The CodaBow Diamond Collection: Model GX

My late teacher, Mary West, told her students, “Let your Bow Be Your Voice.” Indeed, a great bow allows our bow strokes to be precise and gives us an incredible feeing of control over the sound we produce. However, a poorly performing bow feels clumsy in the hand and often will not allow us to fully express ourselves. A clumsy bow shakes and quivers as it is drawn, refuses to bounce, and often produces a fuzzy and unpleasing sound.

Though all of the new Diamond Series bows that I have tried are strong performers, this review covers only their flagship model, the GX.

Simply put, the GX is an amazing bow. Its performance is on the level of some of the finest wood pernambuco bows I have played in my lifetime, including bows by the fine french makers valued in the tens of thousands of dollars. These Coda GX bows are consistent, well-balanced, and easy to control. They produce a strong, full sound, without shake or quiver, and are equally capable at long legato strokes and the most precise of spiccato bowings. I intended my GX to be my back-up bow, but these days I often reach for it first.

Although I encourage my students to try a wide variety of bows before choosing one to buy, I am amazed at how often they end up selecting the GX.

Priced around $700.00 retail, the GX may seem expensive compared to some of the other carbon fiber bows on the market. But the GX is truly in a class of its own and rivals some of the best bows I have ever played. And it may well be the last bow you will ever need to purchase, with the added benefit of being very sturdy and, if not unbreakable, very nearly so.

Now if only Codabow would make us a carbon fiber violin that sounds like a Strad...

Rating: 5 Stars

Knilling’s Perfection Planetary Pegs for Violin

Tired of waging the everlasting student-versus-peg battle? The one where you push the peg into place and tune it, only to have it slip seconds later. And then you push it in and tune it again and it slips -- again! Or maybe you’ve pushed it in so hard that you can barely move it, and, after one last hard twist-and-push-in combo maneuver --BAM, pop goes the string.

Knilling’s Perfection Pegs are designed to give you full control over those wayward pegs. Once installed in your pegbox, these geared pegs look like an ordinarily ebony pegs. However, Perfection Pegs have gears that allow you to finely control their movement. Because the gears are actually inside the peg, they do not harm the instrument. They also rotate smoothly without slipping or sticking, and without any need to push the peg into the pegbox while tuning.

You may even be able to eliminate those fine tuners!

While they might not be the best option for an eighteenth-century Italian violin, Perfection Pegs are a great choice for most modern student instruments.



Rating: 5 Stars

Korg Chromatic Tuner. First, I feel it is important to note that, as practice aids for violin, most tuners do not respond accurately or quickly enough for students to feel comfortable using them. In fact, frustration with them seems to be the most common reaction when employed for checking pitch while practicing. However, as far as tuners on the lower end of the price range go, the Korg is, relatively speaking, a strong performer with a clear and readable interface (as compared with models by Intellii or Sabine, that are largely equivalent in other respects but more difficult to use). Of course, this Korg does not include a metronome, which is something of a disadvantage given that combining a tuner and metronome is often a very good value. Is an electronic tuner really that much of a step-up in usefulness compared to a pitch-fork? If the tuner is being used to work on passages incredibly slowly or to separately tune all four strings on the violin, then the answer is clearly yes. But for a beginner, (especially a young one) trying to learn how to play in tune the likely result is frustration.

Rating: 4 stars (deductions for absence of metronome and slow response typical of tuners in this price range.

Peak portable Music Stand. A solid portable music stand that, when collapsed, is as low profile as possible is a wonderful asset for gigging (particularly outdoors) and those chamber music or orchestra rehearsals or concerts where a more flimsy wire stand is a liability. The Peak music stands, unlike most other strong and solid music stands, can collapse much like a wire stand due to several folds on the music tray end of the stand. At first blush, this stand seems ideal. But it does present some problems. First is the folding component itself. Call me uncoordinated, but several times this stand has pinched my fingers in the process of opening and closing it. In addition, the lower tray that supports the bottom end of the music needs to attach separately and tends to be a weak point of the stand that can easily break. Also, although relatively speaking low profile, this stand is significantly heavier and wider than a typical wire stand. That being said, there are few (if any) other solid non-wire music stands that collapse to this size. But due to its limitations, I have continued to use wire stands for most rehearsals taking place outside my home due to the limitations I have described and the weight and relative bulk of this music stand, at least compared to a wire stand. But at home, this stand is perhaps sturdier and less likely to tip than my Manhasset stand and therefore of value despite its other limitations.

Rating: 3 stars (deductions for tendency to pinch fingers, overall bulk, and a slightly flimsy bottom tray that supports the music.