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Today we're testing and comparing 10 sticky rubbers. This shootout will be delivered in installments, as I slowly move through all of the rubbers.
The rubbers:
Butterfly Tackifire C, red, 1.9
Butterfly Tackifire C soft, red, 2.1
Double Happiness Hurricane II Blue sponge, black, 2.2
Double Happiness Hurricane III Blue sponge, black, 2.2
Double Happiness Skyline II, black, 2.2
Double Happiness Skyline III, black, 2.2
Friendship God Favored SST-729, black, 2.2
Globe 999 National, Black & Red, 2.2
Juic 999 Elite Ultima, black, 2.2
TSP Triple 21 black 2.15
Topsheet/Sponge Impressions:
Hurricane II Bluesponge
The sponge here is surprisingly good. I expected a dyed version of the regular orange DHS sponge, but this blue version feels softer with a more silky, denser touch. The typical DHS "ripple" is still visible on the sponge.
Hardness Estimate: 40 degrees
Hurricane III Bluesponge
This blue sponge was visually and tactilely identical to the sponge underneath the HII sample.
Hardness Estimate: 40 degrees
Skyline II
This rubber was atop an orange sponge, differing greatly to the orange sponge underneath regular Hurricane. Touching the sponge gave them impression of a denser sponge again, feeling similar, but coarser than the Orange 999 National sponge. The "ripples" are again faintly present. Compared to the blue sponge under the HII/III, this sponge felt similar but marginally harder. This may just be sponge variance.
Hardness Estimate: 41-42 degrees
Skyline III
Similar to the sponge under Skyline III, however just slightly harder again. Not as "corky" as Skyline II sponge. Stickiest rubber of the lot.
Hardness Estimate: 42 degrees
Friendship SST-729
This was atop yet another Orange sponge, feeling silkier than the Skyline sponge but not as silky as 999 National. Hardness was clearly harder than the Skyline III sponge.
Hardness Estimate: 43-44 degrees
Globe 999 National
Both the blue and orange sponge have an identical feel. Hardness is less than all of the above, yet the sponge feels denser and of higher quality than all of the above. As this sponge had a "marked" hardness, I am using it as a reference.
Sponge Hardness: 38 Degrees
Juic 999 Elite Ultima
Considerably softer than all of the rest, the sponge still has the same "feel" as the 999 National sponge. Colour is beige.
Hardness Estimate: 34 degrees
TSP Triple 21
Hardness Estimate: 33 Degrees
Rubber Mass:
Note: mass per cubic cm accounts for the corner cutoffs.
Hurricane II: 57.5g 0.20389g/cm^2
Hurricane III: 57.7g 0.21210g/cm^2
Skyline II: 71.1g (68.1) 0.25344g/cm^2
Skyline III: 65.1g (62.1) 0.22787g/cm^2
Friendship SST-729: 65.6g 0.24242g/cm^2
Globe 999 National: 70.2g 0.25034g/cm^2
Juic 999 Elite Ultima: 58.3g 0.19503g/cm^2
Part 1: Goo favoured SST729 2.2 vs Globe 999 National 2.2
Blade: Violin C
Reverse: Mark V 30
2 layers of FC.
Over the table
999 National had a sweet touch over the table, producing spinnier and faster pushes and flicks, at the slight expense of control due to the slightly softer and springier sponge. The marginally harder surface of the SST729 produced excellent control shots, allowing both dropshots and flicks to be done relatively easily.
Close to the table
Here, the softer sponge of the 999 came into play. Loops vs chop were more controlled than the SST729, while retaining approximately the same speeds.
Mid/Long distance
Long distance, the harder SST729 had marginally more power and loops tended to stretch, with less of a kick than the globe rubber. 999 arced more with higher spin and produced a vicious kick, especially on sidespin loops.
Part 2: DHS Skyline 2
2 layers of FC.
Over the table
Skyline 2 has a surprisingly high amount of control over the table. Definitely higher than SST729 and 999 Nat. Spin seems good, possibly less than that of 999 Nat as the topsheet isn't quite as sticky.
Close to the table
I had some difficulty looping for a first few hits. The throw felt considerably lower than 999 Nat and SST729. As with SST729, well hit loops stretched low and flat with a visible kick. With only 2 layers of FC, the sponge felt slightly softer than SST729 and very "corky", more than 999 Nat. The feeling was less linear than the previous two with more of a "slow" gear and a "high" gear, with not much in between. Looping vs chop was easy, but less so than the 999 Nat.
Mid/Long distance
Skyline 2 was noticeably slower than both of the others away from the table, with a larger arc. Sidespin loops have more curve than SST729 and 999 Nat, but I'm not sure yet if it contained more spin than the 999 Nat.
DHS Skyline 3
Over the table.
First impressions of Skyline 3 is that it is SLOW. I was having a considerable amount of trouble flicking due to the speed and the amount of stickiness the rubber had - this was due to technique, as I'm used to a soft, fast rebound grippy rubber. Pushing was definitely the spinniest so far. Control was brilliant due to the speed (once I had gotten used to it).
Close to the table
Again, control here was brilliant. I felt more like I was catching and throwing the ball back. Throw was actually quite low (possibly due to the stick?), but once I had adjusted to that, it was fine. Loops kicked a bit, but the stickiness was reining in the speed too much. This could be possibly better after the topsheet has been broken in a bit more.
Mid/Long Distance
In short: Too slow. I'd need to revisit this with more glue. This rubber feels more to me like a 3rd ball attack rubber than a rallying rubber.
TSP Triple 21
I tested TSP Triple 21 2.15mm black, primed with 2 layers of clean chack and glued with 2 layers of falco tempo.
First impressions of this rubber was good! Soft topsheet combined with a soft sponge allowed for a mechanical spin approach to looping, but the moderately sticky rubber increased spin on serves dramatically and on the table play. Speed was slower than that of the other, harder rubbers. Slower than a harder topsheet sriver fx and cermet too. Throw exhibited was very high.
Over the table:
Over the table was very spinny, with easily controlled flicks going on with less speed than the others. The soft sponge allowed easy control of heavy "dig" pushes.
Close to the table:
Due to the high throw, looping vs both chop and top was a dream. Definitely a looper's rubber; not so much an off-the-bounce blockers rubber. Returns were possibly a bit high and slow, but the ability to place the ball whereever on the table more than made up for this in my opinion.
Mid/Long:
Counterloops carried more spin than speed, was easy enough to counterloop and had enough speed to trouble people. Again, control was outstanding, especially on the loop to loop.
Conclusion:
Move over Juic 999 Elite Ultima! I've found a new favourite sticky rubber!
Master Ranking List
Speed
1. SST729
2. 999 National
3. Skyline 2
4. Tackifire C (NOTE: 1.9mm)
5. Triple 21
6. Skyline 3
Spin (These are my impressions. Note that this is not in order of stickiness)
1. Skyline 3
2. 999 National
3. Triple 21
4. Skyline 2
5. Tackifire C (NOTE: 1.9mm)
6. SST729
Control
1. Triple 21
2. Skyline 3
3. Tackifire C (NOTE: 1.9mm)
4. Skyline 2
5. 999 National
6. SST729
Throw (High to low)
Triple 21
999 National
Tackifire C
Skyline 2
SST729
Skyline 3
_________________
Chasse Patate
Last edited by Silver on 19 Sep 2007, 22:54, edited 11 times in total.
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