5-ply wood blade (Waldner Dicon) + Mark V (max) with OR without speed glue using the old celluloid ball.  Assume that the setup is what the player is normally using (without speed glue) but gets one month to adjust to the speed glue effect.

What is the expected rating boost for players of different strength (e.g. 1,500, 2,000 and 2,500+)?

A separate question is how well present-day rubbers capture the speed glue effect. Eric did some interesting research.

OP, it depends.

Speed gluing was a great hassle. Many players tried it, but generally, few players overall (below high level)

stuck with it.

In my view, SG made very little difference to the average hobby player's game unless he was training very regularly.

Think about it. If a hobby player boosts his Euro/Jap rubber, is his game immediately transformed  so that he starts beating players above his level?

http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/lab275-voc-speed-glue-1000ml" rel="nofollow - LAB275
doesn't seem any better than mixing Best Test Paper Cement and Best Test Rubber Cement Thinner (Heptane). 

Rubber manufacturers have been claiming to reach the Holy Grail of "speed glue effect" for > 20 years (Donic Desto Series, anyone?)

But it seems to me that many modern rubbers approach the effects of what a light or moderate speedglue job could do, (in terms of increasing spin and control to allow you to play faster) but the interaction is more complex than you might expect. Especially since speed glue allowed people to take a sheet of rubber that they liked and amplify it a little, a moderate amount, or a lot.

1) Many rubbers match the speed of speed glue, but that was never really the point.

2) Lots of the rubbers capture some the sound of speed glue (especially softer sponges).

4) And some rubbers capture the spin of speed glue (to be fair, no rubber can spin a plastic ball spin as much as speedglue+old rubbers would spin celluloid).

Good rubber might do 2 of those 4 things really well, or 3 of those 4 things reasonably well:

-Tenergy has long been considered a benchmark for rubber because it provided both the spin and much of the speed of VOC glues.

-Rubbers like Xiom Vega Europe provide much of the sound, control and speed of a light glue job.

-Rubbers like Nittaku Fastarc G1 give much of the spin, speed and control of a light-medium glue job.

Sorry to ramble.

smackman wrote: The thing is any advantage in those days was negoated  by the opposition doing the same thing

That is so true, but there were so many variables.  Some rubber glued better than others.  How much to use?  How often to glue up?  What if I run out of my favorite glue?

What was difficult for me was getting the same glue effect each time.  I was using either Butterfly Tackifire Drive, which got a medium glue job (about 38 degree on Butterfly's scale); or later Butterfly Catapult (32 degree), which got a very light glue job.  Catapult was one of Butterfly's early glue effect rubbers, so didn't need as much help.  I used to brush mine on the rubber, had some friends that would just tip the can over and pour out the glue.    I never understood how they got any consistency in the effect with that method. 

I remember seeing some players re-glueing at lunch at tournaments, others mid afternoon.  It was crazy, not to mention the smell!  Stronger than any booster in use now.

That's what I liked about Catapult, the effect was already built in, and a slight glue job was sufficient to make the rubber play like a Bryce FX, without paying for Bryce FX.  And fortunately for me, the throw angle was high with this rubber, so when Tenergy came out it wasn't a big change in racket angle to go to Tenergy.  I was already playing with a closed angle.