My blade & rubber journey (back) - thoughts and advice please.

Wrighty67 said:

Hi all

My first post here and hoping for some insight from those with more expertise please.

I am a returning player to the sport after having played seriously as a young man - I have had a few resurgences over the years but this one is the most committed. I am an offensive style player who is stronger on FH but reasonable on BH, fairly mobile and strong but getting older..

Currently I am playing around 6h / week and finding my feet again with my shots and technique - the equipment side however is all a bit different from my days with a Hans alser and Nittaku carbon soft.

I have three blades to try out and have tried a few rubbers so far - I like my rubber choices but am struggling with blades.

1. Primorac (wood) with FH: Hurricane 3 Neo 39 deg/2.15 and BH: Tibhar Evo MX-P - this seemed like a good all-round offensive start back blade.
2. Older Stiga (90's) all round classic WRB with FH: Hurricane 3 (non Neo) 41 deg/2.2 (Boosted) and BH: Rakza 9 max - this one was a second hand bargain I couldn't resist
3. DHS 301x with FH: Hurricane 3 41 as above and Rakza 9 as above swapped across. - this came highly recommended as a good match for Hurricane, and was also great value so I gave it a go.

I am in a bit of a quandary as, although the rubbers I have tested on the Primo and the 301x are similar, they are not the same and don't offer a real comparison - however without buying identical rubbers I am stuck with trying to get a similar setup in order to evaluate the blades without swapping the same rubbers across.

My thoughts so far are;

Primo - nice all round blade but lacking a little in feel and speed. Good weight and balance and nice feel to the handle.

Stiga - better feel and dwell than the Primo but a little slower (too slow?)

301x - I was a little underwhelmed by the slightly "flat" feeling of this blade, until I hit it hard - then it seems to come into it's own. It's easy to control and not too fast but the lack of feel was not quite what I expected - maybe needs more time to get used to.

Tonight I am going to try the Primo again against the 301x to try to narrow down what I like about the 5 ply vs the carbon layered blade and which suits my current game better.

So I am looking for any thoughts - do I stick to one of the existing blades (if so which one) or do I look for something with the feel of the Stiga but more speed and life - Clipper? Yasaka Ma Lin? OSP Virtuoso +

I'd love any input or thoughts.

Peter

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Lazer said:

The legacy rubbers are not what they used to be. try Yasaka Mark V instead it last longer and is a little cheaper.
If You can remove the rubber without damaging the head too much, those old Stigas are diamonds in disguise.

Cheers
L-zr

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Back in the day Mark V was also a bit fast for me. Hope the renovation goes well. Old rubber was brittle on Mellis blade but came off without damage with acetone and tlc. I also own a Cor du Buy blade.....anyone know wood composition of that one? There are no decals/stickers on it. Nice, but not like the Mellis. Hoping Alser will come good.

UpSideDownCarl said:

I can think of benefits to any of the 3 blades you are choosing between.

In the end, see which one makes you happiest. I love the way those old Stiga blades feel. That one may actually, in the end, allow you to swing harder so, cause your technique to improve faster even though it is more work to get a more powerful shot. Even if you used it for a few weeks or 1-2 months, and then revisited the idea of Primorac or 301, it may cause you to get more power from the two faster blades.

Thoughts on 301, if the 301 feels flat on touch and less impact and then feels alive on big impact, do you feel like it kicks into a different gear as well and gives you a more powerful shot on bigger impact? If so, and there is less projection of the ball on softer touch, that could translate into a great blade for short game and for power game as it sounds like it may have "gears."

In the end, whether you choose Primorac, Older Stiga or the 301, after you are using it for a few months, your technique will groove to it. So, the choice is less important than the training. But, it is likely that you will get the most bang for your technique if you spend a few months using the slower Old Stiga blade before switching to one of the faster options. And if you use the Old Stiga for a few months without switching around, it will start feeling like the normal speed so, when you switch up, those moderate speed blades will feel like a nice step up in speed since your technique and power of impact will have calibrated to the slower blade.

Hope this helps.

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Koicolin said:

Back in the day Mark V was also a bit fast for me. Hope the renovation goes well. Old rubber was brittle on Mellis blade but came off without damage with acetone and tlc. I also own a Cor du Buy blade.....anyone know wood composition of that one? There are no decals/stickers on it. Nice, but not like the Mellis. Hoping Alser will come good.

Click to expand...

Wrighty67 said:

Hi all

My first post here and hoping for some insight from those with more expertise please.

I am a returning player to the sport after having played seriously as a young man - I have had a few resurgences over the years but this one is the most committed. I am an offensive style player who is stronger on FH but reasonable on BH, fairly mobile and strong but getting older..

Currently I am playing around 6h / week and finding my feet again with my shots and technique - the equipment side however is all a bit different from my days with a Hans alser and Nittaku carbon soft.

I have three blades to try out and have tried a few rubbers so far - I like my rubber choices but am struggling with blades.

1. Primorac (wood) with FH: Hurricane 3 Neo 39 deg/2.15 and BH: Tibhar Evo MX-P - this seemed like a good all-round offensive start back blade.
2. Older Stiga (90's) all round classic WRB with FH: Hurricane 3 (non Neo) 41 deg/2.2 (Boosted) and BH: Rakza 9 max - this one was a second hand bargain I couldn't resist
3. DHS 301x with FH: Hurricane 3 41 as above and Rakza 9 as above swapped across. - this came highly recommended as a good match for Hurricane, and was also great value so I gave it a go.

I am in a bit of a quandary as, although the rubbers I have tested on the Primo and the 301x are similar, they are not the same and don't offer a real comparison - however without buying identical rubbers I am stuck with trying to get a similar setup in order to evaluate the blades without swapping the same rubbers across.

My thoughts so far are;

Primo - nice all round blade but lacking a little in feel and speed. Good weight and balance and nice feel to the handle.

Stiga - better feel and dwell than the Primo but a little slower (too slow?)

301x - I was a little underwhelmed by the slightly "flat" feeling of this blade, until I hit it hard - then it seems to come into it's own. It's easy to control and not too fast but the lack of feel was not quite what I expected - maybe needs more time to get used to.

Tonight I am going to try the Primo again against the 301x to try to narrow down what I like about the 5 ply vs the carbon layered blade and which suits my current game better.

So I am looking for any thoughts - do I stick to one of the existing blades (if so which one) or do I look for something with the feel of the Stiga but more speed and life - Clipper? Yasaka Ma Lin? OSP Virtuoso +

I'd love any input or thoughts.

Peter

Click to expand...

JeffM said:

Hi Carl, not sure if it is just me, but I cannot actually see the OP's first post. Your reply shows up as the first post on this thread.

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That is interesting. When I look, my post is listed as post #1 of the thread. But Wrighty's post appears before mine. It does not show me that it has been deleted or anything like that. I believe it is a glitch in this "new" (not so new anymore) website. I responded to Wrighty's post while he was caught in the spam filter that tries to identify possible suspect users. Often it puts normal TTD members there because of an IP address they use while on their cell phone or using internet at a public place. When people are caught by the spam filter, the post they made when it freezes the account makes their posts not visible to ordinary members. But when I unfreeze them, it should make their posts appear to everybody. Somehow, it seems it did not work that way with this thread even though I unfroze Wrighty.

Anyway, I made it so that you should now at least see a quote of his post in my comment. And I quoted his first post in this reply as well. So, at least people can see the text I was responding to.

Gozo said:

Mark V = fast?

I recalled bringing new shinny unused Mark V on my 5 ply wood to my first / second coaching class and my coach was like WTF! They still manufacture this? Wow! Can I have it as part of my museum collection? < end of lame joke >

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Wrighty67 said:

I had noticed that too Carl. At least I know why my post wasn’t visible initially now. I may have inadvertently done something to it during that invisible,period while trying to edit / work out why it wasn’t appearing, so it may be related to user error…

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Well, whatever the reason for it not appearing to anyone but me, I am glad I was able to make it visible to people by quoting your initial post. Usually when a post is deleted, the thread is closed. So, it seems like a weird glitch from the site no matter what. Usually when I can see a post but nobody else can, it is marked as a post that has been deleted though. And this one is not marked as having been deleted. All good in the end though if we can get people to see what you were asking.

[Edit: I should say, if the first post of a thread is deleted, usually, the thread is closed.]