Right, so next one up! (Will be a fair few of these in the coming days!)
A Phantom Shadow Players Edition, bought from Maverick79 on here. Had an interest in Phantom when they first came out, I wasn't too keen on the 'Mask' logo, but I think it eventually grew on me. Here are some pics!
Specs:
Weight: 2lb 10.2oz with scuff and single grip
Edges - around 38-40mm pre-rounding IIRC. Around 34-35mm now.
Spine - Calculated to be around 67mm before knocking
Shoulder Edge- Around 10mm after rounding
Toe Edge- Around 13mm after rounding
Toe - 24mm
Handle - Oval
Concaving - Minimal and throughout the blade
Purely based on dimensions, this bat seems to be a bit of a beast! The profile reminded me a lot of the Uzi Sports Black Mamba LE profile, which is lovely. The nice flowing spine and edges, with the spine running down to the toe and a gentle concaving throughout – all these result in a profile which is very easy on the eye. The face is (was) a flat face, which many people like, but I still haven't made up my mind on which I like yet. (I think I personally tend towards a slight rounding, sort of the 4.5mm that GM offer) The pick up is good, probably a solid 2/3 based on the GM pick up Index. There is a bit of a bow present, but nothing drastic. One bad point I have about the size features is actually the width of the bat, the bat starts with a width of around 106mm at the toe, and then tapers down to 104mm at the shoulder. Probably done just to keep the weight down a touch, and I agree that you should probably be hitting the centre anyways, but I like to make use of the entire blade, so a 106 - 108mm width throughout would have been nice!
This offering from Phantom is the 'performance' grade, basically just the uglier ones which perform well. However, when I had a tap up with the mallet and ball, it was safe to say I was underwhelmed at this bat. It just felt very 'planky', with a high pitch upon impact, and it didn't seem to respond too well. I actually believe it was just because it hadn't been pressed nearly enough, as you can see that the edges had to be rounded almost 5mm! After knocking for a bit, the bat seemed to respond a bit better, but I still wasn't too convinced by it. Then out came the LV mallet, and I patiently knocked it in for a couple of weeks, and rounded the edges even more. End result is that the pitch is still pretty high, but having owned a fair few bats, I think that's probably purely down to the significant presence of heartwood. The response has certainly improved significantly, which is why I feel that the bat may have been underpressed.
In terms of looks, the first impressions were that the willow wasn't the nicest, but wasn't too ugly, there's something odd about having a couple of grains that are very defined, then some which are very faint. The finishing is excellent, as are the stickers. They do seem to look nicer in the flesh, although I agree that the front sticker does look similar Affinity, there are some subtle differences. The chrome and texturing is lovely, and really does make that extra bit of difference.
So in conclusion, a lovely product, and although it is sort of a 'premium' range, the prices are reasonable. Although the bat felt underpressed, I must stress that this may be a one off, as IJC seem to rate these very highly and I trust their judgement on these. As with anything new, I was probably a bit harsher and sceptical than I normally am! However I do find it a bit odd that this was graded as a ‘performance’ grade, as I don’t know if anyone could tell that a bat was definitely going to get better, and based on initial tap up, I would have avoided it in a shop! Then again, one of the greatest podshavers based his grading purely on performance, so who am I to say it’s wrong!
TLDR; Couple of issues, but nothing major and a cracking product.
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Topic: Phantom Shadow Players Edition Review (Read 3583 times)