This one is in the spirit of beast, but with a twist: diy handle on my Xiom Offensive S. Hated the shape of the offensive s handle, figured I might try to give it a new life, and bump the weight up in the process (82 grams with stock handle).
The Goncalo Alves I used initially put the blade at 104 grams. I played with that at first and it felt like a bit much. So I performed a reverse beast mod on my handle: hollowing out the middle to knock the weight down to 95 grams!
Made a bunch of mistakes doing the mod. The two sides are also asymetric because I was trying out different things on each side, and then made tweaks until I was happy. The side I like for forehand is with the steeper thumb slope and black rubber.
Happy to report that besides feeling wayyyy better than the original handle (to my hands - thicker, with a much steeper slope for the thumb), the weight bump to 95 puts the head/handle balance in a nicer spot for me. Also, can’t report any negative effect on feel of adding hollows to my diy handle. Seems to me like besides shape, overall weight and balance are the more important factors.
PS: rubbers are the new Gambler Nine Ultra Tack (semi tacky, with long pip structure inspired by the new gen ESN. Haven’t played enough to be sure, but for a very low catapult rubber (seems like even less than Karis and MX-S) with spin performance in the direction of spinny ESN/Jap, these seem worth exploring IMO. Coming from Vega Pro, Karis M, and MX-S, first time I find a $14 rubber that feels satisfying and allows for a similar spin and block technique - unlike traditional tacky rubbers.)