Anyone know how good the slaydawgs are for stalls, specifically birds and handlestalls? Also how much larger are they than a regular ken and what is the lunar balance like? Any other info is appreciated!
So when I got my slaydawg the ken was different then I expected in a good way. The stalls are insane, I don't think I have a better dama for stalls and lunars. The size is noticeably bigger in the hands but you get used to it after a while. The paint chips pretty easy so be careful.
It is just a little bit bigger. Not something you think about when you play it. It's when you swap to a normal sized dama. Then you will fell a small difference, but you will get used to it. Stalls on the slaydawgs are pretty good. The Nihon ash slaydawg has the best stalls bc of the engravings at the cups. Lunar balance on the slaydawgs is soooo good. The LOL clear paint is one of the tackiest paints I've ever played, and even tho I've had mine for a few months is still tacky and has a great lunar balance. Definitely recommend the slaydawgs!!!
Super insane for stalls. Out of the box I did a bird to earth turn in first try and a lunar first try (at the time I only did one lunar previously). This Kendama totally took my stall game to the next level. Started landing stall tricks with ease but I came from playing natty mostly.
Really depends on which you personally prefer. I like ash a lot so I would pick that but maple is a softer wood so you might like that soft touch.
Any kendama is good for stalls if you break in the bevel/cups enough. However, because of the way some woods break in when jammed a lot, some are better. Typically ash is good for stalls because the wood gets splintery and grips the edges nice. As for larger size, I think they're 2% bigger but I could be wrong on that. It's either 2 or 5 I can't remember. Lunar balance differs on all kens, but the LOL clear is so sticky that it hardly matters if you know how to lunar properly. I'd recommend whatever wood you like more. I took a chance on ash (ash Slaydawg is my first ash ken ever) and it's alright. My string sometimes gets caught on the splinters so that's somewhat annoying. But my ash has cool engravings that the maple doesn't have so that's why I still like it. Maple also feels more solid, at least that's how it felt when I had one
Yo personally I felt like the SlayDawg was worse out of the bag for stalls...but over time as it broke in it got sooooo nice! My BDAY is one of my favorites ATM. Maybe I'm just not good at stalls, but to me kens like the craft and the new sweets prime lock in stalls better out of the box because of the angle of the cups.