EXO3 Rebel 95 vs. EXO3 Graphite 100 vs. MG Prestige Mid vs. MG Prestige Pro

Hey you guys are heros all of you
but a quick question i have for the rebel
sounds like an awseome stick but the flex rating looks really low
is the stick truley that flexable and if so, can you feel some stiffness to the racket
also mate do you think prince will make a new diablo
i love the original racket and it would be cool if they continued it
 
I am a 5.0 player with heavy topspin shots. I have been playing with Liquidmetal Prestige Mid for the last 3 years. I strung a Rebel 95 with Klip Legend Mains and Cyberpower Blue Crosses (57-55 lbs) yesterday and tested the racquet tonight. I can say that it plays very similar to the Prestige except Prestige is a little more head heavy. The rebel feels a little muted in comparison but as a result of this I could take more of a cut and hit with heavier topspin. I found the Rebel just a bit easier to control than the Prestige mid.

The thing that bothered me a little was the sound of the racquet hitting the ball is just not as crisp as the Prestige but I think it is something I can get used to in a short time. I found the volleys felt just as good as the Prestige Mid. I may had a little extra on the serve with the Rebel (maybe 5 miles...).

One thing I noticed was that the demo Rebel I used was 4 3/8 and the grip was just as big as my 4 1/2 Prestige. By the way, the grip Rebel comes with is just amazing. I play with an overgrip as I live in the South and I change love keep on the racquet.

All in all I thought that the Rebel played very similar to the Prestige mid. Between the new Prestige Mid and the Prince Rebel, I would probably buy the one I can get a better deal as I would have to buy at least 4.
 
June8 said:
I am a 5.0 player with heavy topspin shots. I have been playing with Liquidmetal Prestige Mid for the last 3 years. I strung a Rebel 95 with Klip Legend Mains and Cyberpower Blue Crosses (57-55 lbs) yesterday and tested the racquet tonight. I can say that it plays very similar to the Prestige except Prestige is a little more head heavy. The rebel feels a little muted in comparison but as a result of this I could take more of a cut and hit with heavier topspin. I found the Rebel just a bit easier to control than the Prestige mid.

The thing that bothered me a little was the sound of the racquet hitting the ball is just not as crisp as the Prestige but I think it is something I can get used to in a short time. I found the volleys felt just as good as the Prestige Mid. I may had a little extra on the serve with the Rebel (maybe 5 miles...).

One thing I noticed was that the demo Rebel I used was 4 3/8 and the grip was just as big as my 4 1/2 Prestige. By the way, the grip Rebel comes with is just amazing. I play with an overgrip as I live in the South and I change love keep on the racquet.

All in all I thought that the Rebel played very similar to the Prestige mid. Between the new Prestige Mid and the Prince Rebel, I would probably buy the one I can get a better deal as I would have to buy at least 4.
Click to expand...

mmm i played with the liquid metal prestige
i loved that racket
if the rebel is just like it then it will be awesome to demo
but how did the rebel preform on serves
were there fast and? accurate
 
I would say that the Rebel has a little less power than the Prestige Mid and just a little more control and spin potential. It is not much different but different enough that it is noticeable. I found the biggest difference in the sound it makes during contact. Probably not a big deal.

I only served with it 20-30 times during practicing but it was solid on the serve. Somehow it felt easier to produce racquet head speed. As a result of this, I was getting a little more spin on my serves which gave a nice margin of error on the first serves. With a little practice, I can really see myself hit harder first and second serves with higher percentage compared to my Liquid Metal Mids. Don't get more wrong, I still think the Prestige is a great stick and there really is no reason for me to switch to another racquet other than the fact that I want something newer.
 
Tennis_dude ^_^ said:
also mate do you think prince will make a new diablo. i love the original racket and it would be cool if they continued it
Click to expand...

At a recent meeting, one of the top guys (rather not say who...you'll just have to trust me on this one) at Prince hinted that we may see a reinvention of the Diablo for the 2nd half of the year. I'm sure there'll be a lot of stoked players looking waiting for this...
 
Samster, im on the edge of my seat here! Dont want to rush you, but cant wait much longer for your review.:) Ive followed your past reviews, and tend to enjoy alot of the same frames you like, so hook us up with your thoughts when ever you get a chance. :)
 
Here is the review on the Rebel 95:

I have been using mostly the US K90 the past year and more recently the AK90 weighted to 350 grams strung, 9 pt HL. I moved on to the AK90 because the US K90 at 362 grams is just too much for me.

I prefer frames that are headlight and no larger than 100 sq in. I have a Eastern/Semiwestern FH, 1HBH topspin/slice/dropshot, and I enjoy volleying. If I have to rate myself, I would say I am an intermediate player.

The Exo3 Rebel 95 DEMO came with Prince's new poly hybrid (Poly EXP 17(M)/Premiere 17(C)) and I thought this was a good setup for the Rebel. I generally shy away from poly but I experienced no arm discomfort whatsoever with the Rebel with Prince's poly hybrid.

Bolt (another TW poster) also tested the Rebel and our impressions were similar. The Rebel feels very solid upon holding it and it swings with plowthrough like a K90 would. It has a very healthy sweetspot for a 18x20. We both thought it had more spin than a typical 18x20. Like I mentioned in another post, the Rebel has the control of an 18x20 but spin and pop of that of an 16x19.

Groundstrokes: good controllable pop with extra power on demand. you can easily hit a deep ball with a smooth motion. the poly works well to provide extra top. slices had good bite and didn't float and I suspect the healthy SW number helped. The SW of this frame was rated 335 (US K90 at 336) but it felt easier to swing than the US K90. The Rebel cuts through the air faster (?the speedport phenomenon)

Volleys: didn't hit a lot of these but I thought the racket was stable and maneuverable for its weight. directional control was good.

Comfort: very very comfortable and that's a good thing. I felt the stringbed with the small Exo3 dampener provided the right amount of feedback and it wasn't "muted" for sure.
 
Anybody who hits with a Pure Storm Limited needs to give this one a demo. it hits very similar, same exceptional control with a little more pop and also a little more directional control.
 
What ashwincr said is true. IMO in stock form the Pure Storm Ltd swung just as fast as the Prince Rebel but for me didn't have that mass through the head of the racquet so I had to add 6" of lead at 3/9. The Rebel is fine for me stock and still swings very fast. I think it could be because of the beam profile with the Rebel being a little thicker.
 
samster said:
Here is the review on the Rebel 95:

I have been using mostly the US K90 the past year and more recently the AK90 weighted to 350 grams strung, 9 pt HL. I moved on to the AK90 because the US K90 at 362 grams is just too much for me.

I prefer frames that are headlight and no larger than 100 sq in. I have a Eastern/Semiwestern FH, 1HBH topspin/slice/dropshot, and I enjoy volleying. If I have to rate myself, I would say I am an intermediate player.

The Exo3 Rebel 95 DEMO came with Prince's new poly hybrid (Poly EXP 17(M)/Premiere 17(C)) and I thought this was a good setup for the Rebel. I generally shy away from poly but I experienced no arm discomfort whatsoever with the Rebel with Prince's poly hybrid.

Bolt (another TW poster) also tested the Rebel and our impressions were similar. The Rebel feels very solid upon holding it and it swings with plowthrough like a K90 would. It has a very healthy sweetspot for a 18x20. We both thought it had more spin than a typical 18x20. Like I mentioned in another post, the Rebel has the control of an 18x20 but spin and pop of that of an 16x19.

Groundstrokes: good controllable pop with extra power on demand. you can easily hit a deep ball with a smooth motion. the poly works well to provide extra top. slices had good bite and didn't float and I suspect the healthy SW number helped. The SW of this frame was rated 335 (US K90 at 336) but it felt easier to swing than the US K90. The Rebel cuts through the air faster (?the speedport phenomenon)

Volleys: didn't hit a lot of these but I thought the racket was stable and maneuverable for its weight. directional control was good.

Comfort: very very comfortable and that's a good thing. I felt the stringbed with the small Exo3 dampener provided the right amount of feedback and it wasn't "muted" for sure.
Click to expand...

Hi Samster, did the tension drop quite a bit during your hit with the Rebel? I have one of the TW demos and at first I thought it was fine but having the same setup, the tension has dropped 5 lbs in less than a week (measured with my ERT300). I know it's a freshly strung new racquet so I expect some tension loss but with this setup I'm torn. I thought this string combo was a good mix of pop and feel at first and now the ball tends to fly quite a bit.
 
jayserinos99 said:
Hi Samster, did the tension drop quite a bit during your hit with the Rebel? I have one of the TW demos and at first I thought it was fine but having the same setup, the tension has dropped 5 lbs in less than a week (measured with my ERT300). I know it's a freshly strung new racquet so I expect some tension loss but with this setup I'm torn. I thought this string combo was a good mix of pop and feel at first and now the ball tends to fly quite a bit.
Click to expand...

j,

I didn't play with the frames long enough to notice the tension drop. I had to drop off the demos earlier than I would like. The poly EXP hybrid was really good with this frame, I thought.
 
I've been hitting with the Graphite 93 and the Rebel 95 that I was able to personally string with the Poly EXP/Premier hybrid. The tension has definitely dropped in the past couple of days. Not sure which string (or both) is responsible...I'm leaning towards the Premier.
 
Premier must be replaced with something better. It does not belong there. Such a low quality string.
 
It's not a bad string...it just drops tension a little to quickly. I'm going to try the Poly EXP with Prince Syn Gut Multi in the cross. It's my standard cross, so I'll be better able to assess the Poly EXP.
 
ssjkyle31 said:
Would you say the Rebel is a little more flex.
Click to expand...


It didn't feel flexier than the PSL for me.
Jayserinos, we have almost the same setup for the PSL I have about 8 gms of lead on the hoop. 2gms at 12 and 6gms at 3 and 9. I think I'll play the EXO3 Rebel 95 in stock form.
 
The string density on the 93 appears, similar to the older POG mid, even though it has 16 mains as opposed to 14.

Has anyone measured the 'squares' to see if the density is similar?
 
When you guys strung your Rebels, did you need to use any of the Prince stringing tools? boomerangs and such..

Thanks.
 
When I demoed the Rebel 95 most of my shots were landing short. With the Graphite 93, they were just right. I didn't demo the Graphite 100 because I prefer head light racquets for volleying. My new Graphite 93's should be here today so I will be offering my Ozone Tours and an O3 in the classifieds section.
 
I have now been demoing the Rebel 95 for the last 3 weeks and I can say that I like it better than my Head Liquidmetal Prestige Mids. I also just purchased a Microgel Mid to see how it also played compared to these other two. The weight of the MG Mid and Rebel 95 are exactly the same. When strung with the same hybrid strings and an overgrip, Rebel comes to 10.8 headlight and Microgel Prestige comes to 9.6 headlight. You wouldn't think this small gap should make a big difference but it must be because of the way these racquets are designed, there is a pretty big difference when you hit them one after the other.

On the court, I can feel that the ball sits on my strings a lot longer with the Rebel which helps generate more spin. It is a little muted but this actually helps if you have a pretty full swing. The volleys are a lot easier with the Rebel and the racket is more balanced with off center hits. After getting used to the Rebel for the last 3 weeks when I picked up the MG Mid, I found it extremely powerful as the balls were not staying on my racket as long. I had to slow down my swing in order to keep the balls in the court. When you hit the ball right in the center of the racket with the MG Mid the feeling is great as the sound coming off the racket is very crisp compared to the muted sound of the Rebel. When you don't hit with the middle though, MG Mid sure makes you aware of that...

I have never been much of a volleyer but I found myself volleying a lot more with the Rebel for the last few weeks. The racket feels a lot softer during contact and makes it much easier to control compared to the MG Mid. This is actually the reason I am now making a switch to Prince for the first time in my life. I have never been a fan of their rackets in the past as they all looked to me like they were made for players that just push the ball. The Rebel 95 sure changed my opinion about Prince Racquets.
 
June8 said:
The racket feels a lot softer during contact and makes it much easier to control compared to the MG Mid. This is actually the reason I am now making a switch to Prince for the first time in my life. I have never been a fan of their rackets in the past as they all looked to me like they were made for players that just push the ball. The Rebel 95 sure changed my opinion about Prince Racquets.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I feel and MANY people I know!
 
themitchmann said:
I've been hitting with the Graphite 93 and the Rebel 95 that I was able to personally string with the Poly EXP/Premier hybrid. The tension has definitely dropped in the past couple of days. Not sure which string (or both) is responsible...I'm leaning towards the Premier.
Click to expand...

Can you compare those two racquets to the POG Mid and the Prestige Mid (any version except for the i-Prestige or LM-Prestige) ?
 
AndrewD said:
Can you compare those two racquets to the POG Mid and the Prestige Mid (any version except for the i-Prestige or LM-Prestige) ?
Click to expand...

I've only hit with the POG Mid, the FXP Prestige Mid and the MG Prestige Mid very briefly, so I wouldn't be able to give a fair comparison. I felt the POG had more feel and response than the EXO3 Graphite Mid, though the POG was strung with full multi when I hit with it last (thanks Trevor). Due to the ports in the EXO3, I probably won't string with multi without going up significantly in tension. The MG Prestige and the Rebel both have nice feel, but again...it's been so long since I've hit with the Prestige that I really can compare them. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
 
Notes in relation to the speedport tour:
My big problem with the speedport tour is that I swing far too fast with it sometimes and that ruins my timing sometimes.
those speedports really do work though and I find the same with the rebel95.

As for the muted feel and the lack of stability inherent in the range, it is simply a physics tradeoff with having the string inserts giving speed and more consistent larger sweetspot.

The 'feel' of a racket is simply feeling how far off we are from the dead centre. The bigger the sweetspot, the less we're going to feel the effects of being off the centre of the racket. That will always be an issue with putting holes in the frame. As will stability - weight can only go so far.

I do have to wonder though if players like me at 4.5+ need the extra speed as I often have to pull back with my strokes. I only use the speedport tour (and the Rebel95) because playing for a few hours straight, I would much rather the flexibility of getting a good shot 95% of the time with the increased sweetspot rather than 50% great shots, 30%ok and 20% cack with a standard frame

Oh yeah - back to the point of my post - Having the speedport tour I really wanted a bit more heft and punch with it. Lead is one way. But then the 95 rebel came along. Now, I loved the nsix.one 95 from wilson 18x20. It seemed perfect with heft and power and precision.
But the K95 18x20 just felt like a club in comparison rather than a scalpel.

Using the rebel95 I really felt as if i was using the coach's n95...except it swung faster and didn't have quite as much feel but of course I was more consistent with it.

Cool huh? So IMO if you loved the n95 but couldn't quite get happy with the K95 like me then the rebel95 is a good choice. In fact, in a lot of ways the rebel95 is also like a heavier kpro tour - which is quite a lot of praise from me since that is my de-stress stick for pherwacking the ball like mad.

However, in demoing rackets again (bought my SPT in May last year) I have discovered that whatever racket I use so much more is up to me, my feet and knees than the racket. So I'm sticking with SPT+lead for now and focusing on my technique, anticipation and running. As nice as the EXO3 was, I'm not ready to get back onto the speedport tech wagon again with another racket. I'm still not convinced with speedport-tech until I can demo it for longer along with more wilson+technifibre and the boris becker mid rackets.

Remember, there is a psychological part to rackets too - e.g. with the Kblade 93 it feels like business in your hands and I at least concentrate more :p
 
samster said:
I lined it up against FXP Radical MP and MG Prestige Mid. (The Usual Suspects)

ff30wl.jpg
Click to expand...

The Rebel head (95") is bigger than the one of the FXP Radical MP that should be a 98".
 
It looks like the Rebel is a littler higher in the pic than the Radical. I'm sure this is contributing to the impression. Also, the Rebel's face is more narrow than the Radical.
 
themitchmann said:
It looks like the Rebel is a littler higher in the pic than the Radical. I'm sure this is contributing to the impression. Also, the Rebel's face is more narrow than the Radical.
Click to expand...
If you save the img and just measure it la Rebel's head is wider and longer.
Anyway maybe it's only how the picture was taken, so, please, Smaster, can you please measure also the Radical?
 
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