First custom bat advice

There are a few very well known allround blades that you could start with. Generally i think your ideas do make sense already. I don't know about defensive rubbers so others might chime in if something like short pimples and the like would make sense there.

Good alround blades that dont break the bank and enable you to stay inside your budget are:

120 pound equals 142,39 € so i will give me estimates in what currency i am accustomed with.

Donic Appelgren Allplay (30€)
or if you wanna go a little bit faster but still very controllable "Yasaka Sweden Extra" (36€)
This leaves at least 105€ for rubbers.
If you wanna go funky with special material like pimples, then others will be able to chime in. If you want a regular controllable rubber for the backhand i would advise to probably use the same rubber type on fore- and backhand just with different sponge hardness. I'd use 45° (esn scale) on the forehand, so something like the Andro Rasanter R45 and the R42 on the backhand.

Another combination i could think of is something like a Tibhar Aurus Select on forehand and Tibhar Aurus Soft on Backhand.
Try to stay in the 1.7mm - 1.9mm sponge thickness range if possible to have the most control.

Tobeeornot said:

Hi all,

I'm new here and hope I'm posting in the right spot.

I'm an intermediate player looking to put together my first customer bat after using a Palio 2 Legend of the last few years. I've been overwhelmed by the amount of choice with respect to blades, rubbers and sponges and would like to make an informed choice about constructing a bat that suits my style.

I would describe my style as follows: an offensive forehand that also like spin and good control; a defensive backhand that likes to chop and negate spin with high control.

My budget is circa £120. I have been warned not to go for extremely fast rubber or blade as I won't have the control to keep it on the table.

I am thinking then an allround bat with an offensive and defensive rubber.

My friend uses DH 360 rubbers on both sides but his game is different to mine in that he is more defensive and tricky, whereas I like to attack and smash when the opportunity presents.

Many thanks in advance!

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I have used the Expert, which has a all blade with cj8000 (slow soft and tacky). I am not sure how much faster the legend blade is with the Hadou. Nevertheless, this is my recommendation.

You can either bite the bullet for an inner or outer carbon, but if you want to play it safe, I would recommend a 7ply wood blade like Sanwei fextra or V5 Pro. Great dwell but with more top speed when you want it. Since you play with Hadou and want rubbers that have spin and good control, consider other hybrids like Sanwei Target National, Yinhe Big dipper or Jupiter, etc. I like STN, but be aware that it is sort of heavy.

You said you like to chop and "negate spin with high control" on the backhand. This sounds like you want to be a pips chopper or pips blocker. (There are actually a couple double inverted choppers, but it is quite rare.) So maybe you want to try a long pips with thin sponge like Palio CK531A.