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Wizard Tachyon Outer

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Topic: Wizard Tachyon Outer
Posted By: Zwill
Subject: Wizard Tachyon Outer
Date Posted: 06/11/2022 at 11:15am
Oh boy this is a hard one to talk about, better strap on.
To start it off light heartedly this is just an initial impression, since I don't have enough play to fully understand this blade, but I am quite good to pick up things quickly and when something is new and different one can give better comparison to "standard carbon blades".
I have been playing with carbon blades basically most of my life. ALC, Tamca, ZLC, TeXtreme etc etc... I like the speed and quite frankly I like the feeling of carbon blades. What I don't like about them is their control over the table. Touches, pushes, serves; these are not techniques that they excel in normally since they bounce. On top of that I like koto outer ply, I think if someone has _the_ technique a blade with koto top ply can make more spin than for example limba.

Before I jump into it Wizard is a small blade maker shop they mostly cater to Japan market. Their website is in Japanese only, since I only understand very limited Japanese speach, I cannot read, but google translate is a good friend. So I basically just copied their email address into gmail and wrote them a mail if they deliver their new Tachyon blade internationally. I got a positive response in a few hours and so began this whole experience of blade purchase trough email from a very kind and helpful lady who also used google translate to understand me and respond to me. One would think this is the recepie for disaster, but quite the opposite, it was very successful on my part at least.

If someone has read some of my reviews or rants they know I am very fussy about handles. I would swear that the handle and the hand grip of a blade makes more of a difference than rubber + blade construction. I mostly used FL handles since those are the most safe, but many FL handles are kind of crap on big brands blades. From the mass production brands I think Yinhe has the best FL handle style. Yinhe makes their handles a bit thicker which just fits in the hand better of men. I would say Stiga is also quite good. And the rest of the brands are just a hit and miss crapshoot. I have a Xiom Ice Cream AZX blade that is very nice, but it's handle is so thin that without a grip tape it is unusable for me. A bad handle can also cause some wrist problems down the line so everyone should be really careful.
Thankfully the good people at Wizard are extremely concerned about handles and they are aware it's effect on performance too. Since they are a small shop they have the ability to have many configurations. A big manufacturer doesn't have this "luxury". On top of making the best possible handles Wizard recommends the best handle type for you personally. As I said I mostly used FL, but I actually like anatomic the most. However anatomic is quite rare, not many blades have it as option and not many distributors have it in stock. To not drag about on this Wizard will help you to choose the best handle for you and they will make the best handle. It is not made from epoxied sawdust either, they use real whole wood.

Tachyon Outer is an about 6.4mm thick outer carbon blade with koto top ply and ayous core. If the dear reader is quite sawwy in blades then they know this is not a combination that occures often. Koto outer ply and ayous core is quite rare to begin with and this used with in combination of a pure outer carbon is kind of unprecedented.
Probably there is a reason why most manufacturers don't use such combinations. For me it was very intriguing since this year I have been playing with an Innerforce ZLC which has an ayous core (and it had anatomic handle) and a Nexy Eucrasia that is an inner ALC carbon style blade and has koto top ply (with a rather bad FL handle). Tachyon sounded like a mix of both at the same but with outer carbon.

I might be a bit boring with going so much in dept of blade types and constructions and all this information might be irrelevant to those who have never tried the mentioned blades but hear me out.

Blade construction:
1-7 Koto 0.6mm
2-6 Sigracet carbon 0.25mm
3-5 ayous 0.6mm
core ayous 3.5mm
~88g

What the hell is Sigracet carbon? Well basically it is a non-woven carbon that is used in electric car batteries if I'm not mistaken. Why is that good? Well you can read all the small details on Wizard's website about the blade design, but as I understand it, it tries to achieve the same thing Butterfly tried with the Revoldia. Creating a non-woven artificially made fiber that can be glued using a different technoligy or with different glue. With a woven material you need to fill in the gaps with glue and with a specific glue that can adhere wood with carbon and arylate or zylon. With a non-woven fiber you have different options and it can change the blade feel. Many people swear by all-wood blades since they have a different feel. Well the Tachyon and Revoldia both have an almost all-wood like feel with enchanced bounce.

Tachyon outer has more tricks up its sleeve. The feeling of the blade is very hard to describe and quite frankly hard to belive too. I have done the usual ball bounce test on the wood to check the frequency of the blade. My copy has 1270-1290Hz. That sounds awfully low, around the All+ and Off- range. Faster all wood blades have this pitch and slow inner style ALC blades as well. I have been previously talking about Innerforce ZLC and such blades so why am I shocked? I am shocked since the blade is only this slow on light contact. If you hit the ball a bit harder the ball is bouncing more. If you hit hard enough this blade is very comparable to my Ice Cream AZX blade that has 1550Hz pitch. So this is blade is kind of like an all wood blade on light touch but it's like a fast carbon blade once you start swinging.
I have not finished with the tricks. Tachyon has no carbon feel. It feels always like an all wood blade, even when it bounces a lot at a hard swing. I have never ever felt this sensation. There are blades that can do one or the other, but to be this bipolar at the same time... Never felt it before. It might actually be faster than an Ice Cream AZX to be honest, it might be around a slower Primorac Carbon level, it's really hard to determine since it feels so soft all the time.

On the Wizard website they describe many new technology they have came out with to make this blade. For one it has a special varnish on the bladeface, varnish on the edge of the blade, they use different glues to laminate the blade, and they started to use this Sigracet carbon. They also do what they call accoustic aging of the wood and what they talk about makes a lot of sense even if it sounds a bit gimmicky.

On their website the recommend rubber combinations and I have took their advice and the advice of the forum of Joola Golden Tango PS on forehand and Tibhar Aurus Select on backhand. I am a left handed player so I block more hard shots on my backhand than most players. I think this is a good formula for this blade. Neither rubbers are fast, but the blade makes them fast so I had no speed issues on my first time trying it.
Speaking of which I did the second most dumb thing any player can do. I used the blade straigth off on a training match. I had no training with it before. Both rubbers and the blade were new too. It was a friendly match with another club that won their league in a different region. I played 4 singles match and 2 doubles and I have to say in singles I only lost one set. The very first set of the first match. And then I just started to get the hang of the blade so my previous experiences are from match situations. Won both doubles match too by the way.

Besides the great speed and all-wood like feeling the other best aspects were the low to the net pushes that bounced minimum 2 times on the table and the excelent block control too. Open ups were very spinny, then the 5th ball could be finished since the speed. I have no complaints so far. Serves were also more spinny than with my previous blades.

I really struggle to find any negativity of the blade's performance. So far I can't say anything bad, and I am really sorry about that since I do want to sound too one sided.
This blade is really tremendous, and if you are an attacking player be it a carbon blade user or all wood used this could be for you if you want to step up in speed or feeling.

The price of the blade is 27.500 Japanese Yen, which depending on the exchange rates is around ~220EUR~250USD. It's not cheap, but you're not only getting a blade that performs better in most conditions than literally all blade on the market, but you get the customization, the advice and the personal support as well from the Wizard team.
Let me put it in another way so it looks like even better value. Joola Golden Tango PS, and Tibhar Aurus Select are both very cheap rubbers. If you used something more expensive and chances are you did then over a short period you will make more saving on the rubbers.

Just some final words before I have more practice with it and more experience: if you are looking at buying a new ALC, ZLC inner or outer blade you might want to not buy that and instead get this.

Pics and links:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nGxII6tdBygfscjBXjgdw7e9BprPDBZw" rel="nofollow - https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...gdw7e9BprPDBZw
https://wizard-tt.co.jp/tachyon-pr/" rel="nofollow - https://wizard-tt.co.jp/tachyon-pr/



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Joola Zhou Qihao S-ALC 90
Mizuno Q Quality max
Mizuno Q Quality max



Replies:
Posted By: longrange
Date Posted: 06/12/2022 at 8:38am
Great post, very insightful, thank you! Especially the part about materials and glues. If you understand spoken language, could you, perhaps, summarize what Murata says about the blade and its combination with tenergy?
Another question: does your combination have low throw or high throw? It's probably my lack of technique, but as much as I like t05 on hinoki outer blades (high throw) I hate it on bty viscaria-like blades: I really have to work to send the ball over the net. This blade is a different beast, could you comment anything here?


Posted By: Zwill
Date Posted: 06/12/2022 at 10:04am
He says it's totally different from outer carbon blades from Butterfly or any other brand. He actually dislikes outer carbon blades. It spins the ball very well with Tenergy and is is fast. During drives and fast open ups he says the blade shoots the ball. Tenergy feels soft a little soft with this blade but it's still good and not a problem. Bit heavy with the 05 and Rozena. I belive the blade they used was ~92g, mine is only 88-89g.

My setup felt strange at first as the blade is quite slow during passive shots or if there's little impact on the blade itself. I remember I lost my first set because I tried to do some slow spinny open ups and like 3-4 didn't even go as far as the net. One of the guys watching even asked if I glued on some slow Chinese rubber or what's going on. But I managed to fix this by giving the ball a bit more impact.
Regarding fast open ups or loop kills for the first couple of my shots went like half meter long and I was quite baffled what is going on. How can it be like an All+ wood blade at a point and in the next be faster than let's say an Ice Cream AZX by quite a lot.
I think the blade makes a quite high arc by default, Tenergy 05 should be probably better if someone likes it since it bounces the ball more foreward and it has a naturally high arc. The Golden Tango PS has a high arc, but doesn't bounce the ball forward.
Before I was using an Ice Cream AZX with Tibhar Hybrid K2 on FH and that gave enough forward bounce and due to the tackyness I had no arc issues either but the ball wasn't very spinny. So it was quite hard to do a good slow open up. Fast open ups were pretty nice with it.
I think with the Golden Tango PS my open ups will be very spinny and very difficult to counter or even block for that matter.

On backhand I had the most pleasant surprise that the Aurus Select was just natural. I could do slow and spinny open ups and chiquitas almost for the first try, blocking was super stable. By the end of the day I was doing very fast open ups on backhand that were pretty much impossible to return. Strangely the rubber should be like 45 deg hardness, but it feels harder than that. I've used MX-P before and that feels softer. The Aurus Select's hardness felt like something between an MX-P and a Dignics 64, but it is much more easy to use and didn't have that nasty catapult efect that D64 does if the ball stretches it well. I do have to adjust my racket angle if I get a hard drive on it since the topsheet isn't affected much by spin so I did clip a few balls on the very top of the net.

The blade definietely lifts the ball more than a Viscaria, I think it lifts significantly better than a outer limba blade too.
A DHS H8-80 or 729 Battle 2 golden version would be a pretty good fit too for Chinese rubber fans. Orange sponge H3 I'm not so sure, but I don't like the orange sponge very much since I don't boost.

Edit: Over the table touch play was the most significantly best thing. I was literally having a laugh while doing serve receives that bounced 2-3 times on the table. With other outer carbon blades I'm lucky if I can do 2 bounces occasionally... I had such an easy time against the opponents 2 wing attacker, I could totally shut him off.



-------------
Joola Zhou Qihao S-ALC 90
Mizuno Q Quality max
Mizuno Q Quality max


Posted By: longrange
Date Posted: 06/13/2022 at 4:32am
Great stuff, thanks a lot! I use xiom feel zx 3 with t05/t05fx and it has everything I like and need in the attack: speed and grab, but its short game is... nervous ((:



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