Fish scaled Viscaria???

Well, you haven't posted any video of your play so I can't tell how you play or what would suit you.

And I spend time posting about table tennis, not buying a blade.  Big difference.  That said, I have to cut back some time.  The kids are going hungry and wifey is not happy...

NextLevel wrote: Everyone has a preference. Whether it is arrived at by obsessing over things that hardly matter as opposed to falling in love with something for tacit reasons is the issue at hand. In the end, OP will love the blade even though it is clearly not what suits his game. Anyone who spends so much time buying a blade has no time to do the real work of playing good table tennis.

Then what did you mean by this, seemed like you had a better suggestion or knew my game style from the OP.

Yes you go ahead and spend time with your kids, better than posting here for sure

TTNPP may make you wait.  Not sure how responsive they are to this kind of thing*.  Good luck.

* I also should make it clear that I am basing this on some threads here over the years, not on personal experience.  Some people get great results with them.

unstopabl3 wrote: NextLevel wrote: Everyone has a preference. Whether it is arrived at by obsessing over things that hardly matter as opposed to falling in love with something for tacit reasons is the issue at hand. In the end, OP will love the blade even though it is clearly not what suits his game. Anyone who spends so much time buying a blade has no time to do the real work of playing good table tennis. Then what did you mean by this, seemed like you had a better suggestion or knew my game style from the OP. Yes you go ahead and spend time with your kids, better than posting here for sure

People who spend a lot of time obsessing over these things on the internet can't/don't play.  That's my experience.  It's very different from testing equipment or changing equipment.  Asking questions on the internet about equipment is something a good player would not obsessively do.  That makes it likely that a blade like the Viscaria will help your game (it may not hurt it either, but that is another story).

I'd rather pay 10 bucks more to buy a 5grs heavier Viscaria (~97gr)than a scaly koto outer one. But I'll pay 100 bucks more to buy a yellowish to amber grain koto Viscaria with many "termite bites" on its face.
The fish scale is nothing to compare to that koto outer.

unstopabl3 wrote: NextLevel wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: NextLevel wrote: Everyone has a preference. Whether it is arrived at by obsessing over things that hardly matter as opposed to falling in love with something for tacit reasons is the issue at hand. In the end, OP will love the blade even though it is clearly not what suits his game. Anyone who spends so much time buying a blade has no time to do the real work of playing good table tennis. Then what did you mean by this, seemed like you had a better suggestion or knew my game style from the OP. Yes you go ahead and spend time with your kids, better than posting here for sure People who spend a lot of time obsessing over these things on the internet can't/don't play.  That's my experience.  It's very different from testing equipment or changing equipment.  Asking questions on the internet about equipment is something a good player would not obsessively do.  That makes it likely that a blade like the Viscaria will help your game (it may not hurt it either, but that is another story). I just like to make an informed decision before spending $100+ on a blade, maybe you are too rich but not me. Plus it's always better to get feedback from our fellow players, that's what this forum is all about. Also I don't understand why you spend most of your time on these forums when you are clearly lecturing others to PLAY instead of spending time here. Anyways, not going to get in a useless argument, if you can't stay on topic please refrain from posting.

I spend time on these forums because I love table tennis. I love watching it, playing it, coaching it and talking about it. And I am on topic. I am telling you that this level of time investment into table tennis equipment is not rewarded if you aren't actually testing it. The amount of standardization that goes into making TT equipment is relatively poor and almost no two blades are guaranteed to play the same unless you are ordering from a specialist manufacturer who uses the same wood to make the same blade twice on your request (and even that has limitations given the nature of wood).

If the goal of all this is to be happy with your purchase, it is probably going to work if you don't confuse happiness with performance. Unless you play with a blade, you have no idea how it will play. If you have no one to borrow a Viscaria from, the best thing going for you is that it has decent resale value. But if you want to play good table tennis, you can play good table tennis with a blade half that price like the Stratus Powerwood or the Peterpan without losing any sleep. So if money is really a concern, which I doubt it is other than for rhetorical purposes, you should know that most people can play almost as well if not better with something far cheaper than what they currently use. You just have to spend time adapting to it.

Ultimately, its a bad idea to buy something that you have never played with unless you have a plan B for when you don't like it. I actually found the Viscaria way too fast for what I like to do and I dislike the fact that you need to pay an arm and a leg to get the square handles I prefer (though there is the ZJK ALC if that was my main concern).

But in any case, you are doing the right thing. Just in the wrong sport. In this sport, there is nothing like a test drive and even that is riskier than in other better standardized sports.

Baal wrote: unstopabl3 wrote: Baal wrote: TTNPP may make you wait.  Not sure how responsive they are to this kind of thing*.  Good luck. * I also should make it clear that I am basing this on some threads here over the years, not on personal experience.  Some people get great results with them. Yes I have read many such threads, especially a recent one in which NL and quite a few were satisfied as their orders were on time, but a few had bad experiences as well. Thus my enquiry :P They maybe slow at replying to emails or not reply at all, but I hope they send the products out quickly. What's your take on MegaSpin? All of my experiences with MegaSpin have been perfect.  Once a blade got broken in transit and they replaced it for me no questions asked, telling me that they should have packed it better.

Since I made a couple of posts about TTNPP and issues they had in the past, I should in all fairness mention that I have ordered some NP40+ balls from them recently, got an email acknowledging the order immediately, and received the balls about 9 days later (today) with no problems at all.  Based on this, I would use them again.  This has nothing to do with a fish scaled Viscara, but this is the thread where I disparaged TTNPP, so this seemed to be the right place to post this.

I also had a great recent experience with Megaspin in which an item was damaged in shipping (a box of balls actually) and they replaced it. 

siestakey wrote:      Hi , TTnPP have really come on strong in the last 18 months or so , never had a problem , shipping is better than ever . Just ordered a fish scale myself !

What's the usual delivery time  to UK? And did you contact TTnPP about the blade weight and stuff before ordering or did you just rely on their website description for the order?

The thing which I didn't like about TTnPP is that I sent them a few emails regarding the blade weight and never received a reply, it's been a month now. So I ordered from somewhere else, who actually replied to me and kept me updated.

siestakey wrote:    Delivery is  7-10 days but Viscaria I get from the USA and pick the heaviest , usually 86-89 . Or try Saletabletennis . Good luck.

From where did you order the fish scaled viscaria? I thought you ordered from TTnPP

siestakey wrote:      Yes , fish from TTnpp , normal from the Usa .

Well let me know about the weight and playing characteristics when you get them :P