I've been at a quandary with my Nuts Pearl. Out of the box (3000 abralon) had too much mid lane and didn't do a whole lot at the break point. 4000 abralon helped a little, but not enough to really make a difference. I tried 500 abralon with Bean's Secret Sauce. Finally got down lane better, but didn't have any oomph where it was needed. Truthfully I never matched up well to the Sauce but I still have a lot left over. Even when using a few drops per side the back end is muted for me. My heavy handed rev dominant friends like it much better than me. Went back to 3000 abralon and applied some (very) old 1500 grit React-A-Shine. I don't polish much of anything since I bowl on mostly sport shots and this was the polish I still had lying around. The stuff seems to work fine for house shots, but I wonder how good it is on more modern cover stocks considering it's age.
I finally broke down and bought some of Valentino's Snake Oil. The creator used to post here quite a bit and I never heard anything bad about the product. Like Bean's Sauce and Doc's Magic Elixir, I'd prefer to try anything from people who frequent the site. After talking to another member here, I decided to take the ball back to 1500 Siaair and hit it with the Snake Oil. The ball has a very high gloss, but still has that tacky squeak that I like to feel.
I used it a little on Scorpion for about a game from the middle of game 3 to the middle of game 4. It was cleaner through the front and middle of the lane than my 2000 grit Wicked Siege (no easy feat - that ball is super clean even with plenty of surface) and had a nice hard arc at the break point. Enough to get the job done without the super-flip that gets you in trouble. I also had my best look during this weekend's practice for Paris (47', but with a low volume, but there's a lot of oil in the middle. The Wicked Siege was too strong in the lighter oil, but struggled to read the oil well when I moved inside. The Nuts Pearl with Snake Oil actually gave me some mistake room on the pattern. Miss a touch in and it would read enough to hit the pocket. Miss a bit wide and there's definitely some recovery.
No one cares about practice scores, but I put up two really solid games with the Nuts Pearl/Snake Oil combo. The ball just flat out looked good the whole way down the lane. With everything else, I just couldn't get lined up and get the ball to read the pattern properly. I don't think I've ever found a polish before that's allowed me to have a really good look on a sport shot. Even after they break down a bit I tend to get a lot of over/under. So far, I give a big thumbs up to Valentino's Snake Oil.
