Stiga Carbonado 145

I have been using this blade for almost two years, and I have enjoyed it very much. It is very quick and it has a very large sweet spot due to the TeXtreme carbon. I could be off with my stroke, but the blade still manages to get the ball back over. The handle is a bit chunkier than most blade handles, but I got used to it fairly quickly.

I changed my VISCARIA blade to CARBONADO 145, it give me more sensitivity in my forehand spin and my backhand block, it's very good for control and speed with heavy spin, I think it will be future blad but I hope more durability

The weight of my carbonado 145 is 98gr. from [h=3]schoeler-micke.tabletennis-shop.de[/h]

Well balanced blade. You can really feel that huge sweet spot, it's really not a marketing trick and it helps to place more balls on the table. Also why I like it more than all ALC blades - because of the feedback/feeling, you can feel blade better.

Some comparisons with popular Butterfly blades:
Zhang Jike Super ZLC (also huge sweet spot blade): Carbonado gives more feedback to your hand and price is 2x less.
Viscaria: Carbonado gives more feedback to your hand and has bigger sweet spot. If someone using viscaria is thinking about upgrade - I would suggest Carbonado 145. Speed is a little bit slower than Viscaria (just a tiny bit), but better control (you'll really feel it).

Actually I really like Carbonado very much, but there's one bad thing - Stiga quality.. It's full of forums, also I experienced this myself and few of my training partners - outer layer starts to recoil after some time, some wood chips comes off, some coloring on handle logo goes off.. And it's only after using the blade for 1 year. This almost never happens with Butterfly blades. This is the reason why I'm thinking to switch to Butterfly blades - durability. I hope Stiga reads this and tries to fix those quality issues in some time, because technology-wise their blades plays really good.

The carbonado 145 was a blade I used for a good 3-4 months. The blade was very stable, and the best way I can describe the blade would be that it was one of the best viscaria's I ever owned. The blade played extremely similar to the viscaria and timo boll spirit, however it had a much better feeling. It had more vibration and a larger sweet spot. You really can't beat the quality of wood that you get from stiga.

The blade had the most strength at mid range looping but didn't lack at the short or long game. There's plenty of power and I would much rather go back to this blade than any other carbon blade in it's class. It has a limba outer ply and that could be the cause of the better feeling.

The only issues I had with the blade was the need to sand the wings of the blade (which is very common with all stiga blades), the price for what you're getting, and the lack of wow factor. When I say it has a lack of wow factor what this means is the blade was just too boring. It was well balanced and played well but I couldn't tell anyone yea its really good in this aspect. Because it simply wasn't really great in any area of the game. It was good in all areas, but it made the game kind of boring.

This blade is really a very good blade !
The outer limba gives a wonderful feel, huge dwell time for such a fast blade, allows very spiny shots, and makes this blade very controlable in the short game and blocks.
But, I did not appreciate its low throw, especially for my forehand.
It's also very fast, too fast for me.

I have been using it for 2 months. Acuda blue p2 on fh, airoc astro m on bh. Speed is enough to finish the point from both close and mid distance. Away from the table, spin to spin rallies are easy.
Its not too stiff and not too much flexible. Feeling is what I want. Blocks are easy due to its feeling.
I play topspin very much and carbonado is suitable for topspins and also for shots.

I have been using this blade for 2 months now, with H3 neo on forehand and Tenergy 05 on backhand. I like the speed of this blade, as comparing to a wood blade, this carbon blade delivers speed and power. With a fast backhand rubber, it can be difficult to get the ball to stay on the table at the beginning, but after a while, it can be adjusted. The forehand was not hard to adjust from a wood blade, and the increase in speed and power is easily noticeable. The downside I feel with this blade is the reduction in the dwell time when compared to a wood blade. Also, I find this blade to be a bit pricey.

Bought this blade as a replacement to the Ebenholz NCT 5 which wasn't doing it for me. This blade is streets ahead is just what I was looking for: huge sweetspot; nice touch possible in the short game; fast when needed; very STABLE (like an old friend!).

You'll hear in the Table tennis daily video review about stability and sweet spot. Believe the hype. Only now realise what was missing from my game. Everything goes on the table. Does what you want.

Stiff but not overly so...loads of dwell time; ball doesn't just jump off the rubber. Looping is fantastic near and far way from the table.

Pricey but well worth the money! Well done Stiga.

Andro Rasant Grip on FH, and Yasaka Rakza 7 on BH.

Stiga Carbonado 145 Review!



Carbonado 145
Head Size: 150 x 156mm
Thickness: 5.8 - 5.9mm
Weight: 88 grams
Handle: Straight
Hardness: Medium Stiff

Rubbers used: Calibra LT Sound max, LT Spin and Hurricane 3



Finally, after months of anticipation and excitement the Carbonado 145 arrived at my door step. I wish I could have gotten this baby much, much earlier but then due to large volumes of orders I had to wait for a while. Stiga informed me that these 2 Carbonado blades are a result of a 3 year research and development using the high tech material Textreme. Textreme is a high tech carbon fiber used in making lightweight bikes, parts of a formula car and this is even used in Prince tennis rackets. Textreme boasts of a thinner carbon fiber layer compared to a traditional weaved carbon layer that is used mostly on conventional carbon blades in the market today.

The Carbonado 145 blade comes with a a very good finish on the blade surfaces. Unknown to many people, Stiga has been improving the quality finish of their blades. The blade comes with a metal tag which gives a much more better quality finish. Gone are the thick NCT coating on the blade surface. What remains now is a much thinner and barely noticeable coating on the surface. Before, you could see an obvious dividing line that separates the NCT coating between the blade head and the neck of the blade part.

Before everything else, I would like to point out that the 2 Carbonado blades 145 and 190 have only slight differences in that they have the same construction and wood veneers (Limba-Textreme Carbon-Ayous-Ayous Core-Ayous-Textreme Carbon-Limba). Also, the orientation of their carbon weave is their distinguishing mark. The 145 having a slanted or diagonal orientation and the 190 which has perpendicular orientation. The 2 ayous layers before and after the central ayous core are a bit hard to see at first unless you look at them closely. The Textreme carbon layers are very thin. In fact much thinner than most carbon layers of other blades presently in the market.



Speed

The Carbonado 145 blade is not blazingly fast. I would rate it as Off to Off+ but more on the OFF side. In comparison to other Stiga blades, The Stiga Intensity Carbon is much faster. On other brands, the Carbonado blades at time can be faster than a TB ALC or at the same level of a primorac carbon at time. The Super MJ ZLC is much faster than the 2 Carbonados.

Feel

I thought the blade is very stiff but only mildly stiff. The 145 only felt a notch harder than a regular ZJK ZLC blade but feels more solid. It has this different carbon feel because every time you strike the ball with the Carbonados, the feel of being woody and carbon like alternates in my hand. It is a good thing actually because the 2 blades offer good feed back. The vibrations are minimal compared to the intensity carbon. Also, unlike conventional carbon blades, it doesn't feel that hard and ball feedback is slightly enhanced maybe due to the textreme carbon layers that are very thin.

Throw

Tried using both soft rubbers (LT Sound) and medium rubbers (LT SPIN) on the Carbonado 145 blade. In a way Stiga was right in claiming that the 145 has a higher throw but personally I would rate this 2 blades as having low throw heights but with the Carbonado 145 having a higher throw. The 190 has about 2-3 inches ball height from the net when doing spin drives or loops. The Carbonado 145 has about 3-4 inches of ball height using the same strokes and rubbers.

On close to the table attacks

The Carbonado 190 has this low, sharp trajectory when doing smashes and spin drives. Close to the table, the Carbonado 190 is much better than the 145. When you attack with loops you need a bit of adjustment for your ball arc especially when taking the ball on-the-rise against underspin. It takes a bit of practice, but when you get the hang of it you can adjust to it easily. When you use attacks on the ball that use more sponge compression and care for speed more than the spin then the 190 is much better.

On mid distance/far from the table

The 145 version easily outshines the 190 despite both having long trajectories, the 145 has a slightly higher arc when countering or spinning the ball mid distance. Through this slightly higher arc, the 145 is more forgiving than the 190 and offers more room for error on that distance.

Other strokes

Depending on the distance both blades are very good at blocking but the 145 blocks better at mid distance and the 190 close to the table. I have to say that both blades have high levels of control and are much user-friendly compared to other super-fast blades in the market. On short strokes, both are not that bouncy on drop shots and flicks but I would give the 190 as a better blade in doing drop shots because of its slightly lower arc than the 145.



My Personal Choice

I was more impressed with the 145 in comparison to the Carbonado 190. The arc was slightly better when I used a Hurricane 3 on the blade. The combination proved to be very good and balanced - the 145's speed + the H3's spin and control. The 190 was a better blade with a Chinese rubber on the forehand but I felt that the 145 is much better. I will not be surprised if people who wanted an alternative to composite blades and are looking for something with a different blade will get the 2 Carbonados while using an H3 or Globe 999 National.

Overall, I am greatly impressed by the Carbonados with much more partiality on the 145 version. I think that the trend of making a faster blade every time a new season for blades arrive is over. With all the very fast rubbers in the market right now you will not worry much about speed but rather on the feel and control of the blade. The speed itself can be partially compensated by the rubber you use. The Carbonado 145 blade is user friendly even to those players who are on their intermediate levels.

So first of all, the 145 blade feels really good in the hand. I think the STIGA way of using a bit of roughness on the handle is a good thing at least for me, I feel the use of an over grip unnecessary.

I really like the metal logo under the blade, that you also can find on the Emerald VPS V and the rest of the new models from STIGA, it looks very professional and high quality.

The 145 blade felt really controlled when counter driving with a wider trajectory then the 190. It has some big sweet spot and I love the touch in this blades.

I felt really stable in my topspin loop away from the table, the blade got high trajectory which gives the blade really good control. This blade will suit you perfect if you like a to play a safe game style from behind.

My block felt also really stabile with this blade, I could really control my opponent and keep a great pressure, no problems playing straight and the pressure and speed I got when I was placed over the table and applying pressure on the ball was incredible. I played a only backhand-backhand match with my opponent and I played very good with this blade.

Short play and serve: The blade got good control in the short game. And this blade is a great choice if you like playing hard underspins and a lot of flicks over the table. I really like the contact I got in my serves and I could easily get the serve short and low over the net.

My experience overall:

I found this suitable for an all around based game and I think this blade is optimized for medium to far distance shooting.

I would recommend medium rubbers on it. I really like the combination between Tenergy 05 and this blade, but I would still recommend medium rubbers for this blade even thought Tenergy 05 is pretty hard. This blade is for offensive players who still prefer much control, I think it suits the most offensive all round players.

Coming from my current setup W997 with H3 PROV NEO and T64 I decided to keep my H3 NEO on FH and try T05 on the BH side. The following impressions are after 8 hours of training during this week.

Counter drive: When counter driving I had to adjust a bit coming from my previous setup where the trajectory of the ball were lower. After some minutes the balls were hitting the table again. One thing I noticed from the 145 Carbonado blade was the feedback was greater than the W997 and Viscaria FL. This is a big “like” for me.

Loop: I did not need any larger adjustments when looping with the Carbonado 145 from the FH. Here I noticed the blade had a tremendous dwell allowing one to “hold” the ball to create deadly spinny loops even though the blade is fast. The consistency was high due to the large sweet spot which the Textreme carbon gives. BH with T05 is a great combination where ball has a medium arc. When trying to brush the ball as much as I could the spin phenomenal which gave my partner difficulties blocking the ball. I did not put a lot of effort into the strokes but the spin was great. Blade flexes a bit more than the W997.

Block: In this aspect of the game the Carbonado 145 is very balanced between control and speed. Due to the Textreme carbon giving the blade a large sweet spot and absorbs the energy from the ball I did not feel at any points that my blocks were out of control.

Short play: Is very easy with the 145. With the setup I used the ball did not bounce of the rubbers even T05 it was easy the keep the ball low to the net.

Flicks: Again due to the limba top ply and the rubber combination getting grip in to the ball did not feel too difficult even on heavy backspin serves.

Mid distance: Here the Carbonado 145 is very balanced playing balls in low/medium arc without putting a lot of effort in creating power. Again the sweet spot helps on the consistency getting balls on the table.

Conclusion: The Carbonado 145 is a blade in the range of OFF. I will recommend this blade to players who plays close to mid distance from the table. It is minded for an all-round game where spin and speed is very balanced. The blade is special due its new fiber technology giving the blade a characteristic feel which is positive. Also the blade is stiff due to the Textreme layers, but still it has a lot of dwell. In a comparison of Viscaria FL this blade is a tad slower, has more dwell and a whole lot more feel when playing. I have decided to switch to the Carbonado 145 as my main blade.

Managed to try Dans blade when I was at practise the other day for half an hour, and I was blown away by the amount of control this blade has without compromising on speed. I normally use a Timo Boll ALC and I thought it was the perfect blade for me but the Carbonado 145 actually surpasses it. It has a similar amount of speed but the control is better and it has a huge sweet spot and wherever I hit the ball on the blade I got a really nice connection. The price is potentially the only thing stopping me from getting this blade as it is so expensive but the quality could be said to make up for the price.

I had the fantastic opportunity to review STIGA's latest blade the Carbonado 145 with Fan Zhendong. The video looks at various techniques and a range of shots used in today's modern game of table tennis and also which types of players this carbon blade could well be suited to.

I personally prefer this blade the 145 to the 190 as my game play is more all round and I need a bit more safety and arc in my shots.