JonPaul Muse Viola Bow

Great performance for this price range.

When I got my new viola, I was very curious how I could get a better tone out of my instrument, and figured a nicer bow would fit the bill. After carefully narrowing down the bows I wanted based on research online, I read a lot of good things about JonPaul bows. I didn't want to go all the way up in price to their top-tier offerings, so I tried the Muse, which was the middle-tier offering. The Muse was definitely a good performer. The tone is a much more lovely sound than what I can get out of my $70 Fiddlerman Carbon Fiber bow. It has a richness that is more solid than what I was expecting out of carbon fiber bows in general. The bow handles well, and I found it easy to play just about anything with it. Definitely easier than the Fiddlerman bow, and it has clear string-starts. Overall, I was happy with its performance. However, I also had a chance to try out a CodaBow Marquise GS at the same time, and I fell in love with that bow. The Marquise has a significantly better tone, and out-of-this-world handling and control. It made a day-and-night difference in how I sounded, as well as being incredibly clean to play without effort. Obviously, the Marquise costs 40% more than this bow. But what I gained with the extra cost was definitely worth it to me, personally, so I decided to keep the Marquise instead of the Muse. For those that wish to have great sound at this price range, though, this one is definitely a keeper. It assuredly has good sound and playability, so it's hard to go wrong with it, in my opinion.