Brazilian Bows

[Bob Branstetter]

I saw another thread where the name John Brasil was mentioned. For some reason, that made me think about bows that are actually made in Brazil. I noticed recently that Steven Reiley is now selling a line of student grade Pernambuco bows that are made in Brazil. For those who don't know Steve, he is an excellent bow maker himself. I've had a few Brazilian made bows pass through my shop in the past and as best I remember, they were comparable to German made student grade bows at the time. Anyone have any current information on bows that are made in Brazil? I guess it only makes sense for them to be making more bows now since Pernambuco grows there and (with Pernambuco being on the endanged species list) getting Pernambuco exported is getting harder all the time. Maybe China is going to have some competition.

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Brazilian bows have been around for a long time. I sell them regularly. The craftsmanship is very good and several individual makers have made a good name for themselves; M.Cirillo, for example. They generally buy their frogs and screws from Europe, and make the rest by hand. I sell nice Brazilian bows in my shop from $500 to $1200 and they will often stand up to bows worth two and three times as much. The wood quality is excellent.

[Ken McKay]

I sell the Arcos Brazil line of bows and they are excellent quality. The wood is much better than the Chinese bows that I get which makes sense. I don't sell many bass bows, mostly violin. http://www.arcosbrasil.com/index.html

Most of the makers are German but now live in Brazil.

[Michael Holden]

Brazilian bowmakers are really making a name for themselves. 90% of them have their own plantations, so they arne't cutting down new trees, and the wood used in the bows made today is already 10 or so years old (in the case of Horst John (John Brasil) his wood is 12 years old.
I find their bows to be amazing quality, and have argued this fact in another thread on this forum. I have compared $800-$1,200 Brazillian bows to 2k-3k (non-brazilian) bows. THey really are amazing. Of course that is just my opinion.
I have also compared the wood to many chinese bows, except for Ken's "super" chinese bows that we hear so much about, they have so far, surpassed every chinese bow I have played. To be fair though, the chinese bows I have tried have been in the $300 - $900 price range.
I find the brazilian bowmakers a very good source of bows, and environmentally friendly (most own their own plantations and have massive amounts of wood stored up, so they don't cut down new trees.)

[Michael Holden]

http://www.giannaviolins.com/bow/Brazil/history.html

[Bob Branstetter]

Thanks for the info on the Brazilian bows. I stopped selling new bows years ago after I closed my violin shop. With all of the heavy discounting on mail order and Internet sales, I found I could make more more money by putting the money into stocks and mutual funds than I could by stocking and selling bows. Sad but true.

[Michael Holden]

Brazilian bows are amazing. In fact two new ones just arrived in the mail. Pics will be available soon on my blog. I really enjoy playing with a brazilian bow, every bow I've ever had to use I had to use a "bow rubber". With every Horst John bow, I've never needed one. They just feel great, plus they are shorter and very light. I have great control over these bows.

[Michael Holden]

In case you are curious, I have posted pictures of the Horst John bows, on my bass blog.

[David Powell]

I tried out several bows of Brazilian manufacture recently. I don't know the maker, but they were rebranded and the name escapes me. All of these were used bows, and all from the same maker, some with minor cosmetic flaws and prices ranging from $400 to $1000. The one I liked best was a $400 bow and I think it was pernambuco. And so far that is the only bow I've found in several bow shopping outings that was preferable to the best of my cheap bows, which are probably asian. That particular shop sells quite a few Brazilian bows and apparently takes them back in when customers trade up. The shop deals with one maker and rebrands them. A friend of mine who works at the shop said the Brazilian made bows were an excellent value. There were some that were more expensive also, but I didn't try those.

[Michael Holden]

Originally Posted by David Powell

I tried out several bows of Brazilian manufacture recently. I don't know the maker, but they were rebranded and the name escapes me. All of these were used bows, and all from the same maker, some with minor cosmetic flaws and prices ranging from $400 to $1000. The one I liked best was a $400 bow and I think it was pernambuco. And so far that is the only bow I've found in several bow shopping outings that was preferable to the best of my cheap bows, which are probably asian. That particular shop sells quite a few Brazilian bows and apparently takes them back in when customers trade up. The shop deals with one maker and rebrands them. A friend of mine who works at the shop said the Brazilian made bows were an excellent value. There were some that were more expensive also, but I didn't try those.

I'm curious to find the maker. There aren't that many brazilian bowmakers out there. I think the best known are Arco, Water Violet, Marco Raposo, and Horst John. I really liked all of them a lot.

[Ken McKay]

Michael, I am curious to know if you tried an Arcos bow and how it compared. ??

[Michael Holden]

I have! I really did like the Arco's a lot. IMHO the Horst John bows were a little easier to control and the Horst John's sounded a little bit brighter, but the Arcos' are great bows!

[David Powell]

Originally Posted by Michael Holden

I'm curious to find the maker. There aren't that many brazilian bowmakers out there. I think the best known are Arco, Water Violet, Marco Raposo, and Horst John. I really liked all of them a lot.

The branded name was something that started with an A, but I can't remember it. I'll go back there soon to retry that $400 bow. If I really like it twice, I might buy it. But it barely beats out the best of my cheap bows.

According to my friend, all of the bows with that brand name are sold through Baran's in Decatur and made by the same maker. Baran's has been in business for about a hundred years (joking, but not too far off) so there could be quite a few of them floating around.

[Michael Holden]

hmmm a well known bow from Brazil, with their cheapest line in that price range is Arco. I've never really seen any brazilian bass bow go under $700 though.

[David Powell]

Originally Posted by Michael Holden

hmmm a well known bow from Brazil, with their cheapest line in that price range is Arco. I've never really seen any brazilian bass bow go under $700 though.

All of the ones I looked at were used, and some had some visible dings, etc., and some were close to $700.

[Michael Holden]

If you saw a used Brazilian made bow, made by a well known bowmaker for $400 that's a good deal. Even the used ones go for $500-$600 for the lowend bows.