Hello All!
I'm happy to share my early experience of this blade. To clarify I have only done two sessions with this blade, so I won't tell you many things now, but I will update, my review.
First impressions
My blade came in a nice box, which is solid in design and quite minimalistic. I can see the Spruce Pressing Technology (=SPT) emblem and made in Germany tag on the gray paper box. Inside there was my blade with flared handle, it can be pulled out like a drawer. The design is simple, not very fancy, like top Butterfly blades. The blade itself is 89,64 gramms. I found that the edges of the blade had to be sandpapered, because there were some rough spots on the edge of the top veener. Other aspects were fine. The handle (FL) is very comfortable, it is a smaller handle, which is becoming popular nowdays, but fits my hand perfectly. To be honest this handle is not a simple flared handle, it is conic also. So it starts flat with a 2mm bump to grab with your thumb, than comes thicker and rounder with each mm to the end of the handle. The end of the handle is nearly round, a very bit oval, when I swithed back to Liu Shiwen FL blade I felt especially with my pinky that this hadle is flat, and my pinky has no or less grip. So overall as many forum states, this blade has a very thin and comfortable handle, which absolutely makes you forget that this blade is almost 7 mm thick.
Assembly
I have read, that this blade requires medium-hard to hard rubbers. So I trided it with Donic Bluefire M2 on both side. the blade feels a little head heavy, my rubbers were boosted with oil, so they were actually at the same weight like a Tenergy 05 or an MX-P. This head heavyness is not that severe like a Donic Senso handle blade has. It is similar to a Butterfly head heavyness for example MJ SZLC with T5&T80. Yet, when swinging it feels perfectly balanced and transfers enough power for an attacker. When just bouncing the ball on the blade only the 1 cm edge of the blade feels a bit off centre, the rest is pure sweet spot. To be honest this blade works better with the plastc balls, but celluloid balls are fine too, but I will discuss it further on.
Let's play
I used a limba top weener looping blade before with the same rubber sheets and when warmig up I just hit my balls into the net. then I realised what I read on other forums and from the manufacturer, tha blade has a soft touch, like hinoki blades. Well it does, I had to give a slightly bigger swing to my hits and they were where I wanted them to be. then came the loop. Only when I have a brand new sheet of rubber I feel the same... I have time to touch. Actually playing agains a chopper was very easy, the lifting of the ball was very nice, and easy. When counterlooping came in I hit many rolling balls. Well on my other blade I could not do that with M2, on this blade I could. And the sound... just like back in the previous speed glue age, every hit every loop, your blade tells and dares you to hit one more stronger and louder. In short game the blade plays like an ALL blade, because of the soft touch. After five minutes I was total aware where I hit the ball, and no matter what it will land on the table. My previous blade which is a characteristic OFF- blade had one range of speed, this blade has one from ALL+-to OFF. I had to get used to this, because some flat hits require a quite clean stroke, but loops require no effort and knowledge with this blade. Simply the feeling is built in the blade. When playing with plastic this ALL+ characteristic of the blade changes to an OFF-- and flat hits become a bit more similar which I was used to with my previous blade. Blocking and dropsots are quite good, the blade can absorb speed quite efficiently.
Feelings
The sound of this blade is perfect, anyone who wants to relive the previous era of table tennis, get this blade. the control and feeling of the blade is very good, the touch is soft, the blade is firm, very faint woody vibrations, very good feedback of the ball, speed is very dinamycal. It feels like MJ SZLC but a little bit number with the feedback, you can feel the ball clearly, but the vibration is on lower frequency in the blade giving you a very delicate feel. For this price this blade is a nobrainer deal. From agressive allrouners through controlling offensive to full out offensive attackers this blade can suit anyone.
Just like the name giver of this blade = instrument, you can be an aggressive Mozart on the court.
Product information
