So in the spirit of this thread and my impending vacation from Racketholism, I have a couple of points of frames I've hit with in the past week! While not nearly as amazing as PP's review of the Tour G, it might be interesting to some...
The Prestige Rev Pro:
Wow, this frame actually blew me away. If I was better this frame would honestly be one of the frames of the year for me. Super rad feel, and so much room for customization to make it basically whatever you want. I totally understand how basically all the pro's (that I know of) that used the IG prestige mid switched over to this mold. It is a great frame. Stock, it's a little pingy and lacks the pure punch that the prestige mid of old does, but man does it play sweet. Lots of pop (reminiscent of my 6.1 classic surprisingly) as it just hits through the court so fast.
Leaded up, it's even better. A little unstable stock, but after some mods of my buddy's Rev, who has used the Prestige Mid since 1999, he's even started to come around to the rev. The specs we are testing right now are 12.1oz strung, 6 points HL. SW by TW calc is around 335-340. This frame just bullies the ball and swings so nice. I haven't hit any serves with it, but off the ground and volleying it's ridiculous. I understand from the purist perspective how it is totally different from the Prestige mid, but if you take away the heritage and see this frame for what it is, it's amazing. One of my favorite sticks of the year for sure, just realistically I'm not good enough to use it full time. It's a damn fine frame though. I highly recommend a demo if you can swing it. We strung with ALU Rough @ 54lbs.
Another interesting frame that I hit with was the Prostaff 95S. Thin box-beamed goodness? Yes. Usability? Very little actually. I didn't really care for this frame. The quality of shot I hit with it was pretty decent, but I thought the frame lacked a lot of zip on the ball. I was able to hit consistently, but my ball lacked weight. With lead I'm sure this frame would be a GOAT contender in the "S" line, but stock it's not that great. I served really well with it, (those thin beams just cut through SO nice) but everything else was very mediocre. I'm not really sure who will end up using this frame at the rec level, but I'd guess some guys who are looking for a classic feel with a bit more spin. I'm not really one of those guys, so it is a pass from me.
Surprise, surprise! I'm down to two frames left to test side by side to decide what I'm going into my tournament season with. The Black Drive Plus, and the IG Extreme MP 2.0. I've never hit with the Extreme, but I have it strung up with my normal set up of Snakebite 17g @ 55lbs. This is the last frame that interests me before I decide to switch over to the Pure Drive. It's very reminiscent of the Blade spec so I'm interested to see how it goes. If the Head crashes and burns, I'll be making the move over to the Black Drive + for the foreseeable future, or at least until my arm explodes into a thousand tiny pieces haha!
The PD+ I've been hitting with is strung at 62.5lbs with 17g Snakebite. Tons of control, great feel with volleys, and hits amazingly well of the serve and ground. Just something about extended length frames for me really are amazing. Given that I'm just above average height, I really enjoy what XL frames bring to the table. Given all else, I'd love to stick with my H22's forever, but the fact of the matter is I need something that at least exists so I can get more grommets before my frames break down totally. (i'm stupidly hard on frames)
Anywho, latest ranting and raving with some of the newer frames out right now. If anyone has any questions on anything from the new Head or lines, let me know!
-Fuji