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Made by the English bow maker Brian
Tunnicliffe in 1983 this fascinating French style bass bow
frog has the gargantuan width of 28mm instead of the standard
19-22mm. Explanation as to why this outsized frog was created
is recounted by Tunnicliffe. "It was just a misinterpretation
of a customers order. Jan Wallin, a Swedish player and member
of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra had ordered
a Sartory style frog to replace an odd Pfretchner frog that
had been fitted to his original Sartory stick. Unfortunately
a misunderstanding between us regarding width-height terminology
resulted in the frog being made 28mm wide instead of 28mm
deep".
An embarrassed Tunnicliffe ended
the tale by chiding himself, "I should have made a drawing
- it's the first rule of engineering - then I would have realised
that something wasn't quite right".
Wallin found the frog a little
too difficult and cumbersome to hold and the massive ribbon
of hair seemed to choke the sound rather than increase it.
The frog was sent back to Tunnicliffe to exchange for a more
conventional sized one. It was presented to the Houska Collection
on 5th October 2000.
In a way its a shame that this
outsized frog didn't really work. The simple misunderstanding
in the measurements could easily have revolutionised bass
playing as we know it (in terms of sound production, articulation
etc), and then Tunnicliffe would have been talking patent
numbers.
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