How tight should my double bass bow hair be?

[allihaywood]

It's really great that you explain what to you are the basics - really well and concisely for those of us new to the bass. I love the word "floopy!" That's my new favourite word...I am already loving the DB community.

[ratofthecity]

great explanation! every teacher ive asked about bow tension sort of just gives a non answer so its nice to finally have a good reference point :-)

[dmitchell]

Thanks for this! Recently I noticed I had tightened the hair on my German bow so tight that it looked like a Baroque bow.

[montibass]

Thanks for this. I am going to share this video with all my orchestra teacher friends. Over tightening the bow is the #1 issue that I see with middle (and even high school) bassists when I do clinics. The more ways that they can get this message, the better.

[tomd]

Your bass makes such a rich and characterful sound! Thank you for the super helpful tips, and the chuckle-inducing intros!

[brokenelectronics]

I've always prefered salt and pepper, but I would be very interested in a video examining the different possibilituies.

[DavidStone-kb]

I would like to learn more about your choice of bow hair. Thanks for making such helpful videos!😊

[gcompy]

Thanks for that, I probably have it too tight normally. Still working on getting my bow to grab the string well.

[orinobrien]

Glad you mentioned loosening the hair after playing!!!

[chrysippus]

I like to use a strong upbow in the upper registers and fast downbow playing 1st position on the E string to judge my hair tensions (after warming up). The upbow shouldn't be shrieky nor the stick touch the hair, and the downbow should pop into a strong marcato with a nice round sound. That tension leaves me room to adjust bow pressure to get the pretty/ugly sounds I want (dependent on mood/music). If I let the bow do most of the work the tension almost seems laughable until I nail that first crescendo and give myself that internal nod of approval.

[StephaniePatterson]

Yes. Please talk about bow hair. I generally prefer black and white mixed for that little extra grab.

[ricardoSbass]

In case of german bow, how much would you untight the bow after practising?