and slightly off center. The result: the hair on the playing side is fine, while the hair on the non-playing side is loose. A rehairing will correct this problem, as well as give this bow some decent hair to live up to its potential.

-The silver wrapping started to unwind, so I used some white medical tape to tape up the wrapping.

-And as of right now, I am used to the bow's weight, though I wish it were a tad lighter.

Otherwise, this is a exceptional bow, and a steal at $480. There might be bows just as good at this price, but I can't think of any now.