Which blade should I upgrade to?

ahsq wrote: Snakefish wrote: ahsq wrote: SnakeFish, hows your WSC in terms of speed, dwell, vibration and control? ... Well balanced blade. I wish I played with this blade years ago.       Nice input, I agree with you.  One thing of it was it wasnt fast enough for me. WSC is good enough for anyone amateur to semi-pro.  How is it compared to your Hypertouch?

I am saying which is better in these categories

Speed:  HT > WSC
Dwell:  WSC > HT
Vibration:  WSC > HT
Control:  WSC > HT
Spin Loops: WSC > HT
Power Loops: HT > WSC
Touch & Pushes: WSC > HT

ahsq wrote: SnakeFish, hows your WSC in terms of speed, dwell, vibration and control?

My WSC is so much fun to play with.  RakzaX on FH, OmegaV Pro on BH. Currently, my favourite in my roster

Speed:  I don't have a problem with the speed. What you put in is what you'll get. Typically, driving the ball gives me above average speed. I like how I can vary my speed effortlessly compared to a harder, stiffer blade.  

Dwell:  Lots of dwell time. Excellent. The grab on the ball is fantastic. Very addicting.

Vibration:  Have to admit there is a little vibration, but it doesn't bother me. The RakzaX being quite hard, muffles it. The OVPro also dampens, but not as much as RaX. I would not use soft rubbers on this blade unless you play defensively.

Control:  Wow!! Touch shots & pushes are elegant. Blocking my friend's power loops is so much better & easier than my Hypertouch.

This Donic handle is a little thicker than other brands. Good for medium to large hands. Small hands should stay away.

Well balanced blade. I wish I played with this blade years ago.      

BTY has a ton of new blades. Check them out before making a final choice.

unstopabl3 wrote: Snakefish wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: Snakefish wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: Snakefish wrote: My Hypertouch is faster than my Viscaria and TBS. The Hypertouch handle is a little larger & more comfortable. The ball jumps off or catapults more. Loops are powerful,spinny, easy. Smashing is easy. I don't feel the pushes or touch shots as much as Viscaria/TBS. Would you prefer Viscaria/TB ALC/TBS over hypertouch??? I knew you would ask me that  Of the three, I'd take Viscaria over Hypertouch. Hypertouch gave me more speed & loop drives, but seems to lack touch. Viscaria is a more well-rounded blade. But you need some weight so don't go too light.   What weight would you say would be best? I'm used to 85-87g weight, would anything 88-90g provide the required performance from the Viscaria? You can add a little bit. Stay in the range of 87 to 89.  You will get a little more power effortlessly I've read that the heavier the Viscaria the faster/better it is? So shouldn't I got for 90+ weight??? Also would anybody know about a fish scale wood design Viscaria??? Does it play better than the simple one? Here is a link: http://ttnpp.com/store/home/818-butterfly-viscaria--7.html#/weight-91_92g BTW is viscaria faster than TBS if two blades have same weight and which one is head heavy???

If you are currently in the 85-87g range, then move to 90+, it might be too much of an adjustment. Im just sayin.  However, if your mind can overcome a >5g increase, go for it.

My TBS and Viscaria are different weights  so i cant compare.
My TBS is head heavy. But depends on choice of rubbers.  

unstopabl3 wrote: Snakefish wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: Snakefish wrote: My Hypertouch is faster than my Viscaria and TBS. The Hypertouch handle is a little larger & more comfortable. The ball jumps off or catapults more. Loops are powerful,spinny, easy. Smashing is easy. I don't feel the pushes or touch shots as much as Viscaria/TBS. Would you prefer Viscaria/TB ALC/TBS over hypertouch??? I knew you would ask me that  Of the three, I'd take Viscaria over Hypertouch. Hypertouch gave me more speed & loop drives, but seems to lack touch. Viscaria is a more well-rounded blade. But you need some weight so don't go too light.   What weight would you say would be best? I'm used to 85-87g weight, would anything 88-90g provide the required performance from the Viscaria?

You can add a little bit. Stay in the range of 87 to 89.  You will get a little more power effortlessly

unstopabl3 wrote: Snakefish wrote: My Hypertouch is faster than my Viscaria and TBS. The Hypertouch handle is a little larger & more comfortable. The ball jumps off or catapults more. Loops are powerful,spinny, easy. Smashing is easy. I don't feel the pushes or touch shots as much as Viscaria/TBS. Would you prefer Viscaria/TB ALC/TBS over hypertouch???

I knew you would ask me that 

Of the three, I'd take Viscaria over Hypertouch.
Hypertouch gave me more speed & loop drives, but seems to lack touch.
Viscaria is a more well-rounded blade. But you need some weight so don't go too light.






 

 

yogi_bear wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: yogi_bear wrote: try the Adidas Strike Wood Carbon, has one of the best handles in the market and also the speed is quite good Yogi, I've read your reviews about the Hypertouch and Strike Wood, it seems strike wood is too thick and too fast. Would you say Hypertouch is more controllable and has good enough speed power? Also how would you rate the Stiga blades I've mentioned??? Hypertouch is like a slower Viscaria with a softer feel. I dunno if you would like it.

How would you arrange the following starting from the best to worst:

Clipper CR WRB
Strike Carbon
Infinity VPS V
Emerald VPS V
Carbonado 145
Carbonado 190
Viscaria
Timo Boll ALC
Timo Boll Spirit

unstopabl3 wrote: yogi_bear wrote: try the Adidas Strike Wood Carbon, has one of the best handles in the market and also the speed is quite good Yogi, I've read your reviews about the Hypertouch and Strike Wood, it seems strike wood is too thick and too fast. Would you say Hypertouch is more controllable and has good enough speed power? Also how would you rate the Stiga blades I've mentioned???

I used YEO...now I use Infinity VPS...not a upgrade, just feel better with Infinity.

Edited by Hautamaeki - 07/01/2015 at 4:58pm

vivan4tt wrote: Hehe, I own the yeo 7 power also. I've written a review for this blade here :  http://www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk/equipment/blades/10557-extra-offensive-7-power You can see pictures here for the clipper legend handle compared with viscaria fl and yeo fl : http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/27/1435759602-20150701-160251.jpg http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/27/1435759595-20150701-160300.jpg http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/27/1435760059-20150701-160815.jpg I owned 5 or 6 JTTAA YEO, and now from a sure source, I have the confirmation that there is no quality selection from yasaka between JTTAA and european YEO's. But as you can see, one one of my picture, the Clipper I own is a "stiga special", those blade are made for pro players and are not meant to be commercialized. I was lucky enough to have this blade thanks to a gift, and it plays amazing, faster and much higher throw than the commercial clippers I've tried.  People will always think that JTTAA is better, but believe me, there is no selection betwwen YEO's for European market or Japanese market, I know it from a sure source. And it doesn't mean that it is true for every manufacturer, but for Yasaka it is.  I know also that Yasaka is also doing special YEO's, just like that Special Clipper I own. I'm trying to get one since I know it (and I prefer to wait than taking the risk of buying a fake) but don't have it yet, so I'm not able to compare to the special YEO and the commercial YEO.  To test the COR, I've done a static test, letting the ball fall to the blades (with rubbers and without rubbers, it didn't changed the ranking of my various YEOs) from various heights (here also even if the COR is not the same for a given blade, I depends of the impacting ball speed, the ranking between various YEO didn't changed also, making my life easier lol ).  The higher the bounce, the bigger the static COR.  All my YEO's were between 84 and 89gr, the One I kept, the faster, was 88gr. And yes, there was a correlation between COR (representing speed) and weight. That doesn't mean that a 88gr YEO is for sure faster than a 84gr one, but most likely it will be.  I've bought so many YEO's from many different retailers, because I wanted them in a specific weight range, I'm not able to tell you from were the one I kept was bought. But for sure not from tt-japan (since all their YEO are JTTAA) and I kept one from Euro market.  So considering power 7, it's faster than the YEO I own, truly off+. But the touch is a bit to hard and direct for my taste, I prefer the YEO which has more flex and all wood feeling. But considering carbon blades, this one is a very very good one. It is not a YEO + carbon, It is a different outer ply. The blade look is outstanding btw :D I think that the control is similar between a YEO and a Viscaria-like blade, those are fast blades, good control for the speed speed, and good feeling also. Considering rubbers, YEO as well as Viscaria-like blades are a good match for any rubbers with a decent hardness (at least 42deg on euro scale). Tried Bluefires M1Turbo/M1/M2, Tenegies 05/64/80 and various other rubbers (MX-P, many Xiom rubbers), all were a good match.  I'm not using nor testing soft rubbers.  You migh give a try to Sigma II europe on your YEO, I hardly believe you will lack speed or spin with such a combination, most certainly my futur combination, still and always testing during summer, but nothing beats so far YEO + Sigma II europe on BH and FH, except maybe Omega V tour on FH, still need to test.  YEO + Vega Japan is also great, but I generate less spin (with my technique) than I do with Sigma II europe.  All of those advices are for C-ball (because we will stick with the C-ball next season in France). But from what I heard Xiom rubbers are as good with C-ball and P-ball, while bluefires are better with C-ball. Tenergies are good also, but untuned they are lacking speed for my taste.

Wow, I see what you mean by "Large" handle haha, that is one large handle indeed. Is the Master handle smaller and similar to YEO handle or is that too small???

Good for you to score that special Clipper, I've not played with it so don't know about it really. So how does it play? Control, speed??? And how would you compare it with YEO and butterfly blades??? And what's the difference between these variations of clipper:

http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/stiga-clipper-cr-wrb
http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/stiga-clipper-wrb
http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/stiga-clipper-cr

Is the Clipper CR WRB the best of the lot?

I had already read your review on YEO Power 7, what a coincidence :P

The YEO blades I bought were always from TT11 and I plan to order the Power 7 version from it as well and ask them to send me anything between 86-90g, what are your thoughts?

Always wanted to try Stiga blades as they look sexy and have many good reviews such as Emerald VPS V, Infinity VPS V and the Carbonado 145. Have you tried any of these???

I might order YEO Power 7 and one other blade, so open to suggestions guys which of these would be best for me as per my requirements in my OP:

Clipper CR WRB
Butterfly Viscaria
Adidas Strike Wood Carbon
Emerald VPS V
Infinity VPS V
Stiga Carbonado 145

Anything better than these in under $150???

Thanks

vivan4tt wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: Thanks that will be a great help, I'll appreciate if you can take similar pics for YEO, TB ALC, TBS and Viscaria so that it will be easier to compare their heads and handles. Which one out of YEO, TB ALC, TBS and Viscaria would you say has the biggest sweet spot and easiest to do killshots? Here are pictures I've just taken. TBS and TBalc are clones so I didn't put my TBalc. Unfortunately I don't own TBS or TBalc in FL handle (only have ST), because I prefer ST for those blades (FL is too much thin in the middle).  See here : http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/27/1435754246-20150701-143055.jpg http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/27/1435754291-20150701-143134.jpg http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/27/1435754286-20150701-143148.jpg http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/27/1435754292-20150701-143203.jpg The viscaria FL is really thin in the middle compared to TBS ST and YEO. What matters to me is not FL or ST but it is to have a large handle, including the middle of the handle, just like YEO and I have it with TBS ST or TBalc ST or the YEO FL but not with viscaria FL. Sweet spot is the same for TBS/TBalc and viscaria, plus all of those blade I own plays very very similar. YEO has a smaller sweet spot but still a very good one imho. I never felt, while playing, the lack of bigger sweet spot with the YEO, I d'ont think you should consider the bigger sweet spot of BTY alc blades as a huge advantage over YEO. It is really easy to do kill shots with all those blades, but once again I really think that my YEO is faster than the "average" YEO (I used to have 10+ YEO's, I've done COR measurments for all of them and I only kept the faster one). I even gave my blade to a friend (ranked about #170 in France, playing TBzlc) and he found my YEO to be faster than his TBzlc, he was thinking I was boosting my rubbers at the beginning and it is not the case, he offered to buy my YEO for more than what I paid for.......but kept the YEO.  With my technique and the rubbers I'm using, I generate more spin with YEO than with the viscaria-like blades, the throw (with my technique) is also higher with YEO. It's with my technique once again, maybe with your technique you will generate more spin with a viscaria but I do think that YEO is a true spin monster while Viscaria-like blades are very good carbon blades for spin, but still can't compare to 5 ply all wood blades when you consider spin.  Concerning the head size, to me the TBS/Viscaria and TBalc have the same head size. I don't have tools to measure it but it looks the same to me since many times I have switch rubbers from blade to blades, and YEO has a very very similar head size (no problem switching rubbers between YEO and Viscaria/TBS/Tbalc. I hope it will help you and feel free to ask anything.  edit : just saw that you are considering Clipper. I own a Clipper CR WRB in Legend handle (it a "stiga special" blade, but I do belive that the legend handle is the same even for commercial clippers), it is a very large FL handle just like YEO, feels amazing in the hand. If you want pictures to compare the clipper legend handle to YEO, just ask ;)

Wow what a nice reply was not expecting it, you've explained it perfectly and thanks a bunch for the pics. I can clearly see what you mean by the thin handle of the viscaria, which I'm not liking as well from the pictures. Maybe it plays similarly or maybe I won't like it as much as I like YEO.

Out of these blades which one do you think has the best control? And the best speed from mid distant? And which one is able to pair up best with the latest rubbers such as tenergy, rakza 7, adidas rubbers etc?

That's good to know that your YEO plays better, is it a JTTA version or the regular one? Where did you order it from and how much does it weigh?

Not sure how you did the COR testing, care to elaborate on that please?

I got mine from TT11 and it's 86g I think, I feel it's a bit slow as you move away from the table, but maybe that's due to beaten up Rakza 7's who knows :P

Which rubbers have you tried on YEO and which was the best combo in your opinion?

I ask because I'm leaning towards ordering another YEO which is currently only $35 or it's faster version the Power 7 which is $50, have you had any experience with Power 7?

P.S

Sure I will love to see the comparison of the handle and the head of YEO and Clipper if you can show me the pics of your blades that would be awesome!


Edited by unstopabl3 - 07/01/2015 at 9:47am

unstopabl3 wrote: Thanks that will be a great help, I'll appreciate if you can take similar pics for YEO, TB ALC, TBS and Viscaria so that it will be easier to compare their heads and handles. Which one out of YEO, TB ALC, TBS and Viscaria would you say has the biggest sweet spot and easiest to do killshots?

Edited by vivan4tt - 07/01/2015 at 9:20am

chop4ever wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: My game is attack style, with emphasis on 3rd ball attacks and topspin/sidespin rallies. I counter and pushblock with my backhand as my backhand is not as good as my FH. I mostly play close to the table or mid distance. I think the YEO is not suitable for your current game, maybe the Malin Sotf Carbon would do better. YEO gives you control but on the other hand, its hi-throw and late dwelling-time will fail you in close games, esp in your passive backhand. If you still have that problem, then don't move on to any ALCs, but you should try some wooden 7 plies blades, such as Clipper Wood or similar to. They will serve you well on Bh passive block and Fh close to table attack.

From experience I felt that Ma Lin SC was a bit slower than YEO, I do agree it had better control and feel though.

Which clipper wood would you recommend as there are a few variations of models out there.

unstopabl3 wrote: My game is attack style, with emphasis on 3rd ball attacks and topspin/sidespin rallies. I counter and pushblock with my backhand as my backhand is not as good as my FH. I mostly play close to the table or mid distance.

I think the YEO is not suitable for your current game, maybe the Malin Sotf Carbon would do better. YEO gives you control but on the other hand, its hi-throw and late dwelling-time will fail you in close games, esp in your passive backhand.

If you still have that problem, then don't move on to any ALCs, but you should try some wooden 7 plies blades, such as Clipper Wood or similar to. They will serve you well on Bh passive block and Fh close to table attack.

piligrim wrote: Viscaria has most comfortable handle between all blades I used (a lot). it a bit longer than regular handle and wider. for sure wider and longer than TB ALC. I own both of them.

What about TBS handle compared with Viscaria and then TB ALC handle compared with TBS???