Finale Bows from The String Emporium
Full Disclosure: The bow in this video was given to me as a gift from Steve at The String Emporium. This is a comparison between my Bernd Dölling bow and a carbon fiber Finale bow–I just want to make it clear up front where I got the bow from for full and fair disclosure. The Dölling (last time I checked) retails for around $4200 in the U.S., and the Finale stick costs $340 (plus case and rosin!). I think you’ll be very interested to see how these two sticks stack up. For more information on Finale bows, visit this page at stringemporium.com.
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10 Responses to “Finale Bows from The String Emporium”
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Uh oh! The secret’s out now. I got myself a both French and a German version… because, why the heck not get one of these?!? I’ve had them for a little while, and a friend of mine even used the German version in Disney Hall (home of the LA Phil). Hahah. Price and materials aside, they are great bows in their own right. If you live in Southern California, World of Strings in Long Beach has them every now and then. They don’t stay in the store for too long.
Finally, a cost-effective bow for bassists that _actually_ works!
I’ve still got my fancy pernambuco bow for when I need to look dignified, but these Finale bow things are great for backup, loaners, col legno, “questionable” gigs, etc.. etc.. hell, they’d even be great for situations when you need a slightly different timbre and don’t want to sacrifice playability.
By the way, they’re imported from China.
-Trevor
I feel I should clarify. My stand partner (at that Disney Hall performance) used it during rehearsal, then liked it so much that he used it during the performance. He bought one last week.
-Trevor
Wow… think I might try and get hold of one of those! Dang student-budget bows…
Saw this video and decided to buy a Finale bow from Steve. (Thanks Jason for being such an awesome resource!!) It is everything that it advertises and I can’t imagine getting any bow for $340 with this quality.
What happened to me is that my Kuykendall broke after many years of faithful use. Couldn’t have happened at a worse time as I was suddenly asked to play an audition for a local/regional orchestra spot.
So I borrowed a couple bows and actually played the audition with three different bows: my backup (Emile Dupree), an A. Knoll No. 531, and a massive Chinese snakewood bow. I swapped bows depending on the style. (By the way, using multiple bows in an audition is NOT reccomended). Anyway, I needed a single bow that would have ALL the strokes….Beethoven Trio, Mozart 35, etc.
I’ve only worked with my new Finale for a day now, but I can tell you it has all the strokes. It has good balance, articulates well, and is heavy enough (somewhere around 137 grams) to be servicable. Also, it has a surprisingly dark tone for a $300+ bow.
All in all, I’d like to suggest that anyone who is short on cash for a more expensive pernambuco to check this Finale out.
I had a hard time finding the email address, so I’m filling this in which has nothing to do with the blog. I would like to submit somebody who would be very interesting for the podcast: Joe Kaufman the assistant principal bass of the Seattle Symphony. I went to UNT with Joe and know he’s a great guy with a great story and of course he’s a fantastic player.
BTW, his email is joebass1@hotmail.com
Are the Finale bows available anywhere besides The String Emporium? (I don’t live in Southern California)
Hi
It look very fine and I want to buy a Finale bow too – but I have tried 3 times sending emails to info@stringemporium.com but they dont answer me. Where do you buy this bow? I have some students who wanna try the german bow (and I also wanna try it!!)
You can email Steve from the String Emporium at stevekos -at- earthlink.net
I jsut got this bow and am very exited to use it! I’m going to college in a year and my teacher told me to get an upgrade and highly recommended this bow. Thanks for posting the video; I found it very helpful.