OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hello,

Saw this blade on the Dr. Neubauer official website .... It's listed as NEW, and until March 31, 2019, retails for a special price of 35.90 Euros...

Here's the description and specification, as copy/pasted from the official site ..

GRAND MASTER
The new DEF blade for use with ABS balls

GRAND MASTER is a slow defense blade that reduces the speed of the oncoming ball decisively.

It was specifically designed for use with ABS balls and largely facilitates controlling fast attacking shots with less rotation.

The blade provides high control and excellent ball feeling both for classical defense and for short blocking close to the table.

GRAND MASTER can be used equally with inverted rubbers and with pimple-out and Anti-Spin rubbers.

Also it will enable active shots through counter-attacking and hitting to change the rhythm of the game.

Available with straight, flared, anatomic and Chinese Penhold handle


Price: EURO 49.00
Category: DEF
Weight: appr. 68g
Layers: 5
Thickness: 5.2mm
Handle types:
straight-flared-anatomic-Penhold
Speed:
65
Control:
95
Dimensions (H x W)
15,3 x 15,5cm

Has anyone played with this blade ? If yes, post your thoughts on it...

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Very slow with a lot of control. It’s very thin so the feedback is great. I really liked it.

Which long pimples and inverted rubber are good for this blade?

I like thin blades and asked for some info on this one ,here is the reply:

Thank you for your email and your interest in our products.

No, our new blade 'Grand Master' does not contain any balsa.
Please note that we do not disclose the exact composition of our blades since we had too many cases of other companies or persons simply reproducing them.
However I can tell you that the outer plies are made of ayous, and the core as well.
This gives the blade very good control and high efficacy.

All in all the blade is a bit stiffer than your current "TSP black balsa 3.0" and also a bit less slow, providing you with more attacking possibilities while retaining a high level of control.

Let me know if you have any further questions

Regards

Carsten Neubauer
Dr.Neubauer Table

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Tsp Black Balsa 3.0 Tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox black

Dr Neubauer seem to have worked out how to make non balsa blades as light as balsa ones.

I have the new Bloodhound blade which is wood and carbon and is about 70gms. Good if you want a light blade with a hard non balsa feel.

Not hard to make a blade stiffer than the BB3.0!

Yes bb3 can be too flexy,however there is variation from blade to blade.I have a 60g one which vibrates/flexes too much and plays differently to my matchblade where the vibration is there but much cleaner and easy to read,can't remember what the original weight of this one was before I downsized it ,suspect it was heavier,it weighs an incredibly light 118g with rubbers on now!

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Tsp Black Balsa 3.0 Tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox black

Hi Dazzler. I have BB3.0 which I cut down and stiffened the throat with wood glue. Not being used so you are welcome to try it. Gives more control on FH when going for it.

My game has improved by switching to stiffer harder blades like the Black & white and Bloodhound both of which have carbon but still light at 69gm and around all to all+ speed. All my TSP balsa blades will be confined to my TT cupboard or sold.

So in my experience of the Dr Neubauer Bloodhound the Grand Master should be a good upgrade for the BB3.0 with the polyball, better for precise placement and more linear/consistent in its response.

I'm intentionally not reading the comments above because I don't want my comments/impressions to be swayed . . .

So far, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I haven't felt excitement over a blade in a long time. It took me about 30 minutes to get used to it . . . seems like two gears or maybe it's just two strokes . . . ball die and drop short in gear #1. Once I adjusted to the amount of effort, this was extremely effected. In short, more balls landed on the table . . . way less errors long. Yet, when I needed to put a ball away, it did not come back. I feel like the amount of dwell/flex was just enough to provide feel for up-close and personal shots AND provided a bit of catapult for mid-distance and/or put-away shots. Do to my physical disability, I tend to rely heavily on quick wrist shots as opposed to graceful full-body shots a la loops. Grand Master seems to suit my game perfectly. I've always been a fan of Dr N gear and have owned many of his/their blades, included the mighty "Special", a couple combination blades, and Firewall Plus. They are all sweet, but I'm finding that the thick balsa blades don't suit my game as much as the thinner counterparts.

First Impressions (also posted on OOAK Forum as they are pip/blocker enthusiasts) . . .

For blockers and darksiders . . .

So far, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I haven't felt excitement over a blade in a while. It took me about 30 minutes to get used to it . . . seems like two gears or maybe it's just two strokes . . . balls die and drop short in gear #1. Once I adjusted to the amount of effort, this was extremely effected. In short, more balls landed on the table . . . way less errors long. Yet, when I needed to put a ball away, it did not come back. I feel like the amount of dwell/flex was just enough to provide feel for up-close and personal shots AND provided a bit of catapult for mid-distance and/or put-away shots. Do to my physical disability, I tend to rely heavily on quick wrist shots as opposed to graceful full-body shots a la loops. Grand Master seems to suit my game perfectly. I've always been a fan of Dr N gear and have owned many of his/their blades, included the mighty "Special", a couple combination blades, and Firewall Plus. They are all sweet, but I'm finding that the thick balsa blades don't suit my game as much as the thinner counterparts.

Disclaimer: The blade was equipped with Killer on FH (SP) and Trouble Maker on BH (LP). I am not 100% sure what attributes to attribute to the blade vs rubbers as it was the first time playing with all them.

I sealed the blade with AFM's Safecoat Poly in Matte . . . non-toxic and almost no VOC.

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I am Tommy Zai
[email protected]

What other blades play similarly to Grand Master? If I do experiment further, I want to continue in this direction!!!

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I am Tommy Zai
[email protected]

Nice review Tommy! How would rate the speed of the Grand Master? It’s rated as a DEF blade by the Doc. How did you like the Toublemaker? I actually got one in the mail too from Germany .

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Equipment:
OSP Ultimate, FH: Dr. Neubauer Dominance Spin Hard 2.1, BH: Dr. Neubauer Troublemaker 0.5
YouTube channel: "AntiRules"

Hi Matt,

Grand Master: I think DEF is accurate. It's not dead feeling, but it definitely takes the pace off the ball. At first, everything was in the net. I needed to use a more active form of my blocking. I've hit with you enough to guess . . . You would love this blade for you BH (control, drop shots, etc.), and you would need to put a lot more energy into your FH to achieve the same speed your used to. However, you'll probably notice excellent control . . . you might need to get a notch faster rubber to compensate.

Trouble Maker: It actually plays more like anti than many other LPs I've tried. T.M. has a lot more grip than DtecS and most of the Spinlords. It hits really well. Great control. Dead balls. I didn't notice a lot of reversal, but the two players I demo'd with were not looping, so . . .

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I am Tommy Zai
[email protected]

Don’t know! Played with it with the Troublemaker and my opponents were killing me. The control is great but not tricky at all. Interestingly enough, I cause most troubles by Andro Defcon with Spinlord BS.

How does Grand Master compare to the Neubauer Kung Fu?

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Kungfu seems to be a higher quality blade. It’s thinner but it plays faster than the GM. As it’s faster, it seems to be more dangerous for your opponent.