OSP Virtuoso +

JulienB said:

Very nice review, detailed and elaborate. But, every blade/rubber has his weaknesses. Which are negative points on the Virtuoso + ?

Maybe it could be my next blade; a loop (spin-based) blade with lots of feeling, decent control and a step up from my OFF- blade now.

Click to expand...

Some people who don't like it say it is too soft. I asked for it to be, basically, as heavy as possible: I have the small head (150mm x 157mm) and it is over 90 grams which is what they list as the heaviest weight. That is perfect for me, especially since the handle is NOT hollow so it is NOT head heavy which I also like.

It is center balanced. Not too much weight in the handle. Not too much weight in the head. So some people will like that and others will not. Like Der_Echte will want more weight in the handle and someone else will want more weight in the head. But for me it is perfect. [emoji2]

And one person told me he didn't like it because it freaked him out how he could feel exactly where the ball was on the blade face when he hit. That also is not a downside to me. But..... Hahaha.

A lot of people will complain it is too slow, I definitely don't think so. But those people who want Sardius or Schlager Carbon speed will. Someone who is used to a TB ALC will notice it is a bit slower but, if that is not a concern, they will adjust to it.

For me it is more than fast enough even though my technique is good enough to handle a Schlager Carbon. [emoji2]

I just like the all wood, moderate speed thing and generating my own power.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JulienB said:

Hmmm I may like this blade. The slower speed is no problem since my current blade is even slower.

Click to expand...

Hahaha. It really is not too slow. Faster than Stiga Offensive Classic. More gears. High speeds with big swing from mid-distance I get about as much speed as my Clipper (same weight) but less speed than with my old Clipper (95 grams) and almost as much as my TB ZLF but in the lower gears the TB ZLF is much faster.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, one more positive. For a long time I have felt that Butterfly blades are the most solid I have seen. You bang the side on the edge of the table by accident while serving and they seem to sustain the least damage.

Somehow this one seems indestructible. My Virtuoso (OFF-) and my V'King are both solid and about the same in terms of sustaining blows as a Butterfly blade.

But this V+ is a tank. It may be because they made the small head with the highest weight. But I have slammed it into the edge of the table a couple of times and it barely got scratched. I was actually amazed by how solid it is. I have never seen a blade as strong as this one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sure. My friend who has the Rosewood XO that I have used many many times, when I got him to try the Virtuoso + said: "oh, it feels a lot like my Rosewood!"

That isn't exactly true. But they have a few similarities. The R-XO has a smaller head. It is several grams lighter but if I got a lighter V+ they would be closer to the same weight but probably not feel as similar. I requested the weight of my blade and they gave me exactly what I asked for. The R-XO has a hollow handle as do all Stiga blades so there is still a bit more of head balance to it even with the smaller head. If you had a V+ at 87 grams it would feel the same weight as an 85 gram R-XO because of the V+'s solid handle.

The R-XO has a harder top ply. But it still has a nice, big, crunch feeling. The R-XO has NCT which is a thick layer of lacquer on the blade face. That makes the surface have that harder feel. It also makes it harder to keep the rubbers on. For the first year my friend had his R-XO he kept needing to reglue the rubbers because they would just start to come off.

The NCT gives it this hard feel, but a hard feel that is kind of cool. Almost like the hard outside and soft with a crisp crunch underneath of a TB ALC. but the R-XO has much more wood feel than TB ALC; almost as much wood feeling as V+.

There is less dwell but the R-XO gets almost as much spin because it really grabs the ball. R-XO is similar speed. But it is much more delicate.

And the OSP handles are second to NONE. The shape of the flair is almost exactly the same as the Stiga Master Flare. But this handle has been sanded and finished to perfection so it does not have the rough and unfinished feeling of the Stiga handles. Also, the OSP handles are ALL WOOD and the quality of the wood in the handle is way better than on Stiga or Butterfly handles. The label is also wood. When I first saw that, I didn't like the idea. All the modern blades I have had all had a label of some kind (plastic or metal). I never would have realized how much better it feels in your hand to have the label be made of wood. I only use flared handles so I don't really know about their other handle shapes but my money says they are equally as good. But one more really cool feature: if there is a specific handle size/shape you want, OSP WILL CUSTOM MAKE THE HANDLE TO YOUR SPECIFICATIONS for a nominal feel.

Every blade I have ordered from them, including the one that is a 100% custom blade--where they actually laminated the plies I asked for--I have had them custom the head size and shape and select wood that would make the blade the specific weight I wanted.

When you order from them, they make the blade after you order it!!!!!!!! Think about it......

To get that service, I have emailed them before each purchase and asked them if they could do what I wanted. The answer was always to just put the info I wanted in the "additional information" field on the web-site's order form. I believe it is right under shipping instructions.

One time I forgot to do that and emailed them that I forgot to do it and what the custom details were and they got back to me and told me they added the custom details to my order. It is nice to be able to talk to a real human when you are ordering and to be able to custom a blade to your specs.

One thing that people should know about OSP blades. For the first day to a week, the blades feel weird and like they are hyper reactive. Almost like a trampoline. Then they break in after you hit with them. My Virtuoso took a week to calm down and break in. My V'King took 2 days of play. The custom blade took 30 min of hitting and my V+ took one day's play. The next day when I played with it it had calmed down. But, the big plus side of this is that they break in. Week by week the feeling and playing characteristics seem to improve.

I think the reason OSP blades need that break in time is because they were actually made after you ordered. Blades that come from the big factory, major companies, have usually been sitting on the shelf, sometimes for years, before you buy them.

Anyway, R-XO harder, but good crunch, same amount of crunch but the crunch feels a little different; not as much dwell time but almost as much spin anyway because of how much it bites into the ball. Lighter but not as well balanced for my liking. And I am a heavy blade guy anyway. Hahaha.

Both are excellent. The V+ is also SOOOOOO much more durable.


Sent from my SpyPhone using WoodBladeTalk

I realize, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words:

UpSideDownCarl said:

My main blade: OSP Virtuoso +. If you read my later posts you will know I name my blades and a few are named for magic wands from the Harry Potter series. This blade is "Holly with Phoenix Feather!"

Click to expand...

The name of the blade for those of you who didn't know: In the Harry Potter series, when he finds out he is a wizard he goes to get a magic wand. In the process the wand maker tells him, "the wand chooses the wizard". In the last book, his wand breaks. He uses another wand which just doesn't work for him. Then he wins a wand from someone else and the wand transfers its allegiance to him. That one works okay but it is not his original wand. There is this lore that there is one wand that is unbeatable, the most powerful wand in history. The wizard who has that wand and has its allegiance cannot be defeated. At the very end Harry gets this wand called by these three names: The Elder Wand (that is the wood it is made of), The Wand of Destiny or The Death Stick.

He wins the unbeatable wand, and after defeating the most powerful and most evil wizard in history he chooses to use it to fix his own wand (made of Holly and Phoenix Feather) and gives the Wand of Destiny up. His Holly and Phoenix Feather wand was perfect for him even though it wasn't as powerful as the other wand.

So my Virtuoso + is called Holly and Phoenix Feather. hahahaha.