Archet de contrebasse allemand, hausse en composite, Naturbow®.

I’ve been playing my Carbow bow exclusively since the first day I received it, in 1998. Why ? The feel of the bow on the string as I pull it across the strings that I am in complete control the sound I’m making, and with ease. It has greater dynamic range than my older wood bows (Pfretzschner,Dölling, Hoyer,…) all the while being very easy, mechanically, to play. But the biggest reason I have switched to Carbow is the col legno bowing effect. I started using col legno bowing quite extensively in the early 1990’s. The double-bass is a superb percussion instrument. From the beginning I opted to not use special beaters, but a regular bass bow. The result was never satisfactory.The bow had to do both jobs – percussive effects using the stick and “straight” melodic & rhythmic execution. Until Carbow came along I was always drawn between damaging an excellent wood bow or having to accept an inferior result from a cheap wooden bow. The Carbow does it all, and to perfection. Some years ago I spent time working with the Carbow technicians to see if it was possible to create a frog that had the shape and weight of my Pfretschner, with which I was the most comfortable of all my bows. The result is this bow, an extremely comfortable, easy to play bow that does everything I ask it to and has actually taught me some tricks for spiccato playing.

— Barre Phillips