This is my first post. 

I am a low level intermediate player (roughly 1300) and am taking steps to improve. I have fairly old and average level equipment and I am planning to upgrade moderately. I am looking at some blades, and would be interested to know if any of you have experience with this manufacturer of blades. GEWO. Besides GEWO I like the OSP blades and ANDRO blades. At the moment I am primarily looking at 5 ply wood only blades. A 7 ply is fine as long as the weight stays 85 g or below. 

In rubber, I am also very high on Sanwei Rubber and DHS rubbers. I like many of the other mainstream rubbers like Donic Bluefire, Rakza 7, Tennergy 05x, Andro Rasanter. But I think a chinese sticky rubber like the hurricane 3 is pretty hard to beat. I find it to have very good touch on pushes, chops ,throw is moderately low, spin and control are great. Speed is not the highest, but reasonable, and with right sponge hardness, and blade, I like it as one of the top setups.

Anyone like to share their opinion on these questions and comments? 

Thanks

Bruce

Hi,

One of my personal favourite 5-Ply blade is Tibhar Stratus Powerwood.

Chinese tacky rubbers, no doubt, are extremely capable ,and there are several ones that offer an excellent price:performance ratio.. However, one must bear in mind, that they can be quite demanding in terms of technique & physicality. 

Under the Sanwei brand, Check-out Sanwei T88-III, Sanwei Target .. 

Under DHS, check out DHS Hurricane 3 Neo

I owned an OSP Virtuoso+ for some time and then sold it. I did like the blade but I do feel that if you are looking for a solid all wood blade, stick with something from more traditional companies like Stiga, Donic or Yasaka. 

Some Yasaka blades are relatively cheap and are really amazing for their price point. OSP has more of a stiga feel to its blades (hence the name of the brand) but I think they do come in at a price. For folks who haven't taken a liking to older stiga blades, I would really say that Yasaka blades would feel much better and crisper. 

Nothing against the OSP blades though - just that they are definitely expensive (coming from the fact that they are hand made and hence novel).

This is accurate, as most Yasaka blades are made at the original Stiga factory site in Tranås, Sweden.

violin

violoncello

Nexy Spear (a very lively, fast and bouncy blade!)

Tibhar Samsonov Alpha

Avalox Blue Thunder 555

Donic Dotec Wang Xi

Does the Violoncello really play like a slower, even more controlled Violin with similar feeling? Or is it like the Violin Inner Carbon: a completely different blade that looks similar? 

Would love to try one out but it would definitely be a relatively expensive experiment...

Not really slower. It has a bigger head and absorbs more energy but at 88 to 90 grams, the violoncello is a solid all+/off- blade, faster than a 80g violin for example. Yes, they are similar in play. I equally loved them both. I only have  92g ST Violin today to avoid redundancy but I could have chosen a Violoncello instead and be perfectly happy.

How does the GEWO Alvaro Robles Off- play?  That one looked nice too.

I have no idea what is your current set up but you seem to craving Chinese rubber and should sticky with it as you need to adjust technique and swing mechanic (a lot) when transitioning to EU or JP rubber.

For a developing player I recommend controllable offensive blades with various brands that I have used and feel great with them

1.Avalox p700 (old school classic and solid)