Well Mike I own both of them. I didn't comment at first because I have such contrasting layouts on them its hard to really give a true comparison, well in my mind at least. You can view the layouts in my profile of them both.
The Sonic Solid I keep polished and I get great length out of it, even with drier heads and a flip and finish reaction(emphasis on finish) on the backends. But this ball needs crisp backends, a hint of oil and its gonna keep sliding. I haven't had a problem with this ball finishing, I think thats due to the layout and the energy retention it has.
Now the Sonic Pearl was my experiment ball...My first RICO drill. And man I can throw this ball on almost anything as long as I have a little bit of backend. This ball stays polished too, but with the low pin placement it causes the ball to want to roll early. So if the heads are too dry it will check up on you. Again crisp backends are desired. Since this ball rolls earlier for me I do have problems carrying the 10 on occasion from the ball rolling out on me. But that is just poor shot making than anything else.
I think if you put the same layouts on the sonic solid you would have a nice 1-2 combo. The Solid has a strong cover on it, so you can tweak the reaction easily with a little surface or polish. The only thing I would reccomend is that maybe you might want to keep the same pin to PAP distance but put the pin below the fingers instead above. Just to give you a little earlier roll for when or if you see a little carrydown that causes the pearl to skid.
I hope that helped,
BMM
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Roto Grip forever!!!! What else is there??
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