OOAK Table Tennis Forum

What are your opinions about these pips? Whatsponge should I get, and it can range from 1.0 to 2.5 in thickness~

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DHS pf4 032/ Globe 889~

889 pips are rather spinless, more like medium than short pips as they are hard and relatively ungrippy. I like a soft 1.8 sponge on mine.

889-2 is very similar to 802-40 or Juic Patisuma. Large pips that are quite spinny, good for attacking with the forehand, but the original 889 will block better and produce a flatter ball if you want more pips effect.

Most people seem to like 2.0 for shakehand forehands, some go thicker but I prefer thinner sponges myself on my penhold forehand.

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

I liked 802 better. you can do more with it. 889 is not grippy enough.

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Galaxy K-4/ Xiom Vega Pro/ Xiom Vega Pro

Yet 889-2 is spinnier? How about compared to 802-40?

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DHS pf4 032/ Globe 889~

I haven't used 889-2. 889 is for a pure short pips game, really. It's one of the, if not the best out there for smashing and punch blocking, and it can send a pretty dead ball if you passive block. The topsheet is quite hard. The sponge is medium-soft and quite fast, even in 1.8 (the thickness I used). If you want to be able to loop fairly well with the short pips, go for the -2 version. If you want pure smashing power, go for the regular.

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Jpen: Galaxy 982 juniper 8mm- Darker Provine Tension-50 2.2 or Tibhar Torpedo Soft 2.2
Shake OFF: Galaxy T8 ST- FH: Darker PT-50 2.2, BH: Juic Varites 1.5
Shake DEF: modified Joo- FH: Reactor Corbor 2.2, BH: Globe 979 1.5

Hobbes, what other pimpled rubbers would you suggest. So far I'm thinking about 802-40, 889, and 889-2, so what others?

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DHS pf4 032/ Globe 889~

Just 888, 889, and all of Friendship's SPs. I've used Spectol briefly, on another person's paddle, same for Raystorm. I didn't like either of those for attacking (though they chop quite well). 802-40 and 889-2 are probably the best general use SPs. Get a sheet of one of those and a sheet of 889 in you want to slowly work into a more pure block and smash game.

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Jpen: Galaxy 982 juniper 8mm- Darker Provine Tension-50 2.2 or Tibhar Torpedo Soft 2.2
Shake OFF: Galaxy T8 ST- FH: Darker PT-50 2.2, BH: Juic Varites 1.5
Shake DEF: modified Joo- FH: Reactor Corbor 2.2, BH: Globe 979 1.5

I have not tried any of the other pips mentioned but I can tell you about 802-40. It is quite an amazing rubber. I could block and counter drive very well with it. My normal game is counter driving but I found with the 802, I did not have to watch the spin as much. Just watch for the top of the arc and drive it. This is with a pretty open blade and going into the ball more than up. It required a different stroke than with my inverted. Less up stroke, shorter stroke, use the wrist.
Against chops, same thing, just open the blade a little more, go into the ball at the top of the arc.
I could also make VERY good, spinny serves with 802-40.
I could use 802 and come up with a good game but would have to give up some of my spin shots. I do brush loop sometimes, and 802 will not give a "strong" brush loop.
I got killed by a guy (rated about 2100) that used a rubber like 802 and he just flat hit anything. It is hard to beleive how low a ball he would just slap back. Spin did not bother him.
Depends on what type of game you plan just how usefull 802 would be. I don't think it really is a good rubber for looping. On an OFF blade, I had no trouble blocking but hard to do a short block on a hard loop. I had more control pushing than with inverted.

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Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max

Which of the following short pimple rubbers is best?
889
889-2
802
802-40
799
Is there another rubber which is more effective for blocks, chops, drives and flat hits?

Of the ones you listed, I've only tried 889 and 802. I know that 889-2 and 802-40 are both high spin pips, and 799 I seem to recall is a raw pip. For the combination of shots you listed, I would say plain 802 on 1.5 sponge is probably the best choice from those. Chopping might be a bit difficult with the others, particularly with thicker sponges, given that they're all comparatively fast (with the exception of 799, I don't know enough about it to say). I can confirm from experience that 802 is quite effective for chopping, thanks to its slightly dead feeling.

However, have you considered going with anything more expensive? Given how long sheets of short pips last, it doesn't make much of a difference to invest a bit extra in them. TSP Super Spinpips Chop Sponge is even nicer for all of what you listed, thanks to its thin, ultra hard, and mostly dead-feeling sponge. Hitting with it produces some really strange float effects, and it's a lot easier to chop and block with.

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Shakehand Modern Defense
Butterfly Defence Pro ST, Butterfly Tenergy 64 (1.7), TSP Curl P-1R (1.0~1.3)

Please remind me again the definition of a "raw" pip.
Thanks,
tOD

Raw is soft, cooked is hardened. Most short pips are cooked, most mid pips and some short pips are raw. Raw pips typically can impart more spin of their own on the ball, since you get more mechanical spin with them, whereas cooked pips hit through spin better. This is speaking very generally, there are exceptions. There are also some pips that are halfway between, and have some of the properties of both.

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Shakehand Modern Defense
Butterfly Defence Pro ST, Butterfly Tenergy 64 (1.7), TSP Curl P-1R (1.0~1.3)

Thanks for the information.
tOD

GR wrote
I am currently training to get back my SP game (had to give up chopping&looping because of backproblems) and trying out different combinations of pips and blades. I have tried all of the above, and 802-1 as well, plus DHS 651, 652, Friendship Legend 105 and Double Fish 820a.
799, 105 and 820a are soft longer short pips, or medium pips. On fast blades with decent dwelltime they are excellent for fast hitting and blocking, very good for forehand attack sending balls with low spin. 799 is more sensitive to incoming spin than the other two. 820a is by far the fastest. To make spin yourself you have to hit the ball into the sponge, pretty deep too, which requires a specific type of stroke with a quite open blade. If you aren't used to it, it feels odd; and if you don't do it right, balls will drop off your bat. This type of fast medium pip is, as a forehand rubber, popular with some female top-players, like Song Ah Sim. It is hard to play against, but not easy to use as well. As a backhand rubber for control, 799 is very effective, since it can absorb some of the incoming speed. 105 and 820a are strictly offensive in nature.
The DHS short pips, 651 and 652, are fast and not as hard as most SPs. They both can produce decent spin, although they hardly react to incoming spin. They are very fast, but lack in control compared to the other SPs mentioned here. Both are offensive SPs.
802-1 is a slightly slower version of 802, less capable of producing spin (on its standard sponge, at least; if you want to loop or serve with it, go for 2.2 mm) and less sensitive to incoming spin. It is the perfect blocking rubber for a controlled backhand, and still fast enough for backhand hits and punches.
802 is one of the fastest rubbers around, capable of producing some spin, and decent serves, but meant to hit with. It is a forehand attack rubber. It combines well with old-fashioned heavy blades with some softness in it. On balsa blades it gets so fast that it becomes hard to control and carbon doesn't help either.
802-40 is easier to play with and really one of the best allround SPs with very good speed and possibilities to make decent spin, even if it is not very sensitive to incoming spin - less so, in fact, than 802, as its pips are further apart (like 802-1). A soft touch will even reverse incoming spin a bit. But hard hits do not, as the sponge is very soft. The Mystery III version of this rubber plays very well too, without speedglue. 802-40 combines better with balsa than does 802.
The Globe pips are allround no-nonsense short pips, capable of making some spin, pretty insenstitive to incoming spin (the least of all the pips mentioned here) but moderate in speed - fast enough, but nothing like 802 or 820a. 889 is not so different from 889-2, which is very slightly faster and spinnier, as well as softer. For offensive use you need a very fast and hard blade; they both combine pretty well with balsa blades as well. 889 is a lot like 802-1. 889-2 is like a slower and slightly less spinny version of 802-40. They are very effective if used for a style which combines precise blocking with quick hitting, and their relatively moderate speed helps to prevent hitting balls over the table.
802 or 802-40 on ALL+ blade will get you a combination which is as fast as a Globe on an OFF blade, but in my opinion the latter will give you a wider range of speed and more control. Still, the speed of the 802 will make it easier to force your opponent away from the table.

889 is special in that its name is used by various firms: there are or were also 889 versions by XuYaoFa, 999 and XiYing. The XiYing version is pretty similar to the Globe 889, but not identical to it. The XuYao version was even harder than the Globe; the 999 version was slightly softer and slower.

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Without opponent, no match.

i've tried globe 889-2 with a japonese sponge 2mm at 35° ! it's really soft ! too soft ??? topsheet is really the same than 802-40 ! with good control in any situations and with a good spin effect ! i've tried it with a TSP toccata cutted blade ! it'sa good choice for guy's who come back from backside game, and the topsheet globe quality is real. It could be a right version for a forehand player but linked with an offensive and hard blade !
so finally, play with it is amazing but i'm prefering to play with TSP super spinpips on my forehand !!