before you "give up" on a certain ball that is not working, have you tried adjusting the cover? some balls will work better at lower or higher grit, polish or dull and on certain lane conditions. thats why we have arsenals. also changing your hand positions. now if i have tried both and still no results, then i would check with your pro shop on the layout, possible change? if you dont want to go that route then consider a trade or selling. but you never know? maybe it will work, later?

On a particular outing, I give up on a ball pretty quick. With todays modern equipment, it becomes apparent in a hurry because, if a ball iis the right one at the time, you will strike and hit the pocket very frequently. If it looks decent, but doesn't strike, there is a reason. If you fight it and try to continue to figure it out, you will waste frames trying to get something from nothing.

 

 As for when I decide to actually do away with a ball? If, after several attempts on different lanes, on different nights, the ball just never seems to match up with anything, I'll retire it and move on. I like to try out different equipment. Most will eventually work somewhere, but there are some that never do. Those that don't work become evident pretty quickly.

In the past, I have almost never been happy with surface changes I have attempted. on the other hand it's been a long time since I have tried to change the surface on any ball.  one that did work out very well was putting polish on my Hammer Anger. It was way too early and/or burning up with the matte [oob] surface, but tried polishing it and have never considered going back to oob.

 

On the other hand.... have a couple of reasonably new Track balls (607A and 718A), and maybe dropping the grit or somehow dulling the surface might be the answer. I love the look they give me ---very skid-flippish----but along with that am getting a ton of over-under. Some of that is "operator error" and may be  using on the wrong condition, but maybe making them a little more arcing and less skid-flippy is the answer? 

 

 

Edited by Neptune66 on 3/28/2011 at 6:42 PM

Sand it or polish it, sand it 1000, try it, sand it 2000, try it, sand it 4000, try it, then do all the sandings I just offered with Polish, if none of them work then the ball is a dud in your game, DO NOT RE-DRILL unless you have a garauntee the optional drilling will solve the problem, sell or trade it with 1 drilling to maximize it's worth to the next user.

Props to Afflac for dumping Gilbert!