Had some time today to try out the Scallops. The bow to be tested was my 56" Java Man Elkheart.
I currently have a 12 strand Rhino skinny string on it from LRU. The string had a single pair of Allen's smaller size rubber cat whiskers on it at the 1/4 points.
As tuned with that string, at 9.6 gpp, the bow was exactly how I like a bow to be sound-wise...nice low tone and 'd@mn quiet' LOL.
I shot my bow as-is for a bit to establish a 'baseline", then I cut the rubber whiskers off...
First off, it was wild that the rubber from the whiskers weighed more than the whole bag of four pairs of Scallops!! These things are seriously light weight. Again, four pairs of Scallops including the bag they came in was lighter than the rubber I cut off my string.
They are not as large as I thought they would be in person. I immediately mused that using two pairs on one bow would certainly be an option if necessary. Chuck mentioned making mini-Scallops at a later date. Without having yet installed them I questioned whether that would even be necessary.
Yup, they were indeed a piece of cake to install. They definitely appear to be far more durable than plain wool puffs, no doubt about it.
I played with various locations on the string with one pair, shot the bow, played some more, shot the bow, messed with BH a little, shot the bow. I tried "heterodyning" placing one pair at offset locations as well as same location.
With one pair I found the bow to be about as quiet as the rubber whiskers, however the pitch had definitely gotten higher and as I suspected, I definitely picked up some speed as my arrows were hitting higher than usual.
At this point I had no problem with the sound volume, but I definitely wanted back the lower note that the rubber had.
I proceeded to install a second pair of Scallops. Then played some more.
My final and most pleasing result which mimiced the tone of the pair of rubber whiskers most closely was two pairs of Scallops at 12" and 17" from each limb tip on my 56" Elkheart and my brace height at 7 7/8", 1/8" higher than it was with the rubber.
This is very interesting, because with this setup the bow obviously picked up speed vs the rubber...honesty, how could it not with as much as the rubber weighed.
I would say that the double Scallop setup is a win. I'm very pleased.
Please take note that YOUR mileage will likely vary per bow model/design and your ears of course
PS: It is SO SO easy to move them back and forth for tuning!