I kept this ball from the sale of my pro shop, as I wanted to try some of this company's balls.
This ball has 3.00 top weight before drilling with a 3.5 inch pin. I put the pin 4 1/2 inches from my PAP with the MB at a 60 degree angle. I used a 1" pin buffer, which means the pin is 1" from my vertical axis line. The pin is about 2 1/2 inches above my ring finger, cg is down under my ring finger. Drilled the fingers a little deep to keep the ball legal.
This ball is pretty dull out of the box, and I'm drilling the Big Bang also, with this pin position, I shined this ball with the polish provided in the box. The polish must have a small amount of grit to it, as the towel was turned blue with sanding residue while on the spinner. The polish worked pretty well, taking some of the sanding lines out of the ball, and shining the ball more than the box finish.
I practiced/threw this ball at Heritage Lanes in Oklahoma City, a really nice bowl with Brunswick Pro Anvil Lane, and a fair amount of oil for their house shot. The pattern is pretty easy, with a large build up inside about the 13 board, and some hook around 10. Seems very long also, my shiny Thunderstruck barely changed the shot at all after 8 games of practicing yesterday.
Right from the beginning I liked the way this ball rolled. Very rolly, making it through the arrows cleanly and then aggressive in the middle third of the lane. A pretty smooth move at the break point, not very sharp, but very continuous. The hitting power was very exceptional. I left a stone 7-9, a couple 8 pins and a couple solid 9 pins. I like balls that do this, looked like the ball missed the 9 pin by 5 inches to the left, just crushing the pins, no deflection. The ball snapped the 10 out very consistently, most all of the ones I left during the session were more due to my bad/inconsistent release and/or putting the tape in the thumb at the beginning.
You could see the ball's flare on the back half of the lane, because of all the logos on the ball, pretty predictable, and hit well even when I didn't release the ball as well as desired.
I think this could be a great league ball for fresh oil, and house shots with a good amount of oil. The shell seems to be too aggressive for dryer lanes and/or short patterns, unless you did some spinner work to smooth the surface and put some really good shine. (I just ordered some Beans Secret Sauce, we may see what happens with that stuff)
It should have a pretty strong back end move with the shine added, and slower ball speeds will probably like this look. Higher ball speed players will probably like the box surface better, specially on heavier oil. Higher ball speeds could probably use this ball well on medium lanes and some dry lanes with the surface shined, I think this might be really nice. Slower speeds, tweeners will need some oil to use the box surface. The shell seems pretty tunable, but I still think fresh oil is the ticket, no matter which surface prep you use.
As of now, I think this is a very underrated ball. A pretty good ball that not many people know about, mainly because Legends/Lanemasters is a small company and these balls can be a little pricier than most. The hitting power that I saw would make this ball worth a few extra bucks.
Hope this helps ya!!
MikeA
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Driller to many "Stars" and Tony Melendez too!
COMING SOON!!!
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