Choice of rosin depends on the weather

[ed]

Choice of rosin depends on the weather

I emailed Hidersine about their violin rosins, 6V and 3V, and got an answer which I thought was interesting as I had not seen it anywhere else:

Hidersine: "Both 6V and 3V are sold as violin rosin. The different colours are due to the time of year the resin used was collected. The darker colour makes a slightly softer rosin which can get sticky in hotter humid climates and is more suited to dry cooler climates.
"Unfortunately, we would not be able to say whether they are suitable for a Chinese ErHu as we have no experience of them here but it would depend more on the climate in which you are using them."

Ed H

[yuhongmei123]

For me, since I live in a cooler area, I use the dark rosin.

However, I have found that in general, I prefer the dark ones for my erhu since it has a good grip for the coarser horse hairs. Its really interesting though, what you said about dark rosins being softer; my dark rosin has a big dent in it because of using it in the same direction repeatedly, while my light rosin has nothing at all using it the same way!

I have tried both on my erhu, but overall, even in temp. changes, I prefer the dark rosin for its smoothness, grip, and it gives me a more mellow tone as opposed to brighter.

I really love Jade rosin, and pirastro olive evah is a close second.

[ed]

A change of rosin certainly makes a big difference in sound and ease of playing, as does a change of bridge. However I am not so fond of the very sticky rosins. I tried Bernadel for a while but it had so much grip that I felt a lot of the more delicate sounds got lost - that is why I changed to Hidersine. I am currently experimenting with their two different versions.


yuhongmei123: that groove you mention, cut into the rosin by repeated use, I find very useful in keeping the bow hairs from sliding off the top of the rosin cake!

Ed H