Help deciding on a ball.

[niteowl]

I am trying to decide between a few balls. I have been looking at the Elite PBA Shark, but was warned by my local pro shop that this ball is only really well suited for that pattern, that on any other pattern it will be uncontrollable, anyone experience this ball? Since they said that I started looking at the PBA Scorpion. In the description it says " Elite's PBA Scorpion is designed to stabilize confusing and tricky oil patterns" which leads me to believe that it would be a more rounded ball for other conditions, anyone got experience with this one? And finally I have been looking at Elites shining star "The Elite Blue Alien", the way they hype this thing makes it sound like its the next coming. It is recommended for heavy oil condition, but the way they describe it saying " The Blue Alien! The Blue Alien combines a version of our Atomic Core with a solid Solar Eclipse Coverstock featuring T.C.T. What is T.C.T.? Thermal Contact Technology allows the ball to read the proper amount of friction on the lane and in the oil pattern, eliminating the dreaded “over/under” ball reaction. The end result… more forgiveness!" really leads you to believe that it would perform on a variety of lane conditions, anyone have experience with this ball on different lane conditions? Then there is the prices of all 3. I can get the Shark for 99.00, but that would be useless if its only good for the hsark pattern. The Scorpion is 94.00 which is a great price if it does as described. As for the Alien its priced at 289.00 which I would be willing to pay if it really performed well under a variety of lane conditions. Any and all suggestions/comments are greatly appreciated.

PS...This is a time sensitive question since the sale on the PBA balls runs out in 2 days.

[BigDawg70]

I'm not a huge fan of Elite or any other ball that costs $300. To me that just is just sounds they want bowlers to think "wow, its twice as expensive so it must be twice as good!"'
That being said, you can get any ball to do anything (within reason) by altering the cover. So don't be fooled by "this ball is only for xyz pattern" because I guarantee that if you polish it or sand it you will get a totally different reaction than you did OOB. My advise would be to pick up a good versatile ball and change the cover to match up you your condition. It might just save ya some $$ and a lot of disappointment.

[litefrozen]

Check the reviews here on the elite balls.

Ball Reviews Elite

I agree with bigdawg70 the Elites are way over priced. If you have to have one go with the $99.00 ones.

[niteowl]

Thanks for the advice. I think I am going to go for the Scorpion since its the most versatile. I currently use a Quantum King that I am very happy with, but it will not perform on heavier oil conditions. On my Thursday night leagues in medium oil the quantum is doing great for me, I have it sanded at 400 and I love the reaction in the pocket. Only problem is I joined a Commercial league at a diffent center and they use a Heavier oil pattern. So far I have tried everything from polishing the quantum to 100grit for these lanes and I cant get a good reaction out of it. So I was looking for a heavier oil ball. I have decided not to shell out the money on the Alien so its either the Scorpion or the Shark. I will read some more reviews and decided before the sale is over on tuesday.

[BigDawg70]

Ok, if you are really using the ball at 100 grit that could be your problem. I can't imagine a ball @ 100 grit but I'm sure it would burn up at about 30' and not do much other than flat 10. For a truly heavy oil shot I like about 800 grit.