Is a medium oil ball a good choice for dry or oily conditions?

[Hammer]

It seems like a medium oil ball is a good choice for dry or oily lanes. By adjusting the surface of the ball you can make it work on dry or oily lanes. Do you think that you can adjust the ball surface to either go dry or oily if you need to? This would save you some money instead of getting a special ball for dry or oily lanes. What do you guys and gals think? Has anyone here had experience doing this?

[RobLV1]

It's a definite possibility, as long as you use the right criteria for selecting the ball in the first place. Balls are usually rated for dry, medium, or oily conditions based on their covers and surfaces. If you choose a medium oil ball based on medium core numbers (low RG 2.52-2.54, Diff. .040-.050), then you should be able to cover a wide range of conditions using surface alterations.

[Amyers]

You can fine tune a ball for a specific reaction on the lanes with an abaron pad and you can really change one up with a ball spinner at home. It depends on what you mean by oily and dry. If you are talking about the pattern playing wetter because of weather or the house adding a little volume or length to a house pattern then yes you can asjust a medium ball for that.

It also depends on what level your competeting at. I bowled a PBA Challenge league a few years ago using only a RG Asylum that I just adjusted the surface with and did ok used it on everything from cheetah to badger but if I was really trying to compete with the top level bowlers I'm sure I could have done better with equipment that was specifically fitted to the condition.

Bowling style plays a large part in this too. Myself I'm more rev dominate and I can play some pretty oily stuff with a medium ball but on drier lanes I'm going to struggle. I use a Mastermind Einstein at 4k as my heavy oil ball lol with an Arson low flare as my step down and I'm considering buying something below that. I've never really seen the condition I couldn't use a medium ball on. My wife on the other hand tends to be more speed dominate and her ball tends to skid and not get in a roll she uses a Brunswick Nirvana as her benchmark (which I doubt I could even use), steps down to a Mastermind Braniac and is considering a DV8 Grudge to go over the Nirvana.

So what you need has a lot to do with how you bowl. I believe you will always do better with equipment that matches the condition your bowling on and your style but if your bowling a tournament on a condition or just trying out a sport shot league I wouldn't immediately go out and buy 5 balls. At the end of the day though buying balls is fun and you learn a lot about how different balls react by trying different things.

[fokai73]

I did something like this several years ago, damn! Now that I think about it, it's been over 10 years ago when I did this. I bowled three leagues with two types of lane surface and three different length house shot with different volumes. Also, the type of bowlers I bowled with and the time/shift I bowled. Though all are house shots, there's many variables I had to think about when setting up my ball, but the characteristic of play for each house remained somewhat constant. The ball I used was a symmetrical ball with a light bulb core with my favorite THS layout - Track Slash was the ball. Though a medium-heavy ball, I was able to use the ball in all three leagues.

The reasons why I did this:

1. I didn't want to bring more than two ball to leagues. Loading four balls or a three ball roller into my tiny Acura was a female dog!!! I had two 12" speakers which took up trunk room.
2. I wanted to get better. I was stuck at 190's and besides improving in my spare game, I had to learn how to read lanes and also learn to change rotation and tilt.
3. I had access to a spinner. I worked at a shop one day a week for couple of hours while the owner plays golf.
4. I also wanted to learn how to adjust surface, learn to match up the ball with my game and with the conditions I bowl on. Also, to see what products of polish worked, non grit to grit polishes.

At first it was a Female dog to fine tune the surface for each house. Also, changing surface multiple times before each leagues was time consuming. AND THERE'S A BREAK IN PERIOD with fresh surface on a ball. I had to shadow bowl (bowl without pins) just to break the ball in. I couldn't continue like this..... So I found a happy medium where I could use the ball at all three leagues. I learned to adjust my roll to combat the front part of the lanes and I did this for 2.5 seasons.

[ChuckR]

You can fine tune a ball for a specific reaction on the lanes with an abaron pad and you can really change one up with a ball spinner at home. It depends on what you mean by oily and dry. If you are talking about the pattern playing wetter because of weather or the house adding a little volume or length to a house pattern then yes you can asjust a medium ball for that.

It also depends on what level your competeting at. I bowled a PBA Challenge league a few years ago using only a RG Asylum that I just adjusted the surface with and did ok used it on everything from cheetah to badger but if I was really trying to compete with the top level bowlers I'm sure I could have done better with equipment that was specifically fitted to the condition.

Bowling style plays a large part in this too. Myself I'm more rev dominate and I can play some pretty oily stuff with a medium ball but on drier lanes I'm going to struggle. I use a Mastermind Einstein at 4k as my heavy oil ball lol with an Arson low flare as my step down and I'm considering buying something below that. I've never really seen the condition I couldn't use a medium ball on. My wife on the other hand tends to be more speed dominate and her ball tends to skid and not get in a roll she uses a Brunswick Nirvana as her benchmark (which I doubt I could even use), steps down to a Mastermind Braniac and is considering a DV8 Grudge to go over the Nirvana.

So what you need has a lot to do with how you bowl. I believe you will always do better with equipment that matches the condition your bowling on and your style but if your bowling a tournament on a condition or just trying out a sport shot league I wouldn't immediately go out and buy 5 balls. At the end of the day though buying balls is fun and you learn a lot about how different balls react by trying different things.

Has she looked at the Ultimate Nirvana?

[RobLV1]

Chuck, really? We're talking about a medium oil ball where you can change the surface for heavy or light conditions. The Nirvana/Ultimate Nirvana has the lowest RG allowed by the USBC: 2.47. It will roll earlier than any other core on the market today. Please stop looking at the marketing hype, and start looking at the numbers. Marketing hype is just that: hype. Numbers don't lie. Just ask Charlie Epps!

[Blacksox1]

I did something like this several years ago, damn! Now that I think about it, it's been over 10 years ago when I did this. I bowled three leagues with two types of lane surface and three different length house shot with different volumes. Also, the type of bowlers I bowled with and the time/shift I bowled. Though all are house shots, there's many variables I had to think about when setting up my ball, but the characteristic of play for each house remained somewhat constant. The ball I used was a symmetrical ball with a light bulb core with my favorite THS layout - Track Slash was the ball. Though a medium-heavy ball, I was able to use the ball in all three leagues.

The reasons why I did this:

1. I didn't want to bring more than two ball to leagues. Loading four balls or a three ball roller into my tiny Acura was a female dog!!! I had two 12" speakers which took up trunk room.
2. I wanted to get better. I was stuck at 190's and besides improving in my spare game, I had to learn how to read lanes and also learn to change rotation and tilt.
3. I had access to a spinner. I worked at a shop one day a week for couple of hours while the owner plays golf.
4. I also wanted to learn how to adjust surface, learn to match up the ball with my game and with the conditions I bowl on. Also, to see what products of polish worked, non grit to grit polishes.

At first it was a Female dog to fine tune the surface for each house. Also, changing surface multiple times before each leagues was time consuming. AND THERE'S A BREAK IN PERIOD with fresh surface on a ball. I had to shadow bowl (bowl without pins) just to break the ball in. I couldn't continue like this..... So I found a happy medium where I could use the ball at all three leagues. I learned to adjust my roll to combat the front part of the lanes and I did this for 2.5 seasons.

First, I want to say, "very good post". Number 3 is a huge advantage, #2 and #4 are most important and #1 brings it all together.

[jab5325]

Loading four balls or a three ball roller into my tiny Acura was a female dog!!! I had two 12" speakers which took up trunk room.

[NewToBowling]

Chuck, really? We're talking about a medium oil ball where you can change the surface for heavy or light conditions. The Nirvana/Ultimate Nirvana has the lowest RG allowed by the USBC: 2.47. It will roll earlier than any other core on the market today. Please stop looking at the marketing hype, and start looking at the numbers. Marketing hype is just that: hype. Numbers don't lie. Just ask Charlie Epps!

Question on RG and Differential and what ranges are considered low, medium, high. You saying 2.47 is lowest RG allowed. So is 2.5 considered medium and say 2.58 high? Just curious because I look at RG numbers on various balls and the ranges are mostly within these parameters. To me a .11 range difference doesn't sound that extreme. I'm not seeing any balls out there over 2.6 (I could be wrong)

[bowl1820]

Question on RG and Differential and what ranges are considered low, medium, high. You saying 2.47 is lowest RG allowed. So is 2.5 considered medium and say 2.58 high? Just curious because I look at RG numbers on various balls and the ranges are mostly within these parameters. To me a .11 range difference doesn't sound that extreme. I'm not seeing any balls out there over 2.6 (I could be wrong)

Here are a couple of Simple RG scales (there are others, it depends on who you ask. There's no one set scale.):
Low RG: 2.460" - 2.570"
Med. RG: 2.570" - 2.680"
High RG: 2.680" - 2.800"

Here's another:
Low RG = 2.430 to 2.540
Med RG = 2.541 to 2.690
High RG = 2.691 to 2.80

Simple Differential scale (there are others):
Low Diff.-RG: .01 - .02 (low flare potential)
Med. Diff.-RG: .021 - .04 (med flare Potential)
High Diff.-RG: .041 - .08 (high flare potential)

For more info see my online bowling notes:
http://www.bowlingboards.com/entries...wling-Notes-01