need advice

[Brookerbig]

I wanna try wooden blade. I m 2 wings looper close to mid distance aggressive player . Intermediate lvl. My current blade is IF ALC . I wanna try osp blade.
Martin off pro
Ultimate
V king or
Virtuous plus.
Which one is suit me ?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I love OSP blades. They are pretty special. I own 3. I have a Virtuoso (Off-), a V'King and a special custom blade where I asked for specific plies and they made it for me. They are all great blades. As I play with them more, they play better and better. I am personally in love with the slowest one, the Virtuoso. So that is the one I am using. But the others are pretty amazing as well. There is just something unreal about the Virtuoso in terms of the quality and amount of feeling, also how soft the top plies are and the flex of the blade.

I will, at some point get a Virtuoso Plus and a Martin as well. I kind of want the whole set.

A question: In your own words: What do you want in terms of difference between the Innerforce ALC and the OSP (all wood) blade?

Do you want faster, slower, more dwell time, more flex, stiffer, more feeling, harder surface, softer?

I think the Virtuoso Plus would be a tiny bit more control than the IF ALC but the IF series have great control. But the VPlus would also be a bit slower. Very close but not quite as fast.

The V'King may be faster and it is light, and the top ply is hard so you need to be more precise when you spin. Once you get the feel of spinning with a blade that has a hard top ply you can generate a ton of spin with it.

My guess is that the Martin would be faster still and weigh a decent amount: between 90-94 grams. I like blades that are in that weight category but not everyone does.

One thing I suggest you start doing if you are going to get an OSP blade is start looking at the head sizes of blades you like. Research it. I know what blade size I like. OSP gives you choices of blades sizes. 150x157, etc. Also weight, which ever OSP blade you get, ask for it in as close to the highest weight they can make. For example the Virtuoso Plus, the weight range is 86-90 grams. I would get it as close to 90 grams as possible. If you do it will play better than the lighter ones.

Also, something to know with blades like this: as you play with them and the wood ages a little, they play better and better.

Hope that info helps. Answer my questions and I will give you more details relevant to what you want.

 

[Brookerbig]

I want faster (a little bit more IF ALC), more feeling , like stiff blade but not to stiffest, like hard surface , my mainly weapon is loop drive . My looping style is speed more than spin.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Okay, one more question, are you okay with a blade that weighs 93-94 grams?

 

[Brookerbig]

Yes.
I like 90 to 95g .

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Based on what you want that is different from the IF ALC you would do well with either the V'King or the Martin. The V'King has a Koto top ply. It is pretty light because of the Spruce plies. The plies are: Koto-Spruce-Ayous-Spruce-Koto.

It plays great. But it will be way different from the IF ALC. It will take a while to get used to it. At least a week or so or maybe 2-3, 4 hour sessions of training drills. It will be a similar speed to the IF ALC; perhaps a little faster but not much. But way crisper.

Once you get the feel for that top-ply and how to hold the ball on the blade face to spin it, it is an awesome blade.

If you get that one, I would either go with the head size that they make it at normally 151x158 or ask them to custom the head size to 150x157.

I am pretty sure that the head size on IF ALC is 150x157. But you could look that up if you want.

With the 151x158 head size, that would give you more speed, more power, more wood feel, but it would also make the blade more head heavy so it will feel a bit heavier than it is. Either way, you would want that blade to be as close to 88 grams as they can make it because it will play more solidly. With a 150x157 head size and an 87 gram blade, the weight will still be balanced towards the handle so it will feel about the same weight as the IF ALC. But the bigger head will feel awesome once you are used to the weight distribution.

If you want a blade that is more noticeably faster than the IF ALC, then you should go for the Martin. It will be heavier. Once you get used to the weight there will be real benefits and you will feel why so many pros use blades over 90 grams. More weight, more inertia, more power, provided you are in shape and decently strong.

The head size and shape they make it with is 149x158. That is sort of long and thin. It might feel great like that. I don't know. It will give extra power and torc for the backhand. But I know I would prefer a 150x157 head size. All you have to do is ask for that and they will do it though.

That blade, I believe would be a 7 ply beast and I would ask them to make it as close to 94 grams as they can so you get that inertia of a 7 ply all wood blade.

One other thing is, when you order it takes about a week for them to make the blade. Then, having them ship to USA from Hungary, the first blade took one week to ship. The second blade took 3 and a half weeks to ship and the third one must have gotten stuck in customs or something because it took 5 weeks. But they all came and are awesome. It was worth the wait to be able to specify exactly what I wanted for each blade.


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[UpSideDownCarl]

Yes.
I like 90 to 95g .

Cool. Then I would go with the Martin. That will be a beast.


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[Der_Echte]

Go Beast-Mode my friend.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

One of the things that, at least on paper is really cool about the Martin, its top-ply is Limba so it should have good touch, it is 7 plies but only 6mm thick.

The old Stiga Clippers from the 1990s were 6mm and they had amazing feeling.

6mm is a really good thickness for a 7 ply blade. The new Clippers are all 7mm and they don't feel as good and they are bulky. 7mm feels too thick in my hand.

My bet says that blade feels great.


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[Brookerbig]

Finally I am going to change Beast-Mode
Thank you for everything.

 

[Der_Echte]

Go U Beast of Burden