I picked up a NIB Green Mamba at the beginning of this season. The ball had a shorter pin, so decided to go with a 45 X 5 X 70 layout, which put the pin below/between my fingers and the MB out towards my VAL. This layout required a small weight hole, near the P3 position to make the ball legal. I left the surface in the box finish.
I bowl league weekly on a relatively easy medium-heavy volume house shot. I actually expected the ball to cover a few more boards with the F74 coverstock, but I get just enough movement on the fresh to score. I'm able to play 10 at the arrows out to 5 and the breakpoint.
In one word, this ball is Smooth. I very nice, controllable reaction. Doesn't cover a ton of boards for me, but enough to get decent carry. The ball really seems roll through the pins well. Even when the lanes start to dry up and I move inside, the ball still has enough to carry reasonably well. This reaction isn't the fancy "go long and hook hard" hockey stick type, but it just gets the job done. I have thrown more big games and high sets with this ball than I can ever remember in the past.
I'm starting to buy into the SRC marketing hype. On just about any reasonably thrown shot, the ball gets into a nice consistent roll. For an assymetrical core, it seems quite forgiving with minor release variations (also the fact that I'm bowling on a relatively easy house shot helps too!).
As previously mentioned, the ball does seem to pick up/show the dirt. I keep a bottle of "Resurrection" in my bag and it seems to get most of the marks off at the end of the night. Probably approaching 50 games on the ball now.. I've freshened up the surface with a 4k abralon pad a few times, but the ball has shown no signs of losing reaction. Overall, I'm really happy with this one.