Joola Zhou Qihao Super AL-c 90 review

[CallMeZaddy]

Back to using the ZQ90 from W968 and the first couple of things I notice is that it's a lot faster.
Thicker FL handle, quite a bit lighter.

These are not surprising things, but it's a lot crisper and harder. But the contact feeling with the ball is not reduced, probably because of the clear and crisp contact feeling it's even better than W968.

It's easier to play than W968. You know like you buy a sheet of G-1 and it's great. You brush a layer of falco on it and it is just so much nicer to use. I had the same feeling with this blade too now. The extra speed just helps a lot against empty and dead balls. I did some warmup against pips and I had less trouble than with W968.

Actually, I didn't feel like I'm playing with a blade that is totally alien, sure faster and harder and crisper but I didn't have to do major changes so the ZQ90 has to have a pretty decent arc even compared to W968. Not as extreme, but not that far off.

What was a quite significant difference is that I cannot rely on the whip effect of the W968 here. If I do the ball will just go into the net. Honestly that is the biggest difference I have to pay attention now, but with time and practice that will just become first nature.

From back it's also nice to have the extra speed so I don't have to use all my power.

But from close also no issues, in fact probably also better that I don't need to use so much power always and I can play a bit more loosey-goosey.

I've been using the G-1 on BH and Q Quality on FH. Both are very well supported by the blade.

What rubbers did you use with the W968? I have a ZQH90 but don't know what rubbers to put on it yet. Thinking about just doing my standard DHS H3N Neo FH and D09C BH.

 

[Wadawada123]

What rubbers did you use with the W968? I have a ZQH90 but don't know what rubbers to put on it yet. Thinking about just doing my standard DHS H3N Neo FH and D09C BH.

He had the loki arthor china fh and g-1 on bh

 

[Zwill]

He had the loki arthor china fh and g-1 on bh

I tried several on both blades. I liked harder Chinese rubbers on W968 more on the FH side like the LAC, boosted H3N and Dingtian. I didn't like Rakza Z EH so much.
On the Zhou Qihao I tried H8-80, Tibhar K2, Rakza Z EH, H3N for longer periods of time. H3N wasn't my favorite but the others were very good.

Q Quality, Tibhar K3 works on both super well for FH side.

On BH I enjoyed V>15 Extra and G-1 the most on both.

 

[jezyk_05]

I tried several on both blades. I liked harder Chinese rubbers on W968 more on the FH side like the LAC, boosted H3N and Dingtian. I didn't like Rakza Z EH so much.
On the Zhou Qihao I tried H8-80, Tibhar K2, Rakza Z EH, H3N for longer periods of time. H3N wasn't my favorite but the others were very good.

Q Quality, Tibhar K3 works on both super well for FH side.

On BH I enjoyed V>15 Extra and G-1 the most on both.

From myself, I can definitely recommend Q Quality for FH and T19 for BH. I'm still testing but v15 on FH is too soft in my opinion. I'm curious about the Tibhar Hybrid MK and Mizuno Q5 on this blade, I think 44-47 degree rubbers will work best with it.

Why you return to zqh ??

 

[Zwill]

From myself, I can definitely recommend Q Quality for FH and T19 for BH. I'm still testing but v15 on FH is too soft in my opinion. I'm curious about the Tibhar Hybrid MK and Mizuno Q5 on this blade, I think 44-47 degree rubbers will work best with it.

Why you return to zqh ??

The problem is that Q5 is no longer being made. It's discontinued, probably Sumitomo was getting some special materials that are no longer available. Maybe cause of Covid or sanctions... who knows.

I switched back since I felt the Q Quality would be even better with a fast blade, especially on BH. Now I play both sides with Q Quality and while on BH it's still not easy, on the ZQ SALC it feels more transparent, fast and crisp. I managed to make several very high quality shots that are not possible with G-1, and now I'm getting used to the Q Quality on BH. I make much less mistakes.
I noticed that with Q Quality on BH I feel less uncomfortable against attacking pips players. And it's easier to tame heavy spin as well.
The most difficult with the Q Quality is over the table BH push, like service receive. I but I noticed if I get the ball immediately after bounce it pushed back with a lot more underspin and then it doesn't make the ball float. And the other difficult thing is powerful open-ups with BH. With this blade it's better than others, but still I wish I could rip them like on FH side.

G-1 for sure is an easier rubber to handle, but I like the higher quality balls from Q Quality. If I hit strong on BH it almost reminds me of Dignics.

 

[jezyk_05]

Have you tried q1?

 

[Zwill]

Not yet, I'm thinking of getting one with my next order from tt-japan.

 

[gordonluvsu]

Is there any clone/knock-off that comes to your mind with similar playing characteristics?
Yinhe, stuor, loki or anything Else under ~80 Euros.
The description about the BH seems very appelling to me ( and every thing Else of course).
I am trying out some stuff and this is one of the Few that stands out to me.
Whats so special about the composition?
İs it the carbon?
ZLC doesnt seem to do it, Super Alc/ZLC neither.

Any ideas?

 

[Zwill]

Is there any clone/knock-off that comes to your mind with similar playing characteristics?
Yinhe, stuor, loki or anything Else under ~80 Euros.
The description about the BH seems very appelling to me ( and every thing Else of course).
I am trying out some stuff and this is one of the Few that stands out to me.
Whats so special about the composition?
İs it the carbon?
ZLC doesnt seem to do it, Super Alc/ZLC neither.

Any ideas?

Hmmm, I was thinking among similar lines but nothing I have tried before. Sure a Viscaria is not terribly different or it's better clones, but in many ways doesn't play the same.

I am thinking of requesting for a 2nd blade of ZQ 90 as backup.

Super alc has super high sweet spot, in my opinion even super ZLC cannot match it.

To me super ALC is this unreactive fast material that is trying to standardise all my shots while Super ZLC is this alive material that amplifies all my good efforts and bad ones too.

 

[JJ Ng]

Hmmm, I was thinking among similar lines but nothing I have tried before. Sure a Viscaria is not terribly different or it's better clones, but in many ways doesn't play the same.

I am thinking of requesting for a 2nd blade of ZQ 90 as backup.

Super alc has super high sweet spot, in my opinion even super ZLC cannot match it.

To me super ALC is this unreactive fast material that is trying to standardise all my shots while Super ZLC is this alive material that amplifies all my good efforts and bad ones too.

Can you get a second blade from the sponsored player as a back-up? If you can, sign me up for one as well.

As for Super ALC v.s. Super ZLC, do Joola and Butterfly source from the same place or their super ALC vs Super ZLC are fundamentally different?

 

[Zwill]

Can you get a second blade from the sponsored player as a back-up? If you can, sign me up for one as well.

As for Super ALC v.s. Super ZLC, do Joola and Butterfly source from the same place or their super ALC vs Super ZLC are fundamentally different?

I randomly met the guy last year when I was in Belgrade and we trained a little so not really😅

I think they get the artificial materials from different places, Joola or the South Korean factory arylate is green now, before that it was orange I think. Butterfly is blue.
Butterfly zylon is from Toyobo while I don't know where others get the Pbo.

 

[Saki]

This theory can be applied the same with butterfly Koto Alc families like Viscaria , Timo Boll Alc, Lin Gaoyuan Alc , Fan Zhendong Alc.
Same structure but it give different feel. For example Fan Alc (90g)feels mute and give more control than Lin Gaoyuan Alc (86g) and both are not head heavy. While Timo Boll is a bit head heavy.
Even from the same model, it’s difficult to get the same feeling.

is joola zq 45 head heavy?, or well ballanced?

 

[CallMeZaddy]

is joola zq 45 head heavy?, or well ballanced?

It’s well balanced

 

[Saki]

It’s well balanced

Did you try this blade zq45
Whats your impression about it?
How its compare to viscaria?

 

[joshmak10]

If i want to put Tenergy 05 Hard FH and Dignics 05 BH, should i use ZQH 45 or 90?

 

[dec88]

Someone can compare ZQH 45 with blades Butterfly ALC with limba like: Freitas Harimoto (inner), Ovcharov (also inner)? ZQH 45 has kiri core it means that ZQH 45 should be harder/stiffer than for example Freitas ( with core ayous)?

 

[CallMeZaddy]

Wanted to come back and give an update. Not gonna format my thoughts and just gonna spill.

Finally decided to pull out my zQH 90 and try playing with it again. I put Rakza Z 1.9 on FH and DHS 8-80 38 on BH. Total weight 192g which is my ideal equipment weight. WOW! What a blade and setup. It felt so effortless to pull up backspin balls and the setup was so controlled yet fast. Tons of spin too! I’ve tried using D09c on BH and it didn’t work for me. It was too fast and balls kept going off the table. DHS 8-80 pairs nicely in this regard. Rakza Z also works really well on FH since it’s slower than D09C. The funny thing is that this blade is definitely different compared to Vis SALC. I tried Rakza Z on that blade and it didn’t work for me; there was a weird vibration.

I’ve been playing with FZD ALC for the past couple of months and I think I’m gonna switch over to this blade instead (this is coming from someone who loves Viscaria, currently have 4 Vis, 3 FZD ALC, 1 ZJK ALC, and a lot of other various blades using this same composition). I actually went home and purchased a second one for testing different weights. My blade is 85g but I also wanted a 88g blade. The feeling in hand is clear ie. balls penetrate the core and you can feel a good shot. Sometimes with Viscaria, you can get empty feeling shots, but I don’t get it with this blade.

 

[Wrighty67]

Wanted to come back and give an update. Not gonna format my thoughts and just gonna spill.

Finally decided to pull out my zQH 90 and try playing with it again. I put Rakza Z 1.9 on FH and DHS 8-80 38 on BH. Total weight 192g which is my ideal equipment weight. WOW! What a blade and setup. It felt so effortless to pull up backspin balls and the setup was so controlled yet fast. Tons of spin too! I’ve tried using D09c on BH and it didn’t work for me. It was too fast and balls kept going off the table. DHS 8-80 pairs nicely in this regard. Rakza Z also works really well on FH since it’s slower than D09C. The funny thing is that this blade is definitely different compared to Vis SALC. I tried Rakza Z on that blade and it didn’t work for me; there was a weird vibration.

I’ve been playing with FZD ALC for the past couple of months and I think I’m gonna switch over to this blade instead (this is coming from someone who loves Viscaria, currently have 4 Vis, 3 FZD ALC, 1 ZJK ALC, and a lot of other various blades using this same composition). I actually went home and purchased a second one for testing different weights. My blade is 85g but I also wanted a 88g blade. The feeling in hand is clear ie. balls penetrate the core and you can feel a good shot. Sometimes with Viscaria, you can get empty feeling shots, but I don’t get it with this blade.

Very interesting..

I am also a Vis / outer blade fan and have recently also enjoyed an older Maze and a Freitas. I am now using a Mizutani ZLC which I have also found to be a great blade with slightly more dynamics and feel to it than ALC. Have you used any ZLC carbon blades?

 

[CallMeZaddy]

Yeah I have two MJ ZLC that I occasionally play with. It’s a great looking blade and a looping machine. The feeling is different from my other ALC blades but I figure if I’m gonna use an inner carbon blade, I might as well just use W968 or DO IFALC.

 

[disaster3]

You tempt me my still sits in a box and currently I'm utilizing HRD one.... yesterday came big package from Aliexpress maybe I put something on this blade to check. The same DHS rubbers which I has on the HRD would be more appropriate to check and try to catch the difference between the blades find what fits me better.