About the Strings of a Violin Bow

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m David Kaynor for expertvillage.com. Now the frog itself fits into a small mortise in the bow, and in the frog itself there’s an eyelet which is a small soft brass threading eyelet, and the frog screw fits into it, and as the frog screw turns the bow, the frog moves back and forth in the eyelet, because the frog screw essentially is immobilized against the very end of the bow, and that is how hair tension is adjusted. Periodically these eyelets, because of soft brass, wear out and then one has to go to a violin technician or anyone who has a large repository of old eyelets, I don’t know where they’re being made these days. So one goes and just tries to find an old eyelet which fits the frog screw, the frog screw is a much harder I believe it’s a much harder steel, so the eyelet fits into the mortise, and then the frog screw fits into the hole end of the bow, and when the screw is turned we’ll thread it into the eyelet. We have loose hair and through gradual tightening, the hair gets up to what I’ll consider playing tension, and in my opinion playing tension usually means that the hair in the middle of the bow appears to be about a quarter inch, giver take from the stick. "