I drilled it up last week, basic 12 o'clock drilling, pin under bridge, CG straight down. I guess it's like a 3 X 3 1/2 drilling? It was a 15 lb 2 oz, 2-1/2" pin ball with 3 oz of topweight.
So far I tried it out on an afternoon shot at a wood house that had recently been cut and coated (about a month ago). The pair was playing pretty squirrelly. They had a ton of open play on them, especially the right lane,
which was flying, the left still had a little bit of hold. My buddy is the lane man and he told me they were stripped the day before, run pretty even 8-8 out to about 32 or so than buffed to around 40. He's been playing around with the condition so the outsides were really squeeky.
My profile lists most of my stats, mainly a power cranker, lots of revs, high track, finally back up to 17 to 20 miles an hour depending on the condition. So I usually like to get inside and swing the ball.
I started off throwing my Storm Freedom (overseas version of the USA Gold, basically a remake of the Eraser-It) with about a 1200 polish, which is my hooking ball right now, pin is about an inch above the ring and the Cg is a little right of my center line. The ball is really arcy and flares a ton. It usually picks up in the midlane and then makes a hard charge to the pocket, not really skid-snap, but more of heavy roll. With the USA I was swinging 4th arrow out to about the 3 board on the "oily" lane and 5th arrow to about 6 on the torched lane. I could get deeper if I wanted to, but I couldn't tug it or send it out to the gutter without getting a weird reaction since the outsides were so dry. There was some hold in the middle, but if I tugged it, it didn't hold to well and either went brooklyn, or rolled out and hit dead. It was really too much ball for these lanes. Even with the high pin, it just rolled too early.
I forgot to mention that I took the Elite up to 5000 grit with Ebonite's old compound system (the one that starts at 600 and goes to 5000) than threw a little Black Magic on it. I never like to start with a "box" finish because than I don;t know how to recreate it later. Needles to say, it was pretty glossy. After I got lined up with the USA I tried out the Elite. It has a completely different reaction. The ball clears the heads really cleanly. The low RG core wanted to get turning, but the coverstock wasn't giving it much traction. It saved all of its energy for the last 10 feet or so, and then flipped really hard. and I mean Flipped. The N Control doen't arch like the Activator balls. It is defintely more angular than the original Inferno, who's core it supposedly shares. I was able to play a much more angular line with it. I was lining up between 4th and 5th arrow and swinging the ball to about the 3 board on both lanes with the ball breaking around 48 or 50 feet. It really took the heads out of play because it would skate for so long before catching. I really didn't expect this ball to be this strong. I figured it would be a lot more even with less of a jump on the backend. I definitely like it, and I haven't had this kind of reaction in a while, not really since the old Columbia Outrage or the Bullwhip.
For the heck of it I tried a few other lines. I tried going down and in, playing 10 to about the 2 or 3 board, and I was suprised at how well this snappy of a ball handled it. The N Control was still able to clear the heads and core helped to smooth out the reaction as long as I didn't get on it too hard. If I hit up on it, it had way too much backend, but if I took some hand out it tamed down a bit, it still looked like somebody kicked it left, but it didn't cover as many boards on the back end. By the way, the Freedom was completely useless going down and in. It burned up early arcing into the nose or going brooklyn. The Accu-tread definitely didn't like the dry boards.
One of my favorite lines to play, but really hard to find a ball to do it with, is too stand at about 25, throw the ball around 17 or 18. and really stand up on the ball with a lot of end over end roll. Most ball will either hit the oil and keep on skidding, leaving a lot of flat tens or other taps. The rest of them will hook too much and leave fun splits. Because the Elite cleared the heads so well, I decided to give it a try. I was really happy. I was able to get the ball to skid about 50 or so feet and than make the little move back to the pocket with enough entry angle to destroy the pocket. I haven't had a ball that was able to do this since my Drastic Carbide (purple and yellow AZO ball) that was drilled with the pin in the track.
I really think that bowlingball.com came up with a great niche ball with this thing. It seemed to do a good job of evening out some pretty spotty lanes because it negated the heads and had a lot of energy left for the dry boards. I need to try it on some more oil, but I'm sure it won't really handle it too well.
Sorry for the really long review, but I bowled 9 games between the Elite and the USA Gold, and wanted to be thourough. Too many people give short reviews that don't tell you anything, I'm on the other end of the spectrum. When I get a chance to throw it on some oil, I'll try and post again, but I'm sure it won't be pretty. I'm gonna have to keep this this thing ready for tournaments and late shift leagues.
I don't really know what else on the market today would give this kind of reaction, it is kind of unique. Usually the balls that clear the heads, don't hit this well or act this consistent. There just aren't enough low RG balls with snappy coverstocks. Too bad they only made 750 of em.
Mankow
