April 21, 2007
Horsehair varies remarkably, depending on climate and treatment. A good quality product does make a difference. Horsehair from animals with healthy diets that live in northern climates tends to be stronger.

My bow hair is the best in the world.  Here's a short list of some of my customers:

George Rubino, Bow Maker, Benoit Rolland, Bow maker, John Montgomery Violins, Serge Sioufi, Bow maker, Matt Wehling, Bow maker, Gianna Violins, Pier Bergeron, George Heinl & Sons, Nicholas Caraccio, Bow maker, Jon Vanderhorst, Brad Dorsey, Ted Herbert's Music, Renaissance Strings, Collins Violin Bows, Bridgewood & Neitzert, Schonau & Tardif Luthiers, Inc., Arte - Suibumn Leigh, Seoul, KR

Other factors that affect quality are consistency and color. Both players and bow makers value straight hair. Many bow rehair techs prefer a white hair, particularly for violins and violas, because hair of this color is usually finer in texture. (There is, however, some disagreement about the extent to which color correlates with textural differences that affect sound.) Many bass and some cello players use the coarser, discolored, or even black hair, which some say is grabbier, while others opt for a salt and pepper combination.

Below you will find pictures and descriptions of my bow hair products.  When you click a link, it will take you to an ordering page where you can submit your order and pay by credit card.  I ship orders via DHL Ground or International Express.  Make sure you include your email and phone number for DHL to contact you to arrange delivery.

Manchurian LIVE
$550/# 32" our best hair
 

Premium Select
$350/# 32-33" for professional bows
Double drawn, triple sorted by the highest-trained sorters
unbleached white

Professional Select
$220/# 32-33" for good wood bows
Double drawn, visually sorted, natural unbleached white

Salt & Pepper (silver/grey)
$180/# 32-33" for bass/cello bows, fiddlers

White unbleached
$175/# 32-33" for student/fiberglass bows
Double drawn

Bassist's Black
$90/# 32-33" for bass/cello bows
Double drawn, visually sorted

Adam's Update 2007:
"I have spent the last 2 years searching for higher quality hair in China. I traveled to Harbin, to Mongolia, and to other areas in the North Eastern part of China, an area formerly known as "Manchuria". There, I discovered a village where horses are the main agricultural beast of burden. They don't have farm machinery in this village, so the animals are treated like kings, and live long lives. Their tail hair is culled from the animals when they are living, and saved carefully in warm, dry barns. When my team visited this group of farmers, and told them what we wanted, they proudly presented this horse hair to us. They use the hair for making clothing, whips and other products, too numerous to name here. We thought the hair was of such fabulous quality, that we signed a contract with the elders of the village to buy this hair from them. We also contracted with our workshop in Anping to process the hair. In fact, we returned to the village in January of 2007 to finalize the contract. A fresh batch of this "Manchurian Live" hair will be available June 2007."