Got a 16-pound Satisfaxion a couple of weeks ago (first L/LM ball since my old Yeah Baby) and after playing around with it a couple of weeks, committed to starting league with it last night.

I had a terrible look with it in practice, so I wasn't all that confident, but opened up with five shots in the pocket (three strikes, two 10-pins, one that I missed), then a four-bagger heading into the 10th, and then I got bitten by something that has become a big nemesis for me over the last month -- pocket 7-10 on the first ball of the 10th, complete with flying messengers in both directions that didn't take out a pin. And we lost the game by six sticks because of it.

I think I shot 214 that game, can't remember the score. Second game, I was fine until the sixth or seventh frame, which is the point at which the high-rev guy playing just inside of me finally ate up my hold area and I had to park the ball for something with a weaker cover. Still shot 196 that game.

This is an odd ball for a pearl. It rolls heavy (I like that), covers a decent amount of backend (I like that, too), offers nice recovery from inside angles (big plus). The bonus was a real lack of deflection once it got to the pin deck. I guess the best way to put it is the ball rolls like it's 18 pounds instead of 16. The only real negative was that it didn't offer a lot of zip if I missed outside my mark. But I'd rather have hold on a pulled shot than bounce from a flagged shot.

I've got it drilled pin-under-bridge (I figured with this core I wasn't going to see "flippy" no matter how I drilled it) with CG kicked out an inch or so to the VAL side. That's around a 4x3 drilling for me.

I've noticed some people calling this a "dry-lane ball." Horsepoopy. We had the wettest lanes we've seen in a month last night and I didn't even reach the end of the second game.

Reminds me a lot of some of my older Lane #1 gear in the way it rolls (and that's a compliment).

If you guys had to suggest a way to "arsenalize" this ball within the context of L/LM gear, maybe put things above and below it, how would you do it?

Jess

charlest,

From limited experience so far, if I stayed more behind the ball, it was very smooth and rolled hard in the midlane. If I started dialing in more axis rotation, then I could start to see the angular qualities coming out. Now, that's probably true of all balls to some extent. But the change in this ball seemed a bit more noticeable. That would back up what you said about core/cover combo and the ball being a "chameleon."

Incidentally, I have never had as many people ask me what I was throwing as I did last night due to the ball's looks. That thing gets a lot of attention.

Jess