The Piano Guys Carbon Fiber Violin Bow - Professional 4/4 Full Size Violin Bow with Ebony Frog & Premium Horsehair | Perfect for Classical Performances, Orchestras & Advanced Violinists (TPG Sharp Bow, Bruce)

To be fair, I've only played on this bow twice since it's arrival (I got the Ziggy) so I'll update it this perspective changes but I can't get it out of my mind, and wanted to share.A bit of background on my skill and equipment level so you can gauge how much weight to give this bow: I started playing violin in high school. Didn't take it very far but spent a couple years on the church praise team. Picked it up again in 2019 and have been playing pretty seriously for an adult learner since (~an hour per day). I currently have two violins, a mezzo forte that I use for performances and a Cremonese, handcrafted violin from a respected luthier for personal enjoyment. I just purchased a very nice bow from an award winning American bow maker worth a few thousand dollars for my Cremonese violin. I have a relatively cheap sandalwood bow and had a decent but not expensive pernambuco that I used for performances and I have wanted a CF bow for performances for a while but haven't pulled the trigger till I broke my mid-tier pernam bow I use for performances earlier this week.Onto the Ziggy...She arrived yesterday afternoon. Well packaged, I had no concerns about the bow possibly having been damaged in transit.At first glance, obviously, it's striking with the red hair, and the stick is brighter red than the pictures seem to show as well. It's lovely!That said... It definitely looks a little chunkier than my high end pernambuco...though it does seem to weigh maybe a g or two lighter (my pernambuco is 64g....it's a heavy bow).Playability:It's easy to draw and control. I didn't notice any bouncing over about an hour of playing. It grips the strings well. It moves easily from frog to tip and I don't have to work harder to maintain control at the tip. It doesn't feel heavy on the string. It doesn't seem to have a life of its own like my nice bow, but it's definitely an extension of my hand. There was no fighting with this bow.Sound quality:Getting my nice bow earlier this year was the first time I was able to hear how much of a difference a bow can make in sound quality. This was the second.I played on it first and thought it sounded pretty solid. Then I picked up my cheap bow and pretty much gasped.... The cheap bow sounded gravelly and thick in comparison. Switching back and forth, I was consistently impressed at how clear and clean and bright the Ziggy sounded in comparison.Comparing it to my really nice bow, honestly, the sound comparison was... impressively close. For what I paid for the pernambuco, I would have expected an obvious difference in sound. While there is one and the wooden bow pulls out a slightly warmer sound, the clarity and clean notes are nearly identical. I think the Ziggy gets a slightly brighter note.So basically, my multi-thousand dollar bow from an award winning maker edges out the Ziggy in terms of sound and playability...but for the price, it's drastically closer than I thought it would be!!!I stalled on buying this bow for years... I wish I hadn't.