Beginner penhold racket

Hello. I'm a recreational/hobby player that is currently using a Stiga Trick to play Chinese penhold. It feels okay but I imagine it could be better to use a racket made for that particular grip. I'd like to buy a pre-assembled racket and not spend too ''much'' money. I've searched all of the retailers in Finland to no avail. There's only one place that sells just blades with the penhold possibility rather than pre-assembled rackets, so that isn't an option. After reading about fakes and cheap knock-offs I'm kind of lost as to where to actually buy a penhold racket.

Since I am still a new member I cannot post any links, but the only seemingly okay racket I've found in my price range is the 4006C on tabletennis11. It's listed at 31,90€. When I checked for it on the DHS website, I could only find a ''R4006C'' that has a blue handle instead of a red one. Are they two different bats or is the one on tabletennis11 some kind of a fake? Maybe its just that they've had two different color options and tabletennis11 just has one of those colors. Maybe somebody knows better?

Any advice on finding a penhold bat in the 20-40€ price range would be nice and whether or not the 4006C would be good at all anyway. I don't mind using some time to get used to the new bat in case its a bit hard to control for a beginner.

tutas_piotr said:

Hi. Instead of searching for pre-made bat search for the store that will asseble it for you from the blade and rubbers you want.

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Well as I said, I'd like to stick to a certain price range. At least on the Finnish sites what I've looked at, the cheapest penhold blade is like 35€. So you add that up with two rubbers and from what I've seen I'd have to pay around 20-30€ for a single piece of rubber. So in the best case scenario I'd spend 75€ on the racket alone. Then however much the assembly cost is on top of that. The site that sells penhold blades doesn't even offer assembling, another site does but they don't offer penhold blades. That is Finnish sites that I am talking about.

Mimobrok said:

My friend and I were joking about getting a cheap quality penhold setup as a joke, so we found this.

You might be interested.

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It looks interesting for sure. But is it supposed to say KTL on the top? On revspin it reads ''LKT'' on the top instead.

tutas_piotr said:

Well I bought mine for ~44 dollars from alliexpress with free shipping (although i didn't ask the seller for assembling as I wanted to do it myself). I chose cheap but not the cheapest option so I guess 35$ might still be doable.

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Can you link me to the seller if you still remember them? I am somewhat wary of the Chinese sites though.

Mimobrok said:

I don't know if it's lkt or ktl.
Chinese brands rename their brand a lot.

I've ordered from that shop before though and item is as expected. (And if you don't get your item you can get your money back from aliexpress)

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Ah that does sound good. Its just on revspin its listed like ''KTL (LKT)'' and then it reads ''LKT'' but I'd guess its legit. Its probably the more expensive rackets that get faked. So if the items have been good when you've received them, have they lasted as well?

tutas_piotr said:

Well on allie if you don't get your stuff you get full refund as allie takes the money and give it to seller AFTER you receive the item.
The store that i bought my things from is named Playa PingPong Store. However as I said i didnt ask the store to assemble it. So maybe the good option from you is to search from the custom-rackets offered already as assembled by seller .This way you may avoid the issue of getting them not assembled. Selling thousands of chinese products may couse the seller to forget that one guy wanted assembled stuff.

edit:
MAYBE this https://pl.aliexpress.com/item/Free...4a75-46b6-b7ae-910cec73218e&priceBeautifyAB=0 ?
Unfortunetely blade is thick.

Oh I see that collegue proposed the same thing some posts ago.

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I'm just wary about Chinese stuff due to the fakes, not really whether or not I receive the item. That's the same one Mimobrok suggest, it looks decent. What's wrong with the blade thickness though? I probably wouldn't feel the difference anyway since its probably a few millimeters.

watcher said:

the quality control of DHS premades are pretty suspect. i had a lot of chinese coworkers in my prior employment, and I've seen many of them not last very long. The neck tends to be the weakest point, and you will also see the rubber bubble up pretty fast if you like to smash the ball often. there are some people who have been able to use it past a year, but I've found it's not very long lasting in general. if you don't mind a refresh every 1~2 years, you could go with the DHS premade. otherwise, i'd recommend putting a bit more money and buying a setup that could last longer, assuming you are willing to swap rubbers when time comes.

as a cheap setup, i took a look at the tt11 site, and found yasaka sweden classic penhold and lkt rapid speed + nittaku micro on sale. that setup will cost ~45 Euro, and is a pretty decent setup. I'd personally recommend the lkt on both sides, but maybe the micro might feel/play more nicely for you. Just throwing out a suggestion in case this sounds more appealing. either way, best wishes and have fun!

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Hey thanks for the suggestion! I'll take a look at that. I don't mind assembling my own racket if it doesn't take too much money. If I happen to get a cheap penhold bat and it lasts me for like a year I'd probably invest into a better quality one then, since I'd be sure of playing for longer at that point.

Edit: Apparently tabletennis11 does free racket assembly, I think I've found my place.

tutas_piotr said:

And for LKT and KTL... Both version are used by that company. The same way as 729 company uses RITC or Friendship... The same goes for Galaxy/Milkyway/Yinhe.

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Alright, thanks for the clarification. I'm still new to this stuff.

tutas_piotr said:

Me too. I was just in very similar situation 2 months ago.

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Yeah, I think I'll put a bit of extra money into the racket. I'll probably buy it from TT11. Even if I'll play just as a hobby I won't mind using the money for a longer lasting racket.

tutas_piotr said:

Buy 729 z1/a1/c3 blade and 2x yellow ak47 rubber from allie and you will probably end up happy. Both 729 blades and new versions of palio ak47 rubbers have good opinions and probably will serve you long (see what i did here... serve you long hehe... ye i know. not funny).

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I'll still probably order from TT11 since they are located in Estonia, so closer to me. Would mean less delivery time.