Blade upgrade

[Czarny]

Hi everyone!

I've recently turned 20 and my father offered to buy me a new blade, as I've been playing with my current one for 5 years now and maybe it's a good time to make a small upgrade in quality.
My current setup:
Blade - Donic Persson Power Allround
FH: Nittaku Fastarc G-1
BH: Raksa 7

I'm not a person who likes to change the equipment very often, especially the blade, that's why I want to make an informed decision. I must say I am quite unfamiliar with the blade market and I am not sure if it is the right moment to switch from a 5ply all wood blade to a 7ply all wood or even a carbon blade.
As for my style I would say I'm an attacking player who likes to work with spin on both sides, rather than speed, that's why I quite like the flexibility and control of my current blade. I am looking for something that will not completely alter my playing style, but will be an improvement for me in terms of quality and maybe I would appreciate tiny bit more speed as well, but nothing more than off- I think.
As for my level I've been playing table tennis recreationally for ~10 years, but only have been training in a club (3 times a week) for the last 1,5 years and currently playing my 2nd season in the lowest polish division (5th league).
As for my budget it is below 150$.

I would highly appreciate your suggestions, personally I was thinking about the Nittaku Acoustic or Timo Boll Spirit.

 

[WingTT]

I'm sure you have club mates with various types of blades you can ask to try out to see if they feel right to you. TBS will be a quite a huge difference to your current blade. A fancier 5 ply, perhaps something from OSP or an inner fiber that is claimed to be for those switching from all wood would probably be more suitable.

 

[Vamireh]

Gewo IN-FORCE PBO-PC

 

[Kolev]

I share absolutely the same opinion as post #2.
In my club we have some advancing teenagers who are using various5/7ply all woods and their shots are blazingly fast when they want to play quickly.
Acoustic is still considered by many as the Rolls Royce and BTW don't forget to take a look at the Andro offerings as well.
If I make a list of blades I like , it is going to be long and most of the members will have one like this as well

 

[jk1980]

The Acoustic is definitely a good upgrade but I would stick with the same rubbers first to get a feeling for the new setup before changing rubbers as well and ending up not knowing what contributes to the new feeling.

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[Shooter40]

Get this one


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[Short_Pimple]

If you like the feel of an All Wood Blade, there is absolutely no need to change to carbon.

To get a better performing allwood blade you could take a look at Butterfly Peter Korbel or Tibhar Stratus Power Wood. Both will be noticable faster but remain controlled and spinny. If you like Hand Build Blades with crazy good feeling go for the OSP Virtuoso or Virtuoso Plus.

Try it first with your known rubbers, there is also a lot of room to upgrade for more performance.

 

[Czarny]

Hi again, thanks a lot for your comments - I managed to play with a couple of blades from my club mates:

Timo Boll ZLF (Tenergy 19/ Tenergy 19) - too soft for my liking, quite stable but suprisingly I had to put more effort into the shots than with my current setup
Butterfly Gionis Carbon OFF (Dignics 05 / Tibhar MXP) - I liked this blade the most, great at countertopspins, great feeling and power, but too heavy
Primorac Japan (Tibhar MXP / Tibhar MXP) - very stable at blocking, a bit faster than my current setup, didn’t have that kick compared to other blades, a bit boring for my liking, worse feeling than on my current setup
Primorac Japan Carbon (Tibhar MXP / Tibhar MXP) - amazing at blocking, butchering my opponents with speed on my shots, however the short game was hard and I made more mistakes overall
Tibhar Stratus Powerwood (Tibhar MXP / Tibhar MXP) - quite an interesting blade, faster than my current setup (I liked the speed), better than primorac Japan imho, had a good, controlled feeling, quite linear and not spectacular in any areas, but I could see myself playing with it

After reading your suggestions and doing a bit more research I came to conclusion that I should either switch to a faster all wood blade (Tibhar Stratus Powerwood or Korbel as mentioned above) or go straight into carbon blades, preferably innerfiber ones (Harimoto ALC or Innerforce Layer ALC). The question is - Is it worth doing an in between step by playing for a year or so with a faster all wood blade and only then changing to a carbon one? Maybe it would help me acommodate my technique better to the new speed. However based on the feeling of the carbon blades I played with (for example Gionis Carbon off - it seems to have the same limba-limba-alc-ayous composition as Harimoto ALC and Innerforce Layer ALC) I liked the carbon kicking in and it made the blade feel more powerful.
Also is there a difference between Harimoto ALC and Innerforce Layer ALC? Because the blade composition seems the same and parameters are almost equal but the Innerforce is just cheaper and easier to get a used one in my country.

 

[Shooter40]

Hi again, thanks a lot for your comments - I managed to play with a couple of blades from my club mates:

Timo Boll ZLF (Tenergy 19/ Tenergy 19) - too soft for my liking, quite stable but suprisingly I had to put more effort into the shots than with my current setup
Butterfly Gionis Carbon OFF (Dignics 05 / Tibhar MXP) - I liked this blade the most, great at countertopspins, great feeling and power, but too heavy
Primorac Japan (Tibhar MXP / Tibhar MXP) - very stable at blocking, a bit faster than my current setup, didn’t have that kick compared to other blades, a bit boring for my liking, worse feeling than on my current setup
Primorac Japan Carbon (Tibhar MXP / Tibhar MXP) - amazing at blocking, butchering my opponents with speed on my shots, however the short game was hard and I made more mistakes overall
Tibhar Stratus Powerwood (Tibhar MXP / Tibhar MXP) - quite an interesting blade, faster than my current setup (I liked the speed), better than primorac Japan imho, had a good, controlled feeling, quite linear and not spectacular in any areas, but I could see myself playing with it

After reading your suggestions and doing a bit more research I came to conclusion that I should either switch to a faster all wood blade (Tibhar Stratus Powerwood or Korbel as mentioned above) or go straight into carbon blades, preferably innerfiber ones (Harimoto ALC or Innerforce Layer ALC). The question is - Is it worth doing an in between step by playing for a year or so with a faster all wood blade and only then changing to a carbon one? Maybe it would help me acommodate my technique better to the new speed. However based on the feeling of the carbon blades I played with (for example Gionis Carbon off - it seems to have the same limba-limba-alc-ayous composition as Harimoto ALC and Innerforce Layer ALC) I liked the carbon kicking in and it made the blade feel more powerful.
Also is there a difference between Harimoto ALC and Innerforce Layer ALC? Because the blade composition seems the same and parameters are almost equal but the Innerforce is just cheaper and easier to get a used one in my country.

About the same

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[UpSideDownCarl]

To me it sounds like you don't actually need an upgrade. Your blade goes with how you play very well.

However, These all wood blades would all be good:

1) Nitakku Acoustic
2) OSP Virtuoso Plus
3) Butterfly Petr Korbel
4) Tibhar Stratus Power Wood

The sexiest of those would be the Acoustic and the Virtuoso Plus.

But if you want an inner carbon blade, which is what it sounds like you are leaning towards, either will be fine. They may be a little different. But they will feel like closely related siblings or cousins. So, feel free to go with the one that looks more BLING (Harimoto) or the one that saves your wallet IF ALC. The difference in play is not as big as the difference in looks and price.