Thomas J Boyer
Violin
I have had an S5 for about a year, and I could not be happier (except, perhaps, if I could save up the money for an S7!).
I bought my Arcus initially to play unaccompanied Bach. I thought the speed and responsiveness would help with string crossings and fast ornamentation in the same manner as a short 50-gram baroque bow.
But over time, the very light weight enabled allowed me to change my bow technique using a softer grip and more flexible fingers. My grip is Franco-Belgian, but now there is much less need for leveraging the bow between the index and pinky fingers. The fingers can be almost slack and still hold the bow.
And that makes me a much better Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven player. Meanwhile, there is certainly nothing lost playing big Romantic music, Brahms or Tchaikovsky or Mahler -- the stick is plenty strong. I have very nice wood bows but I just don't pick them up much any more.
Thank you for making this bow.