Londoner Bows Three Star Violin Bow, Octagonal Review

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(More customer reviews)In my search for a quality bow for my daughters new violin I purchased this bow to test. It did surprisingly well. My budget was under $500 (which has changed after these trials).
Testers were my daughter (novice) and our violin teacher (expert). The violin teacher also compared them to her $2500 bow. These didn't even come close to her bow.
Bows in the trial (Ranked in the order of preference):
(We used Pirazzi rosin on an unmarked German violin)
1st: Londoner Three Star Pernambuco Bow (about $330) 60g
2nd: CodaBow Diamond NX (about $355) 62g
3rd: Arcos Brasil Pernambuco Nickel Mount bow (3 different makers) (about $400-450) 61-62g
4th: CodaBow Prodigy (about $265) 62g
5th: Arcos Brasil Carbon Fiber Braided (about $180-225)
6th: Arcos Brasil Carbon Fiber non-braided (about $140-180)
Our current bow is a Brazilwood Leon Glasser? bow (sorry stamp is worn down, can only read LEON GLAS--- stamp).
We were looking for a well balanced bow with good feel and better sound than the existing Glasser bow. Unfortunately none of the bows exceeded the Glasser bow's sound quality however the Londoner 3 star and the Codabow Diamond NX did at least match the sound. Both the Londoner and the Coda NX was almost the same as the Glasser bow and the violin teacher couldn't choose between the three (Londoner, Coda NX and Glasser). All others (Arcos Brasil, Codabow Prodigy) were losers to the Glasser.
The Londoner had the best feel and balance. The Coda NX was slightly off balance. Both have are about equal in sound.
The Arcos Brasil bows had good feel but didn't match the sound. However there was an Arcos bow that did not have good feel and lesser sound.
The Codabows won the Carbon Fiber bows contest with the Diamond series outshining many including the Prodigy, as it should. The Arcos Carbon Fibers were the worst in this group but not terrible.
If we had a lesser bow, we would have stuck with the Londoner. Instead, I'll have to change my budget to hopefully find some better options.
A word of advise, always trial the bow you plan on buying (or buy from a site/store with a generous return policy). Its been a great service and really helps compare what you have to what you're buying.
At this point, I'm going to go test the Codabow Diamond GX and Joule. Based on the NX's performance, I'm expecting them to be much better (but at a cost).
Hope this helps someone with their difficult task in finding the perfect bow!

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The Three Star Violin Bow from Londoner Bows is a finely balanced bow with exceptional playing quality, hand carved from top quality pernambuco. The frog is full silver mounted and made from the finest ebony. The grip is leather with silver winding. Full size only.

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