Welcome to Bow Brand

Welcome to Bow Brand, home of the world’s finest handcrafted Natural Gut & Bass Wire strings.

Next year we will be celebrating 110 years of making string from our location in King’s Lynn which lies the beautiful Norfolk countryside.

Our mission is to provide professional musicians and enthusiasts with the highest quality strings to enhance their musical experience. We strive to preserve the rich heritage and tradition of natural gut and handmade wire wound strings while embracing innovation and modern manufacturing techniques.

Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our dedication to craftsmanship, rigorous quality control and continuous evolution of tradition. Through our strings, we aim to inspire musicians to unlock their true artistic potential and express their unique musical voice. We are passionate about supporting and nurturing the global community of string players, fostering collaboration, and advancing the art of stringed instrument performance.

With over a century of experience, we bring you the authentic essence of the art of string making. Why settle for man-made synthetics when you can have the original? Our handcrafted natural gut strings offer unparalleled quality and the legacy of quality and precision that defines us.

We are often asked “Why does it take so long to make a string?

The simple answer is because that is how long Mother Nature dictates, but the longer answer is that when you are working with natural products there are certain timescales that need to be respected and can’t be hurried without compromising quality.

There is a two and a half week preparation process before the strings can go into our drying rooms where they stay for 5 to 8 days depending on the gauge. Once this initial drying period is complete, the strings must be allowed to settle and finish drying in our Holding Room for up to a further 3 weeks. They then need to be carefully polished and varnished individually before they are ready to be shipped to you. You can find out more by going to ‘The Process Page’.

Explore the history of Bow Brand and discover how much things have changed and yet stayed the same. How we went from being a small sausage skin supplier to supplying the world’s finest luthiers via being the Official Stringers of Wimbledon.

We believe that open communication with our customers is vital to our success. We encourage feedback and want to hear from musicians what we can do to meet their needs. Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in demand for specialist strings, whether they are 12ft long or unvarnished – what we don’t stock we can make for you, all you need to do is send us a message via our contact form.

We have a global network of over 150 distributors, although we also sell direct to customers, getting your strings locally means that all import duties, local taxes and shipping costs have been taken care of, saving you a lot of paperwork and time!  We are currently working on this page, but in the meantime if you need help in your search send us a message with where you live and we will send you the details.