I have all the blades listed, old Long 5, new Long 5, Long 5x, provincial W968 and national W968. I can only comment on the old Long 5 and the national W968, however, as I've only tried the Long 5x for a short time, the new Long 5 for a few practices, and I've yet to glue anything to the provincial W968. I don't like making snap judgments on TT equipment, and I'm over EJ'ing so not terribly interested in trying things out.
I played about 3 months with the old Long 5 before switching for 6 months (and going) to the national W968. Both had D09c on both sides. I tried T05, T05FX, D05, and H8-80 on those blades, but D09c felt the best for my game. For comparison I also used TB ALC for a couple years and Viscaria for a few sessions (felt pretty similar to the TB ALC).
My feeling on those 2 blades is that they're vastly different. The old Long 5 plays like a fast wood blade with a bigger sweet spot. I don't know if I'd even say it's a good transition from wood to carbon because how much it felt like a wood blade. It took me very little time to adjust from my previous blade, the Yasaka Sweden Extra, to the old Long 5. You really need to put some effort into every shot, close to the table or far, to generate pace. It's extremely flexible, the hold on the ball is exceptional, but that also makes quality quick counters near the table difficult. It's damn near impossible to make very high quality quick counters on the BH side due to the power required, you just don't have the time for the back swing needed.
The W968 plays very much like a carbon blade. It's much more crisp close to the table. It's still far less crisp than say a Viscaria, and good technique is required to generate high quality with quick counters, especially on the BH side, but it's very doable. When you step away the table and make a big swing however, it can get still get pretty whippy, with a loud wooden crackle. My practice partner actually thought the ball broke when we practiced counter-looping the first time. To hear that pleasing crackle (and thus access its remarkable flex for its speed) however, is difficult as it requires a very hard hit. I can do that on the FH side fairly frequently on opportunity balls and in countering, but I'm struggling to do that against opportunity balls on the BH side even in basic practice when I know what ball is coming where and I'm doing the same shot over and over again hundreds of times in a row.
The new Long 5 feels a lot more like the W968, I did have the same rubbers glued to it and have tried it out a few times in practice against a robot, though I've only had one actual play session with it. I've played too little with the Long 5x to make any sort of comment, and as mentioned before I've yet to use the provincial W968. I think have the new Long 5 in both CPen and SH (forgot if the CPen one was the new one), and I'm gonna glue up D09c's to them and have a RPB clubmate try it out, so I can probably play a bit with it again to get some fresh impressions soon.
