tabletennisJunkie.com - table tennis and ping pong forum for equipment junkies!

[MICHIGANBOB54]

Yasaka ma lin soft carbon review: This is a blade where alot of close to the table players like alot. The head is a little larger 15.9x 15.1 and is around 82-85 grams. It loops very well and has alot of ball feedback. counter driving is also good. backhand drives and blocks are crisp and controlled and drives have alot of pop. I use mine for defense on the bh. I have tried it in long and medium pips out in ox and the blade might be a little fast (catapult) for ox. I have used anti on the blade and it performed excellant.

plus: blade does it all, control-power-large sweet spot, tensor rubbers work well

minus: not the best blocking blade-a little top heavy-enjoyable on defense ready made for anti or pips out.

Score:8
GIG

[varghese]

Thanks Bob for the review. Your's is the first review on the tabletennisJunkie. Neatly written.

I have not used any Yasaka blade before. The only experiment I have with Yasaka brand was I've hit with a Yasaka Mark V GPS rubber. A friend of mine uses the Yasaka Mark V GPS, and that is a favorite rubber of him.

Back to the blade, do you know how many plies or layers it has. I assume it would be 5. Also, could you please share what kind of carbon it has.

[729 fx]

The Yasaka Ma Lin Soft Carbon is a 7-ply blade with 5-ply wood and 2 ply carbon.

This blade outer veneer is the same as the Yasaka Extra Offensive blade. Its medium soft characteristics is appreciated by players who put control as their priority. The 2 layer of carbon fibre is very thin to improve the speed and enlarge the sweet spot. Together with the thicker wooden middle veneer it gives good power.

My ratings (out of 10)
Speed: 9.2
Contol: 8.3
Ply: 5W+2C
Weight: 89g

[MICHIGANBOB54]

I do find out that blade weight as well as rubber weight does vary. I just received a 729 L-3 aramid blade and the weight was 94 grams. 12 grams more than my other one. I have also noticed that many players prefer a heavy headed blade at times. We often chat at our club regarding rubber and blade combination. which rubber works better on what type of blade or surface.

Example : Ma Lin soft carbon *(soft thin carbon) and a combo of peacekeeper ox and yasaka hs 1.8 on the same set up with the butterfly gergely 21*(hard carbon -hinoki wood) I found the peacekeeper ox was more controlled on the gergerly21 as well as the fast yasaka hs rubber. In fact the yasaka out performs on the gergely and 729 cream works very well on the ma lin blade. The throw angles are lower on the carbon blade. I would like to see some feedback on blade and rubber combos that perform very well on some blades and terrible on others.

testing
729 L-3 aramid 94grams (reordered one at 82 grams)
peacekeeper ox bh, donic big slam 1.8 fh

peace GIG

[varghese]

Bob, you are right. The blade weights vary even in the same model. The manufacturers normally publish a range like 85 +- 5 gm. In my opinion, if the blade weight goes beyond 10 gm, that is something to be concerned about. One of my favorite blade a long time ago was Butterfly Joo Se Hyuk. When I have started playing, I had that blade (Yes, I'm a big fan of Joo Se Hyuk. I have met him two years ago in Europe.). I remember the first blade that I have bought had a weight of 86 gm. Then an year ago, I got the same Joo Se Hyuk blade from Paddle Palace which weigh 105 gm. I had to live with that blade for a while before selling it.

You are absolutely right about blade and rubber combination. I can probably post some pictures of my lab where I test all the combination. To add more variations to that combination, the player's strokes also matters.

I think we need to open a new topic on the blade and rubber combination. I will start with some info from my arsenal.