XIOM Jazz Review

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Okay, finally I got to the end of the line of XIOM blades to try...

Jazz is one of three of the Xiom's Novus Wood series. 

The 5 ply blade is made of Hinoki - Koto - Ayous - Koto � Hinoki at 6 mm thickness. 

The made and finishing of the blade is superb and very smooth. The flaw I see: the cut on the logo on the handle is not very straight, but it's a very minuscule overlook. 

If I were to rate it on the finishing/make of the blade, I would rate it at 99% (points taken off for the small flaw.) 

The head is of compact size, the size according to Xiom's specification are: 152.5x148.5 while the handle are 100x34x24 for the FL & 100x29x22 for the ST. The ST handle is slightly smaller towards the bottom end. First thing I noticed when holding it was how nice and comfortable it is on my hand. The handle is wide and thick enough, about as good as my Hurricane blades FL handles. Feels thinner but wider than the HK. It's certainly wider and thicker than the Korbel FL & Wavestone FL handles which I also have. The head is about the same as my Waveston & Amadeus blades.

The weight quoted for me is 82.9g (FL) & 82.8g (ST) but when I weighed it using my dad's digital weight scale for his medicines, it weighed at 80.9g (FL) & 80.85g (ST). 2g less than quoted weights.

The rubbers I put on the blade are: Hurricane 3 Provincial 39 degree and Prasidha Tokyo 2, so they are the same rubbers as I have on the Hurricane King setup.  

Now, here are the preliminary/first impressions I have on the blade:

First  times I hit with it, certainly much better compared to the first time I hit with Aria, which felt bad right after trying Amadeus, but after awhile got better as I play longer with Aria. It felt good like Fuga on first few hits with them.

The blade feels softer & milder than both Aria & Fuga. It's slower than the Aria & Fuga and has a good dwell time. I could impart heavy spins on both fast and slow loops just fine. 

On fast loops, I felt it almost as quick as I did with the Amadeus (not as quick as Ignito, which is best in this regard in my opinion). It's quite fast, but just my feeling I could do it much faster with Ignito.

Blocks are effortless, just a good amount of bounce. I don't have problem on the short play with it. 
Chops are fine short and long, nothing to write home about.

I usually don't smash on FH, so I don't know how it does altering between loops and smashes. The few smashes on FH I did were good. Not blazing fast of course with the Hurricane rubber, but enough to win the point. I smash on the BH, when I smash, it generates fast speed and power.

Control is good. I think Jazz has better control than the other two Novus Wood blades.

I switched sides and used the Tokyo 2 on the FH and it felt great. Things are going faster, but still with good amount of control. I think for those playing with both Japanese/European rubbers will be satisfied with the amount of speed and control of this blade. This is even without gluing.
For those who haven't played with Tokyo 2 rubber, I think it's somewhat similar with Bryce Speed FX on speed and spin ( I feel spinier for Tokyo 2). Less bouncy on the short play and better control over all. 

If you remember the short review I wrote about Fuga, you'll remember I wrote about the bit vibration especially on FH hit with H3P rubber. Well, glad to say that it's not the problem with Jazz. Jazz gives good feel and nice vibration. Slight and not good, not too much to become annoying.

Throw is about medium-low, slightly lower than Fuga I'd say.

Now, how do I feel about Jazz? I've had the chance to communicate with the designer of the Novus Wood blades and in one of those conversations he mentioned that he actually designed Jazz according to his specification and according to his own personal likings. That it to say he actually designed Jazz specifically for himself. I was holding out when he said that and now I could say that he's done a great job. I like the feel of this blade much more than Aria which is more powerful blade. The Fuga I could probably loops better with it. But Jazz gives me better feel than both of them. And though it's not a speed demon, it's fairly fast. Should rightly belong in the All+. If you like more control out of a blade and want to have a blade that has good feel, I could recommend the Jazz for you.

Please bear in mind that this is just preliminary impressions. I do plan to revisit the blades after I finish making my round with the untested blades. Also, I also want to try the XIOM blades again with Zeta. I've been waiting to try the Zeta until I have finished trying the blades with similar rubbers as I had started in the beginning. But it might take awhile because I have other blades to try before I start on another round with the XIOM blades...

Well, that's it for now. 
Comments and questions are welcome.  