[Eric Swanson]

Follow up on Ken's recommendation about my Morizot, the grip, the feel, the bow's sound, etc.

Just got the bow back from the bowmaker today. Had him go halfway back to where it was before, for now, putting the curve back where it was (he had bent it a bit more, to his liking, but it ddn't work for me) and removing the tip weight.

We left the grip on for now...thinking that it is easy enough to take that off if I feel the need. I started by following Ken's practical point that one's hand is already dampening the stick at the point of contact anyway, so the grip is probably changing things in a more negligable way.

Well, Ken was spot on. The stick has come back to life and works well again, thankfully.

Jury is stil out on whether or not to keep the grip. It does seem to dampen the stick slightly, from where it was before, but the tip weight was definitely the major culprit. Most of the bow's former, nice, clear sound is back.

No charge from the bowmaker, Eric Lane...a very skilled and cool cat. He got what I was talking about right away and started talking about "inadvertantly changing the bow's nodes of vibration", etc. as soon as I mentioned a suspicion that the tip weight and/or grip was messing up the stick.

He had put the tip weight in to counteract the new grip he put on...all with the best intentions, on his part. Interestingly, the balance doesn't seem "off" at all, without the tip weight, with the grip. So, really, the "balance point" of the resting bow is relatively unimportant in this case. As Ken implied, the contact point with the hand is the axis of rotation, anyway, when the bow is in play. Static balance be hanged!

Eric Lane encouraged me to try the stick for awhile and bring it back as needed. I am tempted to have him pull the grip off, but I will be prudent. He did such a nice job on it, I certainly don't take removing his work lightly.

Thanks, Ken.