Which Bass Rosin Should I Buy?

Not a problem, I’ll look online – BUT: suddenly I am faced with dozens and dozens of different rosins, so which is the right one for me?

There are so many factors to take into account. If you are an orchestral player, you will probably need one of the stronger rosins but if you are a beginner, maybe a more general rosin might be better. Baroque players need something different again, some soloists prefer violin rosin, so where do I start?

Do you live in a hot or cold country? That will determine which rosins are most suitable for your climate, and possibly which ones to avoid.

There are so many questions but also a similar number of answers. Over the years I have used rosins by Hidersine, Eugene Cruft, Pops, Carlsson, Nyman and Leatherwood Bespoke, maybe even more, and at the time the one I was using was my favourite. For many, many years I used Nyman’s rosin, which most of my students also liked, and which seemed ideal for the British climate, apart from the hottest spells when many a bass or bow case has been covered in a sticky rosin residue, which seems to glue everything together for weeks, but overall, it was good for all my playing needs – solo, chamber music and the occasional orchestral date.

A few years ago everyone was raving about the new Leatherwood Bespoke rosin (the amber range), which seemed inordinately expensive, but many friends from around the world raved about the rosin, so I ordered two pots from Australia and settled on 20% and 25%, because I do more solo than orchestral playing nowadays, and waited for the post to arrive. It duly did and I absolutely fell in love with the 25% which produced a clear tone across all the registers and suited my bass and strings perfectly. I now only use Leatherwood and love everything about the rosin and am about to order two new pots, although I see they no longer produce a 25% mix so I’ll buy a 20% and 30% and use one swipe from each to hopefully create something like a 25% rosin which I like.

Which rosin is best for you? There are so many different ones to choose from, alongside different string types, playing styles and temperatures, and my advice would be to ask your teacher, a friend or colleague, who will give you good advice from a local perspective, or read some of the online reviews (like this one 😊) and take a chance that it’s the right one for you. Rosin, on the whole, is inexpensive so it isn’t such a big investment if you don’t like the one you have bought.

Personal recommendation is a good starting point and my first pot of rosin was at the back of a cupboard in our music department at school alongside a hardback copy of the Simandl Method, and that’s how I started. I can’t remember which rosin it was but it would have been old, I am certain of that, but other bassists and teachers were happy to help with suggesting different rosins and I never looked back. I know what I like, I know what I don’t like, but there is something out there for everyone.

Happy rosin hunting.