Spidy's Blade Ratings/Reviews
Back to spidy's ProfileHere are Spidy's ratings and reviews. These ratings are useful because Spidy has his/her own standard and will rate and review the ping pong equipment accordingly, giving you accurate and useful ratings and reviews to aid you in your next online purchase.
Donic (1) 

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Donic Waldner Black Devil Carbon Balsa
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Review of Donic Waldner Black Devil Carbon BalsaWhat a blade! Mine weighs 76g. The blade size is a bit smaller than e.g. BTY, Stiga or Yasaka, but only 2-3mm. It is also very fast, and the control is so-so. But it is always a compromise between speed and control, isn't it? If you are an all-out attacker or at least a speed blocker, try this blade, you'll love it. The blade has some vibration, but not much. It makes a higher-pitched sound than normal blades, this is due partly to the smaller size, but mostly to the material of the blade. It almost sounds as if your rubbers were speed-glued =)Coming from Stiga Hybrid Wood, this is much faster. I play Tenergy 64 on my forehand and I love it with this blade. T05 just didn't feel right for me with this blade. A friend of mine tried this after the Maze (w/T05), and said this was excellent with T64. So this blade probably plays best with a soft to medium soft rubber. Donic, well done! Awesome blade. And for half the cost of e.g. BTY Maze or the likes. Pros: -lightweight -very fast -stiff, but still some feedback -good handle (FL) -excellent quality/price -looks cool (black) Cons: -control might be better, if the blade was larger -balsa is fragile, needs edge tape Mar 09, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
Stiga (1) 

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Stiga Hybrid Wood NCT
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Review of Stiga Hybrid Wood NCTIf you don't mind the weight (mine was 99g), this blade is excellent. This would definitely be my dream blade if it was 20g lighter. Feedback, dwell time, control, and speed are all in perfect harmony to my taste at least. This blade is rated 95g by Stiga, but mine was 4g heavier. This is not as fast as BTY Maze or Donic Waldner Black Devil, maybe closer to Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Off. This has also less dwell time than Maze, but more than Black Devil. Sweet spot is very large, control is great, handle feels very good (FL) and I have had no problems with warping like there has reportedly been with Ebenholz NCT VII.Bear in mind that I have been using very light rubbers with this blade, e.g. Dawei Inspirit Quattro UL SV35 and 729 Super FX Lightening. These rubbers are not the fastest on the market (the Lightening was downright slow), so this blade will obviously play a lot faster with tensors and other faster rubbers. However, to keep the weight down, I believe this blade would benefit most from the Quattro UL max H42 (Power) on forehand and either max H40 or 2.0mm H42 on backhand, depending on your style. Stiga Innova Ultra Light SynergyTech would also be a good choice, only more expensive. If you play pips-out, try the 729 802-40 2.0mm H35 with this blade, it weighs only 28g cut to shape. Mar 09, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
Yasaka (1) 

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Yasaka Ma Lin Soft Carbon
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Review of Yasaka Ma Lin Soft CarbonWhat a disappointment this was for me. This was my first new blade in 15 years, my old one was Joola Rosskopf Fire. Having tried my mates' blades, I finally decided to invest in some quality equipment. I bought this blade because I wanted more speed and more control than what I had. So I chose a carbon blade, but a Soft Carbon. I thought Yasaka and Ma Lin were supposed to be a guarantee of a good blade. Alas, it was not. For +50 euros, this blade is a very bad buy, there are lots of better choices out there.The blade has a very poor speed to control ratio. According to Yasaka, the blade is supposed to have an extra-large sweet spot, but still it feels to function properly only when you hit the ball pretty much in the middle of the blade. The blade vibrates unpleasantly and the blade feels sluggish if you don't hit the sweet spot. There is not much dwell-time with this blade, so getting a good spin on the ball is quite difficult unless you have excellent technique and a suitable rubber. Tenergy 64 might be a good fh-choice here, since it adds some dwell time and is fast enough. For the bh, I would have to recommend something very lightweight, otherwise the weight will be too much for comfort. Dawei Inspirit Quattro Ultra Light H35 (SV35) or H40 (UL) 2.0mm or max might work just fine. I tried this rubber also with a soft (H35) attacking pips-out rubber, and it just didn't work, for me at least. Finally, my blade weighed in at 96 grams, although it was rated at 85 grams. I have contacted Yasaka several times both in Sweden and in Japan about this anomaly, but have got no answer from the emails on their website. Unless I hear back from them pretty soon, I will never ever buy Yasaka products or recommend them to anyone. This blade was supposed to have it all for me, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. I know some top players have used this blade (e.g. Mattias Karlsson, world #361 Dec.2009) but I can't see that they have been using the same blade as this. Pros: -workmanship is fine -blade comes pre-sealed Cons: -extremely heavy, 11g more than rated -poor speed/control -not much dwell-time for a "Soft Carbon" -smaller sweet spot than expected -handle is too thin (flared) -poor customer support from Yasaka Mar 11, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
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