MMaze vs Viscaria

janekb wrote: Can I get some info on differences between MMaze alc and Viscaria  I know they both arylate carbon ,are they the same blades with different names or they play different .Thanks for all the replays.Regards to all TT players.

One can get used to any of them in the case of liking the alc composite feeling.
The bh in the MM needs more dynamics. MM has limba outer and viscaria is koto.

Personally what I prefer in Michael Maze is a bit more flex helping in opening loops. 

Any other opinions please,how's the blades balance with heavy tensors I don't like head heavy blades. Thanks to all.

Maze from my point of view is for a forehand oriented game, viscaria is balanced backhand forehand game, if your forehand is far better than your backhand go for the maze. Moreover the viscaria has much more feel than the maze. The forehand of the maze is one of the most deadly among all blades not just the viscaria.

Mickael wrote: Maze from my point of view is for a forehand oriented game, viscaria is balanced backhand forehand game, if your forehand is far better than your backhand go for the maze. Moreover the viscaria has much more feel than the maze. The forehand of the maze is one of the most deadly among all blades not just the viscaria.

Blades have forehands now not players? And this is not even a special blade with different speeds on forehand and backhand...

Like Baal said, go to a club, hit with both blades and get a feel for them before you buy. Note that this does not guarantee that what you buy will play exactly as you expect, but it is better than spending $100 on a blade and not liking it.

janekb wrote: What kind of rubber goes well with Viscaria I mean sponge hardness soft medium or hard. For example I like Acuda s1or turbo will this rubber work with Viscaria since has harder outer ply. Thanks to all of you.

Rubber is a personal choice. The juniors at my club who use Viscaria play with everything. Vega Japan, T80, T05, T05FX, Sigma 2 Pro, Calibra. I am sure Acuda will be great as well if you like the rubber.

jt99sf wrote: IMHO, in terms of speed: Maze > TBS > Viscaria.

Really??  That's your impression?  I'm not saying you're wrong but mine would be that TBS = Viscaria > Maze.  But my sample size for Maze is very small (1 blade), and it didn't seem like the difference was that great.

Any of these blades would be fine with any number of topspin oriented rubbers available these days.  There is just no single right answer to this.  The 2200ish guy I know who uses a Maze likes Evolution MXP, he has also used Rakza 7.  I like Tenergy on my Viscaria but MXP was very good too, Rakza seemed soft to me, but I would easily get used to it.

Baal wrote: jt99sf wrote: IMHO, in terms of speed: Maze > TBS > Viscaria. Really??  That's your impression?  I'm not saying you're wrong but mine would be that TBS = Viscaria > Maze.  But my sample size for Maze is very small (1 blade), and it didn't seem like the difference was that great. Any of these blades would be fine with any number of topspin oriented rubbers available these days.  There is just no single right answer to this.  The 2200ish guy I know who uses a Maze likes Evolution MXP, he has also used Rakza 7.  I like Tenergy on my Viscaria but MXP was very good too, Rakza seemed soft to me, but I would easily get used to it.

Yes. I find the outer ply of the Maze harder than the other two blades with the Viscaria having the softest. But the weights of the blades may be a factor.
Maze - 89gm, TBS - 86gm, Viscaria - 85 gms.
I used T05 on all three blades. I had 4 Maze, 10 TBS and 5 Viscaria blades. I no longer own any Maze blades.

Baal wrote: That explains it.  All my Viscarias are 89 g or more.  The one Maze I have is 90g.  I like heavier blades these days.  Viscaria does feel a bit softer to me, though.

That's my feeling also. Ideally, I like my blades at 85 gms because I can use any rubbers on them.

Blade balance is important to me.

Edited by jt99sf - 08/11/2013 at 2:42pm

Maze is bouncier than tbs and viscaria specially over the table , 2 meters away of the table it can beat any know blade even just carbon ones, it's forehand goes like a missile not like a bullet , it stretch high and go down surprisingly at the edge of the table with tons of spin, note that few blades I know has this amount of spin which such a high speed, no opponent catch or loop or block this montruous forehand.

Mickael wrote: Maze is bouncier than tbs and viscaria specially over the table , 2 meters away of the table it can beat any know blade even just carbon ones, it's forehand goes like a missile not like a bullet , it stretch high and go down surprisingly at the edge of the table with tons of spin, note that few blades I know has this amount of spin which such a high speed, no opponent catch or loop or block this montruous forehand.

Well, I would say a typical maze is slow.... I owned quite a few. However my personal maze is more dense and is faster than any of the Viscaria, Timo Boll blades i have owned. 

NextLevel wrote: EJs never give up. Blades are no longer fast or slow. They now have forehands and backhands...

NextLevel wrote: Mickael wrote: Maze from my point of view is for a forehand oriented game, viscaria is balanced backhand forehand game, if your forehand is far better than your backhand go for the maze. Moreover the viscaria has much more feel than the maze. The forehand of the maze is one of the most deadly among all blades not just the viscaria. Blades have forehands now not players? And this is not even a special blade with different speeds on forehand and backhand... Like Baal said, go to a club, hit with both blades and get a feel for them before you buy. Note that this does not guarantee that what you buy will play exactly as you expect, but it is better than spending $100 on a blade and not liking it.

Viscaria is almost unanimously worshipped as the blade with perhaps the most versatile backhand yet highly demanding forehand among EJs and non-EJs alike in China.  OTOH, Stiga blades are widely praised for their forehand prowess and feel.  Posts often pop up daily telling how bad or great it feels on either the forehand or backhand side whenever a person switches from one to the other brand.  Much of it could well be due to the influence of Zhang Jike and Wang Liqin and I used to shrug it off.  However, having spent considerable time with the Viscaria(so far 1.5 yrs) and Offensive Wood NCT(short of 3 yrs) with similar rubbers, I can sort of apprehend.  Part of that may have to do with the diverse impact locations on the blade face between forehand and backhand strokes.  The marks on my H3 and Hexer HD are far from reversed along the long axis.  They scatter over concentrated regions, which are known to exhibit different COR values.  When these locations are struck, various modes of vibration are excited at different amplitudes depending on the setup, grip, form etc., where the corresponding mode shapes are transferred to the hand.  In the event one's forehand or backhand stroke happens to hit the region that matches his game, the player could be under the impression that blade is more suited for that particular side.


Edited by zeio - 08/12/2013 at 2:30am

zeio wrote: Viscaria is almost unanimously worshipped as the blade with perhaps the most versatile backhand yet highly demanding forehand among EJs and non-EJs alike in China.  OTOH, Stiga blades are widely praised for their forehand prowess and feel.  Posts often pop up daily telling how bad or great it feels on either the forehand or backhand side whenever a person switches from one to the other brand.  Much of it could well be due to the influence of Zhang Jike and Wang Liqin and I used to shrug it off.  However, having spent considerable time with the Viscaria(so far 1.5 yrs) and Offensive Wood NCT(short of 3 yrs) with similar rubbers, I can sort of apprehend.  Part of that may have to do with the diverse impact locations on the blade face between forehand and backhand strokes.  The marks on my H3 and Hexer HD are far from reversed along the long axis.  They scatter over concentrated regions, which are known to exhibit different COR values.  When these locations are struck, various modes of vibration are excited at different amplitudes depending on the setup, grip, form etc., where the corresponding mode shapes are transferred to the hand.  In the event one's forehand or backhand stroke happens to hit the region that matches his game, the player could be under the impression that blade is more suited for that particular side.