Introduction

Gainesville Violins is a premier violin, viola and cello bow shop. Prices for pernambuco wood bows range from an amazingly low $99 to $5,000+. Brazilwood bows cost much less, while classic antique bows such as by Tourte, Voirin, Peccatte, Sartory, Tubbs, and WE Hill and Sons go for much more. Baroque pernambuco bows are available for as little as $250!

LEFT: Back-and-forth note between Jan and Lauren Pollock, violin teacher in Gainesville. Our bows with faux tortoise-shell frogs are simply gorgeous and tonally completely superior in their class. Prices range from an amazing and unbeatable $650. Gainesville Violins has access to and can supply bows from the world's best bow- makers and bow-making companies. European and American-made bows are relatively expensive: Supplies, materials, overheads, hourly wages etc are costly. The same or better quality handmade professional bows made in Brazil, the source of pernambuco wood, are considerably less expensive.

Snakeskin grip, snakewood frog.

Gold-mounted with snakeskin grip.

Pernambuco wood

The pau-brasil tree (Caesalpinia echinata) is the national tree of Brazil. Pernambuco wood comes from this tree. The tree is native to a coastal strip of Brazil called the Mata Atlantica. The bad news is that the Mata Atlantica forest has been cleared to about 5% of its original extent.

TOP: Pau-brasil flowers. LEFT: Pau-brasil tree.

TOP: Pau-brasil seed pods.

What is the difference between brazilwood
and pernambuco wood?

Brazilwood and pernambuco wood do not come from different species of trees. Both come from the pau-brasil tree. The only real difference is density. Pernambuco comes from the innermost part of the tree. Accordingly, it is much more dense and the grain is visibly tighter than that of its counterpart. In addition, pernambuco is much stiffer than brazilwood which enables bowmakers to create exquisitely lightweight bows that have great strength.

Brazilwood bows are great entry-level bows. Gainesville Violins offers fine brazilwood bows from $50 to $500.

FAR LEFT: Part of Gainesville Violins's fine bow collection. Genuine pernambuco bows from as little as $150! LEFT: Top quality gold-mounted pernambuco bows range from $900 to $5,000+.

Composite bows

The arrival of carbon-graphite bows marks yet another step in the evolution of the violin. It is similar to the shift from sheepgut strings (called "catgut") to modern strings with a nylon ("perlon") core, such as Thomastik Dominant strings.

Note that carbon-graphite is not the same as fiberglass! Gainesville
Violins does not sell fiberglass bows, except on special order.

IPCI postcard: Inter- national Pernambuco Conservation Initia- tive. See "Links" page.

Many serious and thinking players choose modern carbon fiber bows instead of pernambuco bows for reasons of their ecological conscience, in view of the fate of the pernambuco forests. They see this as part of their moral duty of environmental stewardship or "creation care". The CodaBow brand is the premier family of carbon fiber bows for violin, viola, cello and string bass. Its complete line of bows enhances all levels of performance from student to professional. Gainesville Violins is a major CodaBow dealer. (Visit the "CodaBow" page on this website.) CodaBow unites the time-honored traditions of bowmaking with the use of advanced materials.

FAR LEFT: Bowmaking headquarters in the misty mountains of Brazil. LEFT: Semi-finished pernambuco bows.

2. REPAIRS AND REHAIRS

Gainesville Violins is a full-service bow shop!

	Please contact Jan on 352-331-5555 or by emailing him at BOWS about having your bow work (repairs, rehairs, etc) done by Gainesville Violins Inc's expert bow associates.