I thought I would post my initial reaction to the ball simply because this site has given me a lot of useful information, and it would be good to add some myself. I'll post a more detailed review later.
specs, 15# 2-3 oz top, 2-3 inch pin, drilled label.
Only thrown it on a medium-heavy house shot so far. Not a difficult shot, but I don't think it's quite a stone wall. There is some oil outside 10.
First off, the ball is a demon on the backend. Last 20 feet of the lane can seem awful long the way this ball reacts. I don't think I've ever thrown a ball that saves so much energy for the backend, which can be a blessing and a curse. The good part is of course the entry angle you can create with a backend dominant ball. When I throw this ball, if the ball pushes past a certain point on the lane, I'm pretty sure I will get a strike. If it starts to roll early, I can only hope for brooklyn.
In comparison to the black cherry bomb, the breakpoint is of course later as I stated in another thread. So it took some getting use to. I struggled a lot to get control of the breakpoint, because I was used to having to account for a real early break. Not so much with this ball. If you are looking for a slow, early arcing ball, don't pick up this one.
Something that I don't see mentioned too much in reviews is the effect of varying levels of revs. I like to switch up revs before I make a ball change, speed change, boards, line, etc. I can also rely on the accuracy of the following statements by observing a few other people throwing the ball with different rev rates. At low revs I think this ball really stinks. The hit is lousy, it doesn't make a strong move, and it doesn't particularly do anything special. When I first threw this ball I was working on a lower rev more accurate shot. This is not the ball to do it with. I saw another guy throwing it with a mongoose on, with this lazy kind of spinning release that bugs the crap out of me. He probably revved it 5 times the way down and it hit like a marshmallow. A really really soft marshmallow. You know, like when you leave it in the fire for too long, and it gets kind of burned on the outside, but it's really soft on the inside? Yeah, softer than that. So I was initially pretty dissappointed.
So I decided to rev it up a little more. Actually a lot more. Then the ball came alive. I really started to see the backend reaction that I had been hoping for with this ball. Easily recovered from the 4th arrow out to 10. I didn't try much more than this. But it was a huge difference in overall reaction. Now this might seem really intuitive to some people. Duh, if you rev it, it will move more. But I can honestly say that some balls will move and hit strong even without many revs. They are pretty darn good with and without revs.
This one is like a chick that you take to the prom, who is kind of beat looking when she is just kind of lounging around school. But when you dress her up real nice, she is smoking. This ball is smoking if you use it right. Joe Falco was saying this is a condition specific ball. I think that is probably true, most balls are. But I would also add it is a bowler specific ball. If you rev it up, this ball will be spectacular. I know this will be my go to ball when I want to actually put the effort in and rev it up. If I feel like stroking it, there is no way this will be coming out of the bag.
So far, better than average with revs. Below average with lower revs. Wow. That was a lot more long winded than I had expected. When I throw it on more shots I'll post a review in the reviews section.
On Edit:
Feel free to PM me if you want any specific questions answered. I'll do my best to answer with what I know. Thanks for reading.
CCB
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Buzzsaws are very, very dangerous.
Edited on 12/29/2003 1:44 PM
