The carbon bow i prefer broke and is no longer made so I had to find something new. I tried multiple Codabows and did not really like them until I tried this one. I use it on a standard acoustic violin. I play fiddle music and prefer a bit of an aggressive sound. The bow works well for this, I think it is a great bow for alternative/folk/fiddle music, I believe it will also work well for beginning players because of the way the weight is distributed, it is very forgiving.