Mathias Kölling

Violin

The S9 has opened a new world for me. It clearly surpasses all other bows I have ever played. I experience an incredible elation that was just unthinkable until now. Today I achieve, what I have been looking for in the past in vain.

A perfect lightness in my play, a "gilded", very clear and transparent sound. Its low weight allows me to play faster with more agility. Playing in high positions (G-string!) has become playfully simple. The S9 is a very sensitive bow that reacts to the smallest nuances and allows a great range of sound colors. Challenging bowings have become much more easy to manage. Playing double stops has become a real joy and extreme Pianissimo sounds really nice. The bow plays as if by itself and thus also frees up the left arm considerably (trills, vibrato, finger attachment, double handles, change of position). I experience sounds, colors and transparency in my violin as I have never heard of her yet. Almost every day there are new surprises. And it's just great to be less busy with all the technical challenges and allowed to focus much more on making music.

Sometimes I almost feel bad during playing, as it seems like playing with this bow is close to cheating.

With this experience, I come to the conclusion that the quality of the bow is even more important than that of the instrument, given the instrument is well adjusted.

Despite my attempt to describe the qualities of the Arcus S9, I have to conclude that this bow simply can not be described comprehensively - to really understand it you have to play with it.