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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 19:56 
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I'm improvising this review as I go, so everything may not be in the greatest order, but I'll try to speak on Express Ultra and as best as i can.

Express Ultra is one of my all time favorite short pip rubbers, for a few reasons.

Express Ultra:
The look: The beautiful, shiny, grippy look of a new tensor rubber from a reliable company. Nothing in the way of a dull 802; pretty, durable, exquisite look rubber from the get-go. As for the pip spacing, wider and a bit farther apart than something like Spectol, but fairly well packed and not too spaced out. The pips are longer than some SP's and shorter than some SP's (shorter than Hexer Pips + by a tad, but nothing significant).

The feel: Extremely durable and grippy. I feel that this rubber would last me over a year with no issue; the topsheet feels hardy, yet as flexible as one would want, if committing to a full on topspin drive. In other words, stiff enough to perform the requisite SP flat hit, yet markedly flexible enough (with enough wrist power) to execute fairly strong topspins against dead balls and underspin balls.

The throw angle: Low, baby, low. This is my favorite thing about the Joola Express Ultra, and Tango Ultra for that matter. The blocks and hits act as an SP should, in that they're low, fast, fairly dead (not as dead as Spectol) and consistent. While Spectol is currently one of my favorite rubbers, the throw is a bit higher than the Express Ultra (but Spectol is slower, and the sink tend to get it on the table). This is perfect for the poly ball, as I found (compared to celluloid), the throw is still low, but the ball sinks more, thus making it much harder for the opponent to return. Disclaimer: no intent to turn this into a debate on why deception is good or bad or cheap; I don't play SP for deception, it's just an acceptable byproduct of using a rubber that maximizes my BH potential.

The gameplay:

Against chop: The (EUR) 45 degree sponge pays serious dividends here. The beautiful thing about this rubber is that the pips and sponge are firm enough to easily hit through semi-high-over-the-net backspin (of any strength), yet the combination of topsheet (pips being fairly flexy but stiffer than some) and sponge (harder than some but not brick hard), allows you to easily flip dead balls or underspin balls with significant topspin.

Serves:
the amount of spin is often grossly underestimated on serves. The ball's trajectory is of course different than inverted rubber, which won't fool anyone over 1800 USATT, but the amount of spin can often be deceptive (I find it's easier than inverted to disguise the difference between light and heavy spin). With the poly ball, if anything the spin on flips and serves is more deceptive, as the ball doesn't kick as much. On flat hits, the slowness of the ball as compared to celluloid is unfortunate, but the sink is greater, and I suppose it all equalizes (given that its harder for the looper to give a comparable amount of topspin to your shot)

Against dead balls:
These are your friend. Hit flat. Hit hard. Hell, even use a semi-inverted topspin drive. Dead balls get demolished with this rubber. If you don't believe me, try it. Poly ball is better than celluloid for this shot! It sinks onto the table in a very polite manner that's exceedingly difficult for the opponent.

Against Topspin balls:
I found that when compared to Tango Ultra, the Express Ultra was significantly better at blocking heavy topspin. I was hitting blocks against a 2300 USATT Looper, and the loops were so strong that with the soft sponge of the Tango Ultra, my hits were bottoming out and my returns were erratic. Enter the harder Express Ultra Sponge: my punch blocks had enough oomph to send heavily spun shots from my opponent back with a deadly, surprising lack of spin. I fully recommend this rubber over almost any other for returning hard topspins, as long as you can deal with the pace of a harder sponged tensor rubber. The poly ball is a bit easier to block or smash onto the table, but the difference is not too significant between the celluloid and poly ball.

Overall: Joola Express Ultra is a winning pimpled rubber, for attacking any sort of ball (if you're a chopper, steer clear!). Highly recommended.


Last edited by Beta on 30 Dec 2014, 20:17, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 20:05 
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Sounds like it would suit my forehand but too fast for my backhand. Could you compare it with Raystorm which I used for a while?

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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 20:15 
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Bulldog wrote:
Sounds like it would suit my forehand but too fast for my backhand. Could you compare it with Raystorm which I used for a while?

Bulldog.


Definitely, but I'm feeling a little too tired to give a comprehensive review of Raystorm today. I'd be happy to give you a Raystorm review in a few days, as it ranks among my favorite SPs (the others being Tango Ultra, Express Ultra, Flarestorm, and Spectol).

I can say though, with certainty, that the Express Ultra is the perfect FH SP. I played with SP on the FH for awhile, and I found that with the power a FH shot (from anyone) can produce, a soft sponge actually hinders accuracy. Faster and harder is better, because it adheres more to that 'straight line mentality' shot you're going for with an SP. It's basically point and shoot. If it makes any difference, the highest ranked FH SP player (Zhan Jian) uses a super hard and somewhat spinny rubber for his FH! So it must have some credence.

Additionally, I tried Spectol, Spectol Speed (pretty good for FH), Spectol 21 briefly, Tango Ultra, Blowfish, Hexer Pips+, Flarestorm, 651, 652, Dragonow, and a couple others I can't remember off the top of my head for FH, and the Express Ultra was singly the best for hitting through any ball, with great accuracy, at lightning speed.


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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 20:29 
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Cheers. I have been tempted to try this pip for ages. I want to try a double sided pip strategy again at some stage in the future.

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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 20:41 
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Bulldog wrote:
Cheers. I have been tempted to try this pip for ages. I want to try a double sided pip strategy again at some stage in the future.

Bulldog.


If by double sided pip, you perhaps mean SP/SP.. get Express Ultra in Max on both sides of an all-wood, medium soft, very stiff blade, and you'll be in pip heaven. I actually recently crushed a couple of 2100-ish USATT players with that very same setup.. It seems like you can hit any ball. Topspin, dead, backspin, any variant of sidespin; and it goes in like a bullet.

If you pair the Express Ultra with the right blade, you can create some seriously heavy topspins (against dead/backspin), heavy pushes, and heavy serves with it, while being able to flat hit (at bullet speed) literally every one of your opponent's shots with it.

Also: I tried a 2 sided-Tango Ultra in max with the same setup; while soft sponged SP BHs have pretty good blocking control and can help set up FH loops, if you use 2 sided SPs, a soft sponge spells a quick death for you in the point. It can't propel hard loops out of it with enough gusto, so you end up sending back dead blocks, which move you slightly away from the table in anticipation of your opponent's return; if you don't have inverted rubber on at least one side, your options become severely limited from there, as your fishes are not at all variable.

As it stands, with all my one-sided inverted paddles I keep a super soft SP on the backhand, yet with my SP/SP setups it's medium hard/very spinny SPs on both sides.


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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 20:48 
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I am about to move from long pip to medium pip first on the backhand and will take it from there but my forehand strokes may well suit short pips as I take the ball very early and hit it flat. I used Raystorm with Hallmark Half Long one Summer just after the frictionless ban and it went quite well but I didn't have the courage to stick with it.

I was going to use a Joola Wing Medium which might not be stiff enough.

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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 21:00 
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Bulldog wrote:
I am about to move from long pip to medium pip first on the backhand and will take it from there but my forehand strokes may well suit short pips as I take the ball very early and hit it flat. I used Raystorm with Hallmark Half Long one Summer just after the frictionless ban and it went quite well but I didn't have the courage to stick with it.

I was going to use a Joola Wing Medium which might not be stiff enough.

Bulldog


Honestly speaking, medium pips (like 563) are their own world. The leave you with zero opportunity to play pseudo-inverted shots, while at the same time giving you very little leeway to play defensive LP shots (like the LP chop with varied spin). Medium pips are the hardest of all to use in my opinion, and can only, solely, be used for flat hitting through balls, which is not as easy as it sounds. If I were you I might try transitioning from LP to SP first, and see if you like the change in dynamic. If you don't have a heavy forehand loop and prefer to smash balls, you may well consider trying a sheet of SP on the forehand (if you try SP on forehand don't get a very soft sponge)


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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2014, 21:52 
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I have some 563 on order so I will try it out. I have a sheet of Pluto which I am about to try again but I may also get something like 802 40 to test.

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PostPosted: 01 Jan 2015, 02:55 
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Beta wrote:
I'm improvising this review as I go, so everything may not be in the greatest order, but I'll try to speak on Express Ultra and as best as i can.

Express Ultra is one of my all time favorite short pip rubbers, for a few reasons.

Express Ultra:
The look: The beautiful, shiny, grippy look of a new tensor rubber from a reliable company. Nothing in the way of a dull 802; pretty, durable, exquisite look rubber from the get-go. As for the pip spacing, wider and a bit farther apart than something like Spectol, but fairly well packed and not too spaced out. The pips are longer than some SP's and shorter than some SP's (shorter than Hexer Pips + by a tad, but nothing significant).

The feel: Extremely durable and grippy. I feel that this rubber would last me over a year with no issue; the topsheet feels hardy, yet as flexible as one would want, if committing to a full on topspin drive. In other words, stiff enough to perform the requisite SP flat hit, yet markedly flexible enough (with enough wrist power) to execute fairly strong topspins against dead balls and underspin balls.

The throw angle: Low, baby, low. This is my favorite thing about the Joola Express Ultra, and Tango Ultra for that matter. The blocks and hits act as an SP should, in that they're low, fast, fairly dead (not as dead as Spectol) and consistent.

Clip

Overall: Joola Express Ultra is a winning pimpled rubber, for attacking any sort of ball (if you're a chopper, steer clear!). Highly recommended.


Interesting, I used to use 2.0 Joola Tango Ultra and it would give people trouble with it's varying spin, sometimes heavier topspin but very flat on smashes. However i felt like it wasn't as good on medium speed shots, like rolls, though it was great on the high speed shots. So I switched to Joola Snabb, which had better feel on those medium speed shots with it's harder pips and sponge.

Also, durability of the Joola Tango Ultra was poor, 3 months was about the most it would be good for, the soft pips and the soft sponge meant it would go dead, so nice that the new one is more durable.

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PostPosted: 21 Mar 2015, 09:50 
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tried it today and didnt like it that much. its grippy and creates sufficient spin and its really fast. what i read in several threads was that it had a low trajectory. i didnt really find that to be all that much true. compared to leopard, blowfish+ etc the trajectory isnt that low. though being grippy, its rather easy to block with..however i did have some control issues when hitting und unexplainable unforced errors now and then. reading the descriptions i find that these better match the andro blowfish+ = grippy, easy to control, easy to hit through loops, high control.

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