OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I just received the Golden Tango.
Thanks.

Upon initial inspection I'd agree with your assessment of tackiness.
It is tacky, but not as much as a H3.

I have a spare Hurricane 3 Provincial blue sponge, so I'll glue up the Tango on one side with the H3P on the other and do a review for anyone that's interested.

I use H3P as my regular FH rubber, so my take on it may vary from yours, as I believe you usually have a tensor type rubber on your FH.

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Viscaria
FH: H3 Provincial Blue sponge
BH: Omega VII Pro

that's great - I'm not really the right person to compare Chinese rubbers - most of my reviews start as "well, this is different to Tenergy"!
Interested to hear what you think...

Yes plz. I use H3P as my primary FH rubber too. Your review would be much appreciated.

Passionate about TT

I'll be testing a sheet this weekend too, can't wait!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I tried it, I really like it.

Topsheet is mildly tacky and quite soft, sponge is firm. It's a really spinny rubber on every stroke. more later.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

This rubber sounds very interesting due to the fact it is similar to the Victas 401 I am keen to hear more.

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Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS acid green OX BH
Setup 2: Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.00mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS red OX BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Spinlord Gigant anti-spin red BH
See the ball, be the ball...

How does it compare to Palio Thors? They are both 54deg I believe.

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Dr N Firewall Plus
Hurricane 3 neo provincial
Yasaka 007

Compared to Thors, the Golden Tango has a softer and tackier topsheet, so it's easier to spin the ball.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Here is our german review of the Golden Tango:

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GeblockTT - table tennis on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/c/geblocktt

So......Did any of you get to play some more with the Joola Golden Tango? And if so, could you give us a more complete review? I'm interested, as it sounds like it might meet my requirements for my FH.

Thanks

Robert

As stated earlier in this post reading the reviews so far I was very interested as it seemed to be similar to the Victas 401. Luckily I had a chance to try a training partners blade with the Golden Tango on it. I was impressed that it was more spiny than the 401 & also a lot lighter. So I now have a TSP Trinity Carbon with a 1.8mm black Golden Tango on my FH with a red Spinlord Dornenglanz OX on my BH. I used this last night in Comp. great result noticing much more spin on the FH. So far so good.

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Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS acid green OX BH
Setup 2: Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.00mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS red OX BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Spinlord Gigant anti-spin red BH
See the ball, be the ball...

Here is my Golden Tango Review. Below is a summary:

Serves & pushes
Spin on serves & pushes is outstanding. Not only does it provide extreme grip due to the tackiness, but the topsheet also has a slow & dead feel, so it’s real easy to keep the ball low with high spin. I’d put the spin right up there with Victas 401 or Tenergy 05, although both these rubbers won’t keep the ball as short/low as easily. To get the high spin, both the Golden Tango and Victas 401 require a fast brush underneath the ball, while the Tenergy 05 requires a bit more of a dig into the sponge and a snap of the wrist. Against incoming spin, the tacky topsheet of the Golden Tango makes it a little more sensitive.


Blocking
When I first swapped from my usual Victas 401 (2.0mm) to the Golden Tango (also 2.0mm), my practice partner seemed to have more trouble when looping against my blocks, and it took me a while to work out why. The tacky topsheet seemed to take more pace off the ball, so my balls landed shorter at times, making him reach more. Control of the pace of the ball is actually really good with this rubber (on Trinity Carbon), and you can certainly block fast as well by putting a bit of oomph onto it. Controlling high spin is a little harder, and is not as good the Victas 401 (which excels at this), but it’s not as sensitive as Tenergy 05. Rebound-wise, pace of the ball with Golden Tango < Victas 401 < Tenergy 05.


Looping
This is always a tricky one to review, because spin & speed of a loop depends so much on your technique, so perception can vary a lot. For a brush loop (big swing, Chinese style), spin was very high, especially when not engaging the sponge so much, you get a very high spin slow loop, and can be a very effective weapon. I’ve always found the Victas 401 to be king in this area, but the Golden Tango comes close, although the throw and speed is a little lower, so it takes more effort to lift heavy backspin. Tenergy 05 excels in this area too, but the ball comes off with considerably more speed, making it harder to control and an easier combination to block.

So for brush loops:
Speed: T05> Victas 401 = Golden Tango
Spin: Victas 401 > Golden Tango > Tenergy 05
Throw (arc) Victas 401 > Golden Tango > Tenergy 05

For Loop drives (more compact, higher impact, Euro Style), the story is a little different. Spin is still very good for this, but the arc is lower.
Speed: T05> Victas 401 > Golden Tango
Spin: Tenergy 05 > Victas 401 = Golden Tango


Chopping
I do believe this rubber is specifically suitable for modern defenders, who want good spin and control for chopping, yet good power for counter attack. This puts it in the same category as the Victas 401, which is why I’ve been using this for comparison.

For chopping, the rubber performance is excellent, able to generate loads of backspin, and the control is very high giving good dwell time due to the soft & tacky topsheet. I tried it in 2.0mm, and expect it will offer even more feel & control in 1.8mm, and a little less in MAX. It’s a shame they didn’t make a 1.5mm version as well (like the Victas does), or the control is likely to be even higher.

As with any rubber used for chopping, you need a fast chopping action to get the spin and control, else the rubber becomes more sensitive to incoming spin, reducing the control (and spin) significantly. Comparing The Golden Tango to the other 2 rubbers, the spin on all 3 would be similar (all very high), but the control is best on the Golden Tango, followed very closely by the Victas 401, with T05 a distant 3rd, as it’s much more bouncy. Since only the 401 comes in 1.5mm, it’s still the leader of the pack.


Durability
Well I’ve only used the rubber for a few sessions, and no sign of wear at all. Tackiness has remained consistent, as long as you keep it clean and continue to apply the protection sheet.


Conclusion
So, does the Golden Tango replace the King of Choppers rubber, the Victas 401? No, not quite my opinion, but is does have some advantages over the Victas 401, depending on your style of play and the types of shots you play most, so it may be the better choice in some cases. If you like tacky rubbers, like many Chinese rubber, but want the speed of German/Japanese rubber, then Golden Tango is an excellent choice and there a very few (if any) that can match it.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

haggisz, What a great review & for me at the moment the Golden Tango is my FH rubber of choice but not the 2mm but the 1.8mm. As I'm still working on my loops I find that it is marginally better than the 401 with the control & spin working better. With the density of the backing sponge of the 401 being the same as the Golden Tango I was surprised to find the Tango to be much lighter which suits my style of play.

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Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS acid green OX BH
Setup 2: Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.00mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS red OX BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Spinlord Gigant anti-spin red BH
See the ball, be the ball...

I finally got around to gluing up my sheet of Golden Tango.

This isn't a full review as I have only used it for one night.
But here are my initial observations.

Blade: a Viscaria fake. A friend of mine had one so I borrowed it. So take that as you will.
I have been using DHS Hurricane 3 provincial blue sponge 41°hardness for 2 years on my FH and typically play a full swing, straight arm loop when ever time permits.

I put the tango on one side of the blade and a freshly boosted older H3P on the other side.

Looping
I switched back and forth between rubbers and The first thing I noticed during warm up counters and 70% loops was that the throw angle fro the Tango was WAY higher than the H3P.
My H3P loops was going about 18-24" over the net and landing in the back third of the table and I twiddled to the GT and the ball practically went over my training partners head (6' tall) and was about a foot long.
So I'd say on medium power loops, the GT is a bit softer than my boosted H3P and engaged the sponge more and caused the long ball.
It was easy to adjust and it took like two more loops to adjust and I was fine.

Blocking
Very similar to looping.
Higher throw. Sponge seemed to engage more on medium power hits.
But also similar was the relative ease to make adjustments.

Pushing and serves.
Very very similar to the H3P.
At slow speeds, low power shots, the sponge does not engage and plays like a typical dead Chinese rubber over the table.
I found the spin quantity very similar to the H3P.

I also tried out on my BH.
Overall, for me it was too hard for my BH.
But here is what I noticed.

I currently have quite a soft rubber on my BH, but I think it's too soft and will be making a change soon.
I have a Baracuda Big Slam 2.0.

Pushing and serves
Exactly like you'd think.
More spin and easier to control.
Playing several doubles matches and I usually serve BH in doubles to give my partner the entire table to set up and I noticed several times that my standard medium/light side-under serve came back much heavier than usual.

Looping
My BH loop is not consistent, but here we go.
When you looped with any decent power and looped into the ball, it was very nice.
Great arc, lots of spin, but I just don't loop with enough power on my BH to engage that sponge on the GT.
I found brush looping very difficult.

Blocking
No issues and never had to make any cognitive adjustments.

Chopping
I will chop on my BH when I'm behind and or reaching for the ball.
It worked fine for this, but again for my ability on the BH, I like a softer topsheet to let the ball sink in.

Conclusion
At this point I think this is a decent viable replacement for a boosted H3P.

I traded my friend a used H3P for his fake Viscaria.
So I think I'll slap a new-ish Baracuda max sponge on the BH and give the GT a serious go on the FH.

I may do an updated review as time goes on if I find my opinion changes.

***UPDATE***
I've been using it for a few weeks and overall I find it very similar to my H3P boosted with Falco.
But I'm switching back to the H3P.

My practice partners all said they actually noticed more spin on my FH loops.
The GT is just slightly bouncy.
Where I notice the biggest difference is when I'm in trouble and don't really have time to make a proper stroke.
With the H3P I will use a wrist flick and turn a lob into a dirty corkscrew 'snake'.
Of course you can do this with a tensor, but I just find it easier to control with the traditional hard Chinese rubber.
It's a small detail, plus I guess I just love the overall feel of the H3P.

I would still highly recommend giving the GT a try if want something that plays a LOT like the hurricane 3, but you want just a touch of the tenor.
Then the Joola Golden Tango definitely fits the bill.

After that it's just subjective preference.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

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Viscaria
FH: H3 Provincial Blue sponge
BH: Omega VII Pro

My GT is on its way as my H3 national is 1.5yr old. Can't wait to try it out.

Passionate about TT