I had a discussion with one of my good bowling friends, who also happens to be a ball driller as well. He knows I'm a geek for this stuff so he presents a newly drilled piece he has and ask me, "what will this ball do for you?"

It's a Radical Cash, drilled pin under his middle finger with the mb kicked out. The surface is at 4000.

So I say for me, it would give me relatively good length; it would read the mids a little earlier, but it would have a smooth transition on the backends.

He says NO! He says, the pin-down drilling would raise the RG of the ball, and lower the differential, especially because of the surface.

Now to me.....I think we are saying the same thing, just using different terms. Is this a correct perception?

P.S. (he had just gotten back from a bowling seminar)

Think about it like this. 50% of ball reaction is based on surface. 25% is the pin-pap distance. 15% is the core strength, 10% is layout/tweaks. Surface dictates the length of the ball, pin distance is how much flare you will get, core strength is the engine size, high pin vs low pin has much debate, but simply its how fast the ball will transition, high pin will react faster and a little longer down the lane, lower pin will transition slower and a little bit earlier.
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Cash is a strong assym, so the pin further from the pap will increase flare.

As far as the surface having anything to do with lowering the diff and raising the rg...

No.

+1 on it depending on your style.  For example you could put virtually any layout on a Cash and with my style (high axis tilt, low revs, speed dominant) I could make it work it on fresh house shot no problem (sadly too weak may require me to throw from right corner).  For say some of the 2 handed rev monsters the opposite where regardless of layout or surface they might not be able to keep it on the lane or keep it from burning up even on the heaviest flood (strongest ball for a reason).