Just to confirm, I am Fed Exing your silver mounted bow back to you today. I am keeping the gold bow. I've had a great time doing a LOT of playing on it the last few days, and I can't find anything it CAN'T do. I really love it. My trio colleagues noticed both the rich sound it gets from my cello, and admired it's beauty.
- David Moulton, Allentown, Pennsylvania

WEHLING WINS TWO MORE GOLD MEDALS AT 2006 VSA COMPETITION

On November 11, 2006, Matt Wehling was awarded Gold medals at the Violin Society of America International Violin and Bow Making Competition for his violin and cello bows. He also won a Certificate of Merit for his viola bow. The judges praised the technical execution of the Gold Medal winning bows, as well as the maturity of their style. This puts Wehling¹s totals to 4 VSA Gold Medals and 5 Certificates of Merit since 2002. Interested players should feel free to contact Wehling to discuss availability of bows.

New Web Site The most obvious new development is that the Matt Wehling web site has been updated by by Image Spigot Graphic Design of St. Paul, MN. If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve seen at least a bit of the new image. Thanks to Sharon Sudman of Image Spigot and Jeff Bina of St. Olaf College for getting the new site off the ground.

Matt Wehling has recently been implementing what is often referred to as the “Hill style” method of fitting the frog to the stick. In this method, the frog sits in a track that permits very little lateral rocking of the frog as the bow is played. The advantages of the system are many: the bow is more stable and less prone to bad seating during temperature/humidity changes, there is less wear on the frog over time, and it allows the frog to be made without the silver underslide, which many experts feel can dampen sound vibrations. The main disadvantage is only one Wehling must deal with: the mounting system takes more time and must be done very precisely to work well. But if it makes a better bow, Wehling feels it is worth the effort.

While this system takes its name from the Hill firm of England, the system is actually a variant of a system developed by Jean Baptiste Vuilluame. It was also utilised by top French makers such as E.A. Ouchard, Bernard Ouchard, Bernard Millant and Jean- Jaques Millant.

Matt Wehling recently returned from participating in the Oberlin Bow Making workshop in Oberlin, Ohio. Every summer around 20 top bowmakers are invited to spend two weeks cloistered in a room working together, permitted to leave only for meals and the Wednesday and Saturday flea markets. In addition to their own work, each year the makers collaborate on unique bow, which is then sold to help defray food costs. This year’s bow was a copy of a great Pajoet to which the workshop had access. Matt can’t wait for next year!