When you buy or use a ball, how much credence do you give to what the manufacturer says the ball is suited for?  It is entirely evident that not everyone pays too much attention.  On any given telecast you will see one guy using a light oil ball and another using something for soup.  Well, maybe just heavy oil.  At league you see a guy throwing a sanded raging and another throwing a polished blazing.  One guy throwing a hot rod another throwing a fear factor.  This one time on strikepiss, barnes was up against angelo.  Barnes was playing a swamp monster on the twig, and angelo was swinging his blazing.  According to brunswick, these two balls are for basically opposite conditions.

I've found that many times, the suggested usage that companies give is just bunk.  My Black Cherry Bomb outhooks my nugget.  No doubt about it.  However the nugget was marketed as being a step over the BCB and under the super carbide bomb in terms of hook.

All the time on this board you will see people review bowling balls in completely different light.  The uranium is good only in soup.  It is only good on light oil.  It can only work in carry down.  It only works on longer patterns, etc.  

I guess my question to the people on this board, who throw a lot of bowling balls of course, is how much do you pay attention to the suggestions of the ball manufacturers?  Do you find what they suggest to be true?  Or do you have your own matrix based on coverstock and core composition to determine what it will be good on.  Thanks as usual.

CCB

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I bowl at country club bowl...not a very inventive name now is it.

I figure I can just make my own ball rating matrix, for me.  I get decent revs on the ball, speed isn't so hot.  So for me, just about anything will hook.  I mean, since I throw 14 - 16 mph, there is enough time down the lane for any ball to grip.  So for me, everything will be hookable, but with minor adjustments up or down based on coverstock and drilling.  And, both houses where I throw have reasonably dry backends, even in carrydown they are ok.  Anything will work, but somethings might work a little better.  I doubt that any ball I pick up out of any company would be totally unusable.  I bowl on a house shot.  Any ball works on a house shot.  Even my white dot hooks, just carries a little worse.  

I guess it is just a bit different for me, because I am a league bowler.  All I do is bowl league.  I don't have any delusions of grandeur.  I might bowl a tourney, but really, my equipment is just for league.  And truthfully, I've found that they all hook.  They all hook plenty too.  When I throw 4 balls that are supposed to look radically different on 1 pair of lanes, and they all give me a real similar shape, I can be pretty sure that any of them will do.  I guess that my conclusion is that I am not at the level where I can appreciate the subtle differences in ball composition.  I think most people can't.  They just buy stuff because of what it is supposed to do.  I know I did.  

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I bowl at country club bowl...not a very inventive name now is it.