Thanks to everybody for your input! I decided to go with the Ultimate Inferno, as I have no other strong reactive ball in my arsenal, with the possible exception of the V2 "sanded". From observations that I've made of other bowlers, I think the V2 sanded rolls better polished, so I don't want to return it to the box condition. As it is, we didn't sand the V2 surface -- all we did was apply a polish to the surface to give it a nice shine. I only have about 10 games on it, so it isn't oil soaked by any means. It just squirts on my typical oily heads/carry down condition, but what polished reactive doesn't? (unless you tear the cover off the ball, which I don't)
The Ultimate should be a much stronger ball for me, especially if I leave it in the box condition (which everyone indicates is very strong).

Now if I can just find a house for the summer that has a THS so that I can unleash ALL of my equipment and score!

Edited on 5/20/2004 1:04 AM

I 2nd ak57

Hey guys,
So far I only have a few practice games on the ball on a THS. Wow -- this ball really hooks violently on the back end! I don't know the technical data, but the pin is at the top of my ring finger, and the "CG" (I think that's what it is -- it's just a little dot) is between my ring finger and thumb. I left it in the box condition. I throw fairly hard, medium revs, track low, and I muscle the ball (i.e. I pitch the ball down the lane with turn, so I don't generally let the ball do all the work).
I wanted a layout and ball that would give me a strong backend reaction, and this ball fits the bill. For comparison's sake, it's stronger and much more angular than my Flipside Wow, and hooks about 5 boards more on a fresh backend. Some of the strikes I got were just filthy ridiculous for me and my game! It's quite unusual for me to cross 20 out to 5 and watch the ball zoom back towards the head pin in the last 10 feet. Admittedly, I slowed the ball speed down a little to do this, but that made my speed more of an "average" ball speed anyway. In the three games, I had a 7-bagger and a 5-bagger, which wasn't bad considering that I was really tired and also had to adjust to a new finger pitch. I also had some big splits, as I would tug the ball (or throw it soft due to weariness) and it would dive right through the head pin. I also left a few solid 10 pins, but all of those could've been better shots anyway (for my point of view regarding solid 10-pins for righties and 7-pins for lefties, see my signature ;-)).
I have yet to try this ball on my usual house shot, which is fresh oiled heads with carrydown and a buffed midlane. I know that on that condition, this ball won't finish like it does on a typical house shot with fresh backends, but I am optimistic that it will still give me some finish (especially with keeping the original surface).

The strong backend reaction might end up being a little too strong for me, but I'm happy with it for now.

I'll let you know more once I've tried it out on different conditions. Thanks again for all your input.
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You weren't unlucky when you left that corner pin, so shut up about it already!!