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| Nittaku PimpleMini -Initial Impressions https://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1174 |
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| Author: | Shoebox9 [ 06 Sep 2007, 15:40 ] |
| Post subject: | Nittaku PimpleMini -Initial Impressions |
This is not a true review as I didn't spend a lot of time using this pip. When I saw it wasn't my cup of tea, I quickly moved on. (Sorry- I wasn't too dedicated to the review cause here.) However, read on, as this is a pip that isn't supposed to exist. Colour: Red Sponge: 1.0 Tested on: Matsushita Pro Marketing Claims: The back of the packet trys to say that this pip is not sensitive to incoming spin, and produces no-spin balls when blocking. Appearence: Looks like long pips that have been shrunk in the oven. Pip Stiffness: soft to medium (similar to P1-R) Pip Characteristics: shorter than long pips (perhaps this is technically a short pip- I didn't measure), but very skinny. Pip Spacing: would be wide if the whole sheet was "unshrunk". The pips have a widely spaced look to them, which is partly due to how skinny the pips are, rather than the actual spacing. Speed: Slow. You won't break the sound barrier with this one. Sensitivity to incoming spin: Medium/moderate I didn't test this against the robot, or spend a lot of time blocking serves, so I didn't get a strong feel for this. It was less than I expected however. Ability to create spin: Amazing. There is something about these tiny pips that is less grippy when the ball hits them head on (ie tiny contact area), but much more grippy when the sharp edges of the tiny forrest of thin pips strikes the ball at a sharp angle. I could push back underspin with underspin, and even create quite spinny serves. Blocking: Didn't do any, so I can't comment. Counter Hitting: Brillant. This pip returns mild topspin when counter hitting medium topspin- you can really attack. It feels like a short pip (obviously a slow one, with only 1.0 sponge) in that you can be aggressive and hit virtually anything. The best part is when the incoming topspin gets stronger- your same stroke now gives no-spin balls, or even mild underspin (depending on how hard you hit etc). Very deceptive at high speed. However you can't play passively- there isn't enough spin variation for that. Pimplemini needs to be used like a short pip over the table or you die. Also, this is not an ultra spinny short pip like 802-40/Tango Ultra that allows you to accurately place shots against high spin loops- it gives up some accuracy in place of deception- just like Dr N's Pistol. I should have done a side by side comparison, but didn't think of it at the time. From memory Pistol 1.6 would be faster and more short pip like. There is much more accuracy than the best hitting long pips I've seen however, which was the very fast Guillotine 1.2. Chopping Away From The Table: Excellent! I told you this pip shouldn't exist. Remember all those posts asking for a pip that was good for chopping and attacking- well this is it! I could add a fair bit of underspin to light topspin/no-spin balls. I doubt it would pass though as much spin as long pips like P1-r, but the control felt very nice. I'm not a good chopper, but felt I could learn to use this pip if I needed to. Surely no other short pip chops as nicely as this. It felt easy to use. Better choppers would need to comment on this pip's ability to create float/underspin variation. Summary: This is a long pip that shrunk in the wash, and in doing so gave up a lot of over the table spin variation (the reason I don't like it), but also gained hitting/counter hitting abilities. Nice to chop with, nice to hit with. Use in thicker sponge and/or on a fast blade if your primary purpose is hitting. |
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| Author: | Mathias [ 06 Sep 2007, 21:35 ] |
| Post subject: | |
This does look interesting. It sounds like Juic Leggy to some extent. Its a pity thats its slow, although of course you can use that as a defensive advantage. |
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| Author: | alfie [ 06 Sep 2007, 21:59 ] |
| Post subject: | |
a chopper at our club used them last year,UNreal spin on his BH chops and he had pretty good spin on serves. His weakness was when I served hin nospin balls. He could BH loop backspin ball with decent speed,the guy was very very hard to beat and out of the 25-30 I played him last year I beat him 1 time 4-3. This year he changed his setup to a faster blade and joola badman,I have played him 3 times this year 4-1,4-0,4-1 in my favour |
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| Author: | Mathias [ 07 Sep 2007, 02:25 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Ok gang this could be a serious rubber and we'll need good comparisons. What troubles me is the lack of length of the pips, the pips have to bend to get random effects and reverse spin into them. |
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| Author: | alfie [ 07 Sep 2007, 03:09 ] |
| Post subject: | |
when he blocked those pips I didn't recieve the normal reverse spin but rather got balls back that had either much less spin than I thought or no spin at all,but he could create the spinnest chops I ever saw when away from the table. When I served he could give me back whatever he wanted to except reverse spin,one miniute my opening loop would go in the net and the next it would go long even with heavy backspin serves it was very hard to judge what he gave me so I just had to serve him nospin or very light backspin serves. IMO typical friction LP are easier to play against and more predictable I don't believe they are a long pip rubber but medium pips I think |
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| Author: | dwruck [ 07 Sep 2007, 05:08 ] |
| Post subject: | |
On the Paddle Palace website it's described as "medium-long". For almost $27 per sheet, I don't think I'll be giving this a try anytime soon, though. |
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| Author: | Mathias [ 07 Sep 2007, 05:31 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Well I certainly think we should thank Shoebox for his in depth review of the rubber. The picture is beginning to build up. I agree that manipulating the spin is often a bit obvious with pips so this one could be really interesting. The thread must go on... |
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| Author: | Joo Se Kev [ 07 Sep 2007, 05:44 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks a lot for the review shoebox! I've been taking another look at medium pips recently and this one sounds very interesting. Especially the part about chopping... |
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| Author: | haggisv [ 07 Sep 2007, 07:13 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks Shoebox9 for the review, nicely done! I actually sounds more like TSP P-2 to me than other long pimples. |
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| Author: | Shoebox9 [ 07 Sep 2007, 18:04 ] |
| Post subject: | |
I thought about P2 as well. PimpleMini probably gives even less spin variation over the table (just a guess). No spin serves should be much easier to handle than with long pips. I'd sidespin them, or chop them if they went long. I'd be interested in this rubber if I played shakehand. With my current grip I can't be aggressive enough with the b/h rubber without twiddling, which is harder/slower to do than with Shake. I wondered if Pimple Mini would have enough spin variation to interest Mathias. The variation it does offer only kicks in at higher speed. Speed glued it could be a whole different animal as well- but I didn't get that far. I thought it was worth a write up just becasue it so easy to both hit and chop with. Obviously there are better pips for each, but crossover players should give this a go. |
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| Author: | haggisv [ 08 Sep 2007, 08:49 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Yes, well worth a write up! Almost every pip has some unique properties, and there may be someone out there who is looking for exactly that... |
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| Author: | Mathias [ 09 Sep 2007, 03:37 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Hmm.. you look to be right. I kinda like wearing the 'long pip' badge and in particular you can suddenly switch tactics with long pips, whereas with shorter pips you are stuck with an offensive style. It does look like its something I should test though for sure. The rubber is not yet available in Europe (like a lot of the Nitakku kit) - so I'll hold off for the time being, but yeah I'll be checking it out at some point. Obviously if I wasn't happy with Frustration then I'd be testing much sooner, but my only gripe is I can't get 1.2mm sponge (1mm might be too slow, 1.5mm loss of control on punch blocks and touch strokes) - but I can live with it. |
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| Author: | Mathias [ 09 Sep 2007, 04:00 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Pimple Mini Pimple Mini ONE Interesting there are two types of Pimple Mini. Hmm.. looks like Nittaku are trying to capture a market share. I wonder what will happen to Curl Bamboo after the long pip ban, i.e. will they revise it? It wouldn't be too hard for them to do it. |
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| Author: | theOldDuffer [ 09 Sep 2007, 04:59 ] |
| Post subject: | Mini Pimples:) |
It does look like its something I should test though for sure. The rubber is not yet available in Europe (like a lot of the Nitakku kit) - so I'll hold off for the time being, but yeah I'll be checking it out at some point. I didn't find it helpful to me, but I did get it in England, so I know it was available at one time there. tOD |
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| Author: | Mathias [ 09 Sep 2007, 08:35 ] |
| Post subject: | |
where? |
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