Nexy Lissom reviews

FYI Nexy,

I suppose my review will go here then.

Here are some pictures - sorry, didn't occur to me to take pictures until after I had already dressed and prepped the blade.















Initial Impressions: First couple of hours of use was with a ton of basement players. I only played two competent people, but they were opponents I should not have lost games to, and usually concede around 5 points/game max - today they beat me. My point here is that the setup rattled me a lot coming from 729 Bomb with the likes of H3 Neo, TG3 Neo, Black Power, etc on forehand.

Oh, today's test was with TG3 Neo 41 2.2 on forehand and 802-40 SuperSoft 1.8 on backhand.

The setup is very slow, compared to my Bomb. Slower than the [Nexy] Spear too. It has two natures - ALL/ALL+ on slow shots near the net, OFF- on power shots. This means I found it to have beautiful control on touch shots and kicked it up a few notches when I need the power. Blocks, though, were terrible today. All my blocks went flying up in the air, or died on the blade and hit the table. Granted, I've not played with TG3 Neo except for two hours on the Bomb before, so I'm not at all well-versed in its nature, combined with the great unknown of the Lissom...probably not a good idea.

The blade feels rather stiff, almost dead. Compared to my four-year-old crazily-broken-in Bomb, everything feels stiff and dead (just made this realization after noticing the same sort of feeling in all new blades I've tried since the Bomb), so I'm making the resolution to stick with the Lissom for a looong time, at least until next summer, to see if this breaking-in hypothesis of mine is true or not. Anyways, as such, I had a lot of difficulty really pulling shots off. TG3 Neo is also rather unforgiving, so that might be it too, but I found I had to put a LOT of effort into shots farther away from the table, and still it didn't really have the pace I needed to put pressure on opponents. Flips were beautiful, though. I don't think I've ever made so many pretty forehand flips in my life. The control on offensive shots at the net is astounding. Being stiff but lacking power, though, I think the Lissom is not suitable for short-pips play.

A little bit of vibration. Feels like it is a very versatile blade - changes characteristics depending on shot, almost. I could chop a bit with TG3 Neo, which says a lot! This blade gives you enough finishing power, I suppose, assuming you provide everything else. With the Bomb, I could just whack powerloop after another, and the sheer power of them would suffice to pressure the opponent, inducing errors or making a straight winner. The Lissom forces you pay a lot of attention to tactics, your technique and placement, to make the kill shots work. It drives you into a smarter sort of game. I think it would be very good in terms of long-term development as a player.

I read somewhere that the Nittaku Violin was a very popular blade for CPEN, but people didn't like it as much as the Acoustic. I then read that the Violin needed time to break in to achieve the good feeling and power, as the white ash layer on top was hard and needed time to settle. Maybe this is the case too with Lissom. I'm going to test from now on with H3 Neo (I know its characteristics well), and AIR Scirocco (it seems like a fast inverted), for the next few months and see. For tournaments I still might whip out the Bomb though, to not jeopardize my competitiveness. 


Edited by rawrtje - 09/11/2010 at 10:46pm

stiff and allround+, sounds like an interesting blade. I hope i'll recieve mine soon, I'm really looking forward to try it.

Niks te danken :-).

There is not a set period for this I think. Maybe the rate just slows down as a curve, at first relatively quick/steep, during the same time getting used to the new blade. Then - I imagine - it is understood as getting used to the blade thus often un-noticed as a change of the blade itself. Then at a slower rate, less steep, to a degree where you also can,t notice it between two sessions but little bits at the time can count up on the long run to make a significant difference.

Best way to notice it is as in your case when you play someone elses setup and the blade is allready used for a longer period or if you go from a well used blade to a new one. These cases people often start complaining about the build quality having become worse.

I advice rubbers and blades for all - which is about fifteen - players at my club. I know exactly what blade each of them uses and for most for how long as I changed rubbers for them many times and sometimes bought them a new blade. After buying rubbers I often cometo test the setup shortly to know if I made a good combination with the blade and for person, level, style etc. The older blades (all reasonable quality wooden blades, Joola, donic, stiga or butterfly) always seem to have this certain feeling. It,s a feeling like you can pick it up and play with it instantly without the usual time to adapt and no matter what the rubbers are.

In case of the lissom as a sevenply it won,t feel as a stiff blade anymore within ten weeks. Seven plies tend to become more flexible in not too long period. More then five plies where the core has the grains lengthwise to the handle, sevenply means has a core (normally) with the grain perpendicular to the handle.  If you are attentive to it you,ll notice or the core must have the grain  running lengthwise to the handle as an exception.
It depends on the weight of the blade what rubber you can use. Heavier flexible blade you can use heavier rubber on fh and best keep the bh rubber lower weight to avoid a too heavy setup. In you,re case short pips are light. I would use the same rubber first weeks also to notice how it changes for you. Maybe you manage to keep the blocks low ? Then (or immediately) try  black power maybe which should have a somewhat lower throw or Taichi hard. But without a very light bh rubber as in you,re case I would use lighter fh rubber.
How much the bh rubber can influence the fh is fun to test at the end of a training sesssion doing a fh-only practice.
Take off the bh or fh rubber halfway and play five minutes with one side rubber only until the end of the training. Takes a bit time to adapt to the balance change first but you can notice what happens with throw, feel of quickness and how much more control you get for blocking a spinny loop then. And without loss of power.



Edited by tompy - 09/12/2010 at 10:46am

I've just started trying to break the blade (and rubbers) in by hitting very hard against a wall, like racquetball in a room with ping pong balls! Anyways, it's a lot of impact, in very short time. Will this break in the blade and rubbers faster than actually playing?

Hi speaquinox, what's the longest time you've used a single blade for? If you've used it a lot (like years), have you really not seen any difference between it and a new blade? 

No I won't wait years haha. Months, for sure. I suppose we'll just have to see. Have you received your Lissom and started testing yet?

I have played chinese rubber for years, mostly Friendships with often thicker topsheets then lot of other chinese rubbers. I know how they change within the first three to five times (and sometimes, if the topsheet is thick, even longer to be at their best).
With blades fysically the situation is more or less similar. The core compares with the sponge, harder outerlayers with a firm topsheet. Why would it be something for rubbers only but not for a blade ? Fysically that would be peculiar. Soft rubbers don,t need a break in period as much as hard rubbers (topsheet mostly). Wood is even harder then a chinese rubber, if it would follow logic, a blade would need to be "broken in" more and longer then any rubber. Playwise I experience the effects also as more or less similar. The first two weeks and with seven plies more then with 5 plies and hard outer and or second layers more then softer. But no-one should take it from me offcourse, if you don,t notice it you don,t notice it. It,s as simple as that.

But with new rubbers to a new blade the breaking in of the rubbers will camouflage it. Testing different rubbers on a new blade first times of play the change of rubbers will camouflage it. In the days of using fresh glue each time the glue job could always be accounted for any difference from the setup.





Edited by tompy - 09/12/2010 at 7:18pm

Nexy wrote: rawrtje wrote: I suppose my review will go here then. the case too with Lissom. I'm going to test from now on with H3 Neo (I know its characteristics well), and AIR Scirocco (it seems like a fast inverted), for the next few months and see. For tournaments I still might whip out the Bomb though, to not jeopardize my competitiveness.  As I've seen lots of C-pen players in Korea, I suggest you use speedier rubber on your forehand side. So, I suggest you use something fast. Scirocco will be ok for BH.   Here are several examples...   Fore Hand : Nimbus VIP / Genius / Tenergy / Sinus / Boost TP / Boost TX / Apollo 37 degree   Any way, I hope you can get your feeling back soon. It happens even to me. Some times after I use one blade for a while, it hinders me from designing something new.

Often it,s a timing issue also with the weight, different dwelltime, the new rubbers. You will adapt timing and technicque, grip details within two or three sessions. But in case you have a classic penhold bh for blocking I think you,ll better stick with the bomb. I suppose this blade is not made for that technicque.

Does it have the usual grain direction for the middle ply ? By the picture taken from the handle end it seems the grain runs lengthwise.

 

Edited by tompy - 09/13/2010 at 11:53am

OK, photos first.

JimT wrote: I do not agree with rawrtje that this Lissom is a slow blade. It didn't feel any slower than W-1 with almost identical rubbers. I would safely put it into OFF- category.

Isn't the W1 an OFF/OFF+ composite blade? If the Lissom isn't much slower, that is impressive indeed.

rawrtje wrote: JimT wrote: I do not agree with rawrtje that this Lissom is a slow blade. It didn't feel any slower than W-1 with almost identical rubbers. I would safely put it into OFF- category. Isn't the W1 an OFF/OFF+ composite blade? If the Lissom isn't much slower, that is impressive indeed.

I would say, W-1 is between OFF- and OFF. More like OFF I guess. The thing is that I put rather fast and harder sponged rubbers on both so the fact that they were comparable in speed could be due (in some significant part) to that. Perhaps if I put softish slower rubbers on both I would then see some noticeable difference in speed of those two fictional combos.

my lissom arrived today. it's a 84 gms st lissom.

tompy wrote: With this thickness 88 or 85 gramm means two different blades. It depends where the difference is made but often there is also a slight difference in thickness as the thickness of thinner veneers always can vary a bit. As these veneers are on the outside the difference in playing character can be significant. If Jim T has a heavier one his experience is different then.

Well, I specifically asked for 88 g since that is my preferred weight - and I got exactly that. I agree that with a thin blade like Lissom 82 g and 88 g could be noticeably different.