by Bernd Müsing

Stories are always just a part of an even larger story... In the first 205 years of this particular story a knot is tied which is then studied over 15 years until it is cut in a couple of years of hard work. 1775, "19-year-old" Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote, presumably mainly for his own use, 5 violin concerts. In 1980 I was an enthusiastic violin student and began rehearsing the third of these concerts (g-major, KV 216). I really enjoyed this music, but, although the right hand had so far always been my strong point, some of the bowings I just couldn't figure out. Even the purchase of a better bow or the bow of my teacher did not solve the problems completely.

One other hobby, bicycles, became the centre of my professional career, with a focus on engineering, design and marketing. I met Andreas as a specialist in carbon fiber products at the end of the 80s and we were friends ever since then.

During one ski-vacation in the winter of 95-96 we discovered that we both, independently, had thought about innovative carbon fiber bows. As those ideas fitted nicely we decided to develop a prototype. When some months later the prototype was not only able to solve my Mozart problem (please see also the concept) but also sounded much better than my wooden bow we decided to continue this project. Eventually it took us another 4 years to eventually make the first "perfect" bow.

For our first exhibition at the Musikmesse 2000 we had the luck to get hold of 6 square meters (!). It was absolutely inspiring to experience the positive reactions especially of professional players but we also sold more bows that we could actually make on short notice. With this experience the course for the coming years was laid. 

The next thing for us was to get the production in Klagenfurt sorted out. This required substantial investments but especially a lot of time to train our workers.

During the next years we developed the full product range step by step, up to the bass-bows.

In the meantime our bows found ever wider circulation, especially through recommendation from one player to the next, from student to teacher and from soloist to orchestra player.

One very special event I will hardly ever forget: the "healing" of a desperate cellist. Over several years she had slowly developed severe chronic pain in her bow hand and finally had to quit her job in an orchestra as a consequence. She could play only a couple of minutes before it hurt too badly. Her hope was that the light weight of our bows might be helpful - and it was! Talking to her over the phone a week later was very moving, as you can easily imagine.

For a better understanding of the whole system, we also invested quite some time into the research of instruments, bridges and strings. This was very helpful to further improve our bows.

To catch up with the growing demand for our bows we decided to find several more people to work with us in 2003. Our space in Veitshöchheim was too small, so we found new premises in Würzburg, in the very heart of the city, in which we moved in October 2004.

With the development of the Veloce and Allegro since 2004 we finally also offered the right bows for students and Amateurs in our line.

Needless to say that my bowing issues with the Mozart violin concertos have been solved long ago. But then I have not found the time to study them extensively, but maybe I will some time...

The concept of our bows and how we produce them.