NEXY Reviews: the COLOR blade (FL)

Well no I don't want to oppose your view, its yours. I always stand by my principles though as explained above. It is easy to compare a blade with another make/style and make judgements about performance, which is a quite valid thing to do. If however you take one blade of your choice, and rate the three components of previously mentioned performance (Speed/dwell/touch) against the different modes of production (all-, all+, OFF, OFF+ ) you will see my point. Dwell/touch, NEVER increase in line with speed. That is not so suggest that there is not overlaps of these properties between different manufacturers ratings and personal experience, But to go back to the requests directed at Mr Moon, ie 'can you increase Dwell and speed' I'm sure he would like to tell you he can.... but that would also suggest that if he made a blade with less speed, it would have less dwell, if not why not? there is always a correlation between speed and dwell.

anubhav1984 wrote:   I am in partial agreement to what you say. And I am definitely not confused about the laws of physics. People's perception kept aside, I believe, the speed of the blade has nothing to do with its dwell time. Period!

Anubhav1984

The Color was developed from the Dexter and it was designed to create a better balance between spin and speed, for a different type of player; hence Nexy's comment about the Color being more harmonised, than the Dexter.

The Dexter is 6.8mm thick, using the same woods as the Color; however the thicker ayous centre ply and thinner Hinoki outer plies, means the Dexter is  stiffer and faster, with less dwell time, compared to the Color and is designed primarily for a player who is a hitter, blocker and smasher.

It will still be a good choice for mid distance looping and loop driving, but the lower dwell time means it won't be as easy to generate spin with, as the Color.

In contrast the Color is 6.3mm thick, which makes it a fairly stiff blade, but with a bit of flex. The construction has also changed with thicker Hinoki plies, which play a more prominent role, than the thinner outer plies of the Dexter and it has a thinner Ayous centre ply, too.

Hinoki has a soft feel when playing slow shots and some spring, which gives the blade a lively feel when you hit harder. It's the thicker Hinoki plies of the Color, in combination with the Spruce inner plies and Ayous core, that gives this blade better dwell time, than the Dexter and most blades in it's speed class, too.

The Color is an offensive minus blade, with very good dwell time and designed for the allround/offensive player, who wants a versatile blade, to outwit their opponents with variations of speed, spin and placement.

Regarding changing the Color to have "more dwell and speed", I disagree with you on that one, because Nexy made a number of prototypes, that were tested over 18 months, to find the right balance between Speed/ Dwell/touch and in my opinion he has achieved that.

The attention to detail in the research and development stage, have produced a blade that felt right, from the first few minutes of playing with it and will appeal to a wide range of players.

I used one word in my review of the Color, to describe what I think makes this blade stand out, which was Synergy, i.e. "the whole is greater, than the sum of the parts".

APW46 is also referring to synergy, when he wrote "it is possible to get the balance of Speed/Dwell/touch just right from the perception of some players, and the most successful blades, get this feel right for more players than the less successful blades."

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p.s. I haven't actually played with the Dexter, but through my correspondence with Nexy and my experience with other wooden blades around 6.8mm thick, like the Clipper Wood and Mazunov, as well Hinoki blades like the ishlion, Color and Oscar, I have a rough idea of how I would expect this blade to play.

Peter C

Let me add a bit to this interesting discussion.

1) First off, I again concur that Color is an extremely well designed blade. One thing that stands out (and Mr. Moon mentioned that he specifically spent a lot of time on that) is its overall weight balance. My Color is 93 grams heavy but it feels to me lighter (no kidding) than my 88 g V-6 and my 86 g Darker.

2. Now about dwell against speed. Generally some of you are right when saying that when speed goes up, dwell goes down. But that is only true when we are talking about all other things being equal. They don't have to be - blades can be made of different materials, using composites, different number of plies with different flexibility etc. So it is not illogical to have a blade X which is both faster and dwellier than blade Y. As an example, let's say blade Y is made of one rather thin (8 mm) ply of Koto wood. Then it will be slow (thin!) and inflexible with bad dwell time since Koto is relatively hard. Now take X to be Color or Btfy Viscaria - they are both faster than blade Y and certainly have more dwell time due to their flexibility and also because of the relative softness of their outer plies.

Anubhav - if all you require from Color is some extra speed then all you really need is to provide it yourself. That's the best way to go. "Color" is certainly at least an OFF- blade (I don't feel it being ALL+) and I don't think Nexy should push it up the speed ladder - then it will become a different blade with a slightly different balance etc. No need for that - OFF- is an extremely popular class of blades and Color will be well positioned there.

3. Finally - a very important marketing note

Since this is an extremely new blade on a new brand I should say this and I hope that Mr.Moon will be reading me - I advise you to change the name. Color is too generic a word. All your other blades - Hannibal, Sahara, Dexter, Ikarus, Oscar - have very special, unique names. But "Color" is too bland... and if we are correct here and Nexy will have the classic blade and extremely popular item in it, then you really need to think of a special name so that the people will have no problem talking about it and naming without confusing word "color" and name "Color".

Perhaps you could have a quick naming contest in your company and among us testers here.

I propose two names: Harmony (if you don't mind a feminine name) and Gautama (calmness of mind and overall balance are cornerstones of Buddha). Maybe I will come up with some better names later.

JimT wrote: - I advise you to change the name. Color is too generic a word. All your other blades - Hannibal, Sahara, Dexter, Ikarus, Oscar - have very special, unique names. But "Color" is too bland... and if we are correct here and Nexy will have the classic blade and extremely popular item in it, then you really need to think of a special name so that the people will have no problem talking about it and naming without confusing word "color" and name "Color". Perhaps you could have a quick naming contest in your company and among us testers here.

I vote
Color

APW46 wrote: I honestly don't mean to be facetious, But is 'color' a miss spelling of Colour? ( given the colourful splash of artwork on the blade)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color it can be spelled both ways.

fatt wrote: APW46 wrote: I honestly don't mean to be facetious, But is 'color' a miss spelling of Colour? ( given the colourful splash of artwork on the blade) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color it can be spelled both ways.

Color is simply an americanized version of Colour. Same as with neighbo(u)r, behavio(u)r, flavo(u)r etc. We aim to simplify!

Coloray?

I would laugh at my boss asking "HEY FATT DO ME A FAVOUR".

Thanks guys, being from England, I was brought up with classical English, I know everyone else has added their own quirks. But English is derived from so many different languages, we confuse ourselves at times

JimT wrote: When you guys started spreading it all over the world, you should have realized nothing good could come out of that

Lets not go into the raging argument in my family... Pycletts or crumpets? Midlands people call the Pycletts, northern, Crumpets... We spend most of Christmas day arguing about it...

Don't worry Jim, we haven't forgotten, just sharing a bit of banter.

By the way, did you say you had Outlaw and Wraith on the Color?

Played it again tonite ! Yummy....You can call it dwell time, but I know there's something more than that in that blade. It could become the reference in OFF- blade. The control is insane, pleasure and feel are there too. I've promised to my EJ mate sending it to him next week, my heart already starts bleeding in anticipation. What a shock ! It is soooooo good ! Nexy, you def got something there. Congrats !