JonPaul Legacy Model Carbon Fiber 4/4 Violin Bow

JonPaul Legacy Violin Bow 4/4 Size I bought this bow for my daughter. The bow is described as "Steinway Black" finish so I was pleasantly surprised when the bow I received had a walnut-burgundy finish (reddish brown, closer to a pernambuco finish). I would say that it is of medium stiffness, very much like the Codabow Conservatory/Colours (a discontinued model) that I have. The balance is excellent and it draws a very nice tone.Why 4 stars: The seller (Johnson Strings) sent the bow promptly and i have no complaints about delivery. However, the bow was in a Codabow sleeve (JonPaul does not make its own sleeve?), and there were a few broken hairs. The eyelet on the frog was set too tight such that it was not aligned with the tension adjuster screw, making it difficult to adjust bow hair tension (my daughter could not do it). I loosened the eyelet by 1-2 turns to align the eyelet and screw. Otherwise I would have rated the bow with 5 stars.

Unless you make a living as a soloist, this bow will meet all demands of a serious player. It's just about one gram over the "standard" 60g but very tight, well balanced and responsive.

This is a nicely crafted, well-made, quality bow. As carbon fiber bows go, it is beautiful: comes with a silver tip, fine unbleached horsehair, etc. However, for the money, I found that it doesn't perform significantly better than my $80 Premiere CF carbon fiber bow. If the visual stuff means a lot to you, then buy this JonPaul Legacy bow. It will perform and look wonderful while doing it. If you're buying just for the performance factor, then buy the Premiere CF for roughly 1/4 of the money.By rating it 3 stars, I don't mean that it is poor quality. On the contrary, it is great quality. I just don't see that it is worth 4 times the cost of the Premiere CF bow in terms of performance.

This bow was exactly what I expected. Very well made, balanced and made in USA. Best price on internet! Thanks.

I like the bow.

I played JonPaul "Nashville" for some time. JonPaul Nashville was discontinued years back, but I believe they are same as JonPaul Legacy. Identical look with gold color inscriptions.It sounded great with my student level violin. It was able to pull fuller and sweeter sound than the pernambuco bow at similar price. Also, it was very easy to maneuver, and was excellent bow for those who do a lot of off string techniques. But, when I upgraded my violin, everything changed. The bow couldn't handle the tight grain spruce top carved thiner than the student level violin. The bow just couldn't pull the full capacity of the upper level violin. So, I had to upgrad the bow as well. IMHO, JonPaul bows at Legacy or Nashville level are excellent bow for the student level instruments. If you are going for instruments that cost 2,000 dollars or higher, you should look for better bow.

I am an adult learning to play the fiddle for bluegrass music and I cannot say enough about this bow. It has made it so much easier for me to learn with this beautiful responsive bow.