How different can one bow be from another?
A. Very different. Apart from the fact that all bows must stretch around 150 horse hairs in a tight straight line, there is not much else they have in common. Physical features that vary are length, weight, camber (the shape of the curve), frog design, size and height of frog, width of ferrule, firmness of the stick, round or octagonal design, balance towards heel or towards tip, mass of the head, shape of the head, head chamfers, stick thickness at the tip, middle and heel, and other features. Playing characteristics also can change from springy to dull, warm tone to cold tone, adherent to superficial, coherent focussed tone to generic non descript tone…. etc.
