OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have finally found a blade, that has convinced me to sell my ALC, and to my surprise it happens to be a 5 ply all-wood blade.

Long story short, 2 years ago, I had switched to using an ALC from my avalox 777, due to the bigger sweet-spot and how easy it was to block (a big weakness of my game), while sacrificing a bit of spin. However I have been testing various blades in recent months for charlie, and one of the new series of blades that he has designed specifically for the plastic ball is called the Ghost series, that aims at providing these exact characteristics without using a composite material like carbon, and preserving the feeling and spin generation capabilities of an all-wood blade.

The core 3 plies are what give the ghost series their personality. The center ply is Honduran High density Mahogany, this allows the core to be thinner, while still being able to support the blade and provide a solid foundation, the center ply is surrounded by two instrument grade canadian hinoki plies, which add resonance, also translated as the right amount of feeling/feedback when you strike the ball.

There are currently 3 variations of the ghost-series, aimed at different kinds of players. I have tested all of them and these are my impressions.

Hinoki Ghost: This is my current blade, its composition is hinoki - hinoki - Mahogany - hinoki - hinoki , i recommend this for people who love to loop and like soft feeling blades. Since hinoki is always used in thick plies, my blade ended up measuring 7.2mm, but when i loop with it, it has the right amount of flex for my heavy rubbers, any thinner than this, the blade would behave like a slingshot, this one also provides a lot more dwell time than the other ghost variations, and this for me corresponds to the amount of spin i can generate, which I feel is definitely a good 10-20 % more than my ALC. For a blade that has so much spin and power, it weighs 82g, and i have it in a smaller head shape, similar to the Donic's waldner head shape, this has helped in cutting down the rubber weight, and i m at 174g with 2 tenergies.

Obeche Ghost: This one feels similar to my clipper CR, the outer plies are obeche, which are comparable to limba wood. Its not as soft as hinoki, but not as hard as the koto ghost, and is a happy medium between the two, which i can recommend for people with a more all-round game.

Koto Ghost: This is a special variation of the ghost series, where there is a very very thin layer of nano-carbon underneath the outer koto layers, this was specifically designed for our forum member nathanso, who plays an aggressive short pips(with a long pips bh) game, i found this blade to be similar to my alc, mostly due to the feeling on impact. This is the only one that comes in different colors like radioactive green/ red/ blue/ platinum (if you are in to that kind of thing).

Both the Hinoki and Obeche Ghost that i tested were a solid OFF, lots of spin and feeling that are a hallmark of 5-ply blades, but also excellent power and stability that you are associated with stiffer carbon blades.

If you have any more questions and would like to order one of these awesome blades, please email [email protected] or contact him at http://www.bladesbycharlie.com/contact

Here are a few pics of the different ghosts.

Hinoki Ghost





Obeche Ghost





Koto Ghost

They don't appear on BBC's website. Too new?

Iskandar

Haha yeah, the website is a bit out of date, let me know if you need anymore information on this blade.

I saw this thread on mytt, but don't have an account there. I was curious about the koto ghost. I don't recall a speed rating In your review (mytt, didn't read this one). What is it? Is Nathanso available to give his thoughts? I'd like to see it in action.

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"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."

Nathanso plays with an OFF+ ghost, he likes his fast. The one I tested was an OFF-. Based on what speed you want Charlie can adjust the thickness of the layers to produce the desired power. The koto ghost in off- is also Charlies blade.

And the hinoki ghost I m using is a solid OFF

I didn't realize my BBC Ghost prototype was now a "Koto Ghost", but so be it! My Koto Ghost is 6.7mm thick and in what Charlie calls the P-Head shape; a slightly oversized design that I find is good for aggressive blocking. It was designed for SP/OX LP so its weight of 100g is workable owing to the light weight of the OX rubber. This blade is unique in that it has OFF+ speed combined with a low tone on the bare blade ball bounce test; an indication of its relatively long dwell time and resonance. With 2.0mm Nittaku Beautry SP, this Koto Ghost hits like a pile driver yet has uncanny control and feedback (its 'doink!' sound can be heard throughout the gym when I'm hitting hard SP shots). It even does OK at chopping with 755 OX LP, which is surprising for a stiff, hard OFF+ blade.

Charlie is experimenting with a new variant of this design to bring the weight down below 80g so I can use the heavier Dr Neubauer Aggressor 1.5mm on the BH while keeping the paddle weight sub-165g.