Mastodawn

A nice Pfretzschner also came along, and it was much closer to what I like. My trusty old German trade bow really held its own today, particularly for tone quality.

I think I'm going to model my first bow attempt on a composite of the 1920s Markneukirchen bows I've seen. Perhaps an odd choice, but my fiddle really prefers them!

Photo of today's retip of the 7/8ths. Excited to really put it to the test, as it's a beautiful and delicate little thing

Matthew Sorensen Mar 16

Bowmaking quest update:
1) Bought an old German 7/8ths bow in need of lots of repairs, and did them - retip, two bushings, reattaching the underslide, etc. Waiting on supplies for new winding, and then will rehair next week.
2) Got to play (and 3d scan) some nice modern American makers' bows, and...didn't like them immensely? Very stable and strong, 25% louder than my current bow, but almost too stable and not what I like tonally.

Matthew Sorensen Mar 7

Bowmaking ups and downs:

Not good: sliced my thumb open doing something stupid last night

Good: have solved my "what should I even use as a model for a really nice violin bow" problem, and am going to get to inspect/3D scan some very nice bows.

Also good: mention "I'm trying to learn to rehair bows as well" at a coffee gathering of fiddlers, and you get more offers for cheap bows to practice on than you know what to do with

Matthew Sorensen Mar 5

Fascinating - https://www.thestranger.com/news/2026/03/04/80505036/why-workers-at-one-of-seattles-hottest-restaurants-went-on-strike

Matthew Sorensen Feb 23

Entirely context free

Matthew Sorensen Feb 1

Successful concert last Monday, enough that I've already booked another! Hell yeah...

Show thread

Matthew Sorensen Jan 21

(Even though the make of kei truck I own is particularly roomy compared to the others, that doesn't mean much - fortunately I have a spare cheap bow for such stunts! Speed bumps were particularly exciting...)

Matthew Sorensen Jan 21

Well that was a surreal night - tunes, dinner in a packed bar that's closing in a week, followed by driving the kei truck down to the beach while being serenaded by a somewhat tipsy friend on the viola in a very confined space, and then as soon as we got there, a very vivid and dynamic aurora sighting!

Matthew Sorensen Jan 9

oh man this is...not wrong at all...the fact that I'm first-hand familiar with a good deal of it is concerning - https://www.reddit.com/r/exjew/comments/1pzkpgc/chabad_lore_iceberg/#lightbox

Matthew Sorensen Jan 5

2am resting trad face is harsh - I swear we were having fun!