So Is there someone who used to play with all-wood and then moved to a somewhat similar feeling Carbon blade and can explain the difference?
I've been using several all-woods and fiber blades over the past year.
For wood, most notably the Petr Korbel, which is pretty close to Acoustic.
Let me start by saying there is a LOT of difference in feeling between my Korbel EU (78g) and Korbel Japan (87g).
Japan's core is thinner but more solid, the medial plies are ever so slightly thinner, too, and the top ply is distinctively bigger. I can describe the Japan as "solid wood", and the EU as "plonky", or "hollow".
From there, I've tried a couple of fiber-infused blades, in chronological order:
Yinhe Pro 01: outer fiber, Koto top.
This was a big difference in feeling. Also my first experience with a (good) carbon blade.
First I noticed that you
can feel the quality of your shot, but it's much harder to feel
where the ball hits the bat. This is something that took me a little getting used to, and by now I think it's a matter of preference.
The harder top and hard fiber are not very inviting to hard rubbers. If you do put those on, expect the result to be pretty unforgiving. For reference, I've been using AK47 Yellow (medium) on backhand because Red (hardest) just pops the ball out way too fast.
Topspin and direct drives aren't that much harder than with Korbel. Pushes, service and receive are significantly less forgiving.
Yinhe Pro 05: inner fiber, Limba top.
From Limba to Limba feels very familiar. Much easier to use this blade in the short game. The adjustments here vs Korbel are mostly mid- to hard shots, because the blade is
much firmer.
Feedback isn't all too different from the Pro 01: you can feel the quality of your shot, but the point of impact is hard to distinguish, even on slower shots where the carbon doesn't do much.
The difference in perceived hardness to Pro 01 is huge: AK47 Red on this Pro 05 feels softer than AK47 Yellow feels on the Pro 01.
The difference in perceived hardness to Korbel is a lot smaller. I'd say on light shots it's too close to call.
It's also easier to do pretty much every shot, except that this Pro 05 has such a firm core due to the fiber that overshooting hard balls is really easy.
It's also distinctively more head heavy, despite being the same thickness and having a slightly smaller head size than Korbel.
Waldner Legend Carbon: 3+2, Hinoki top.
This is an odd one. Not sure if this is even worth mentioning because it's a fairly uncommon composition, but I've played it side-by-side to my Korbel so...
The feedback is a little better in terms of feeling the point of impact. Hinoki top feels like something else, it has a lot of power yet feels soft. The softness is different than Limba, if anything I'd call it more fine-grained.
The whole blade accelerates a LOT though. Short game is slightly easier than the Pro 01 and slightly harder than the Pro 05 and Korbel. Placement isn't the problem but the acceleration takes some real getting used to.
The blade is more indifferent about rubber hardness. It's pretty head-heavy though so that's something you would need to like.
For a more seamless transition coming from Korbel, I'd say the Pro 05 with a thinner core would be my ideal blade. It would make the whole bat less head-heavy while retaining the familiar Limba feeling, and downtune the entire thing to make it less sensitive to overshooting.
