Lol reminds me of the hulk. That set up probably plays super well though! Yeah dude, mixing and matching is awesome. Sometimes you make set ups that play super well together, but sometimes they're just better when kept complete. You just gotta try em out and see!
First I do looks then balance then weight then playability and if it's good I keep it and if not I put it back to its normal spot. I don't do setups very much only if it has all the things above, like there was this one time I had a ash hg and a turquoise kaizen tama and put them together and it was my all time favorite setup and when I play cushions it is exactly like that dama so you could say I basically made cushions lol
Reviving this thread! My setups are a mixed bag of criteria. While I do like keeping my setups straight, every now and then, I come across an awesome setup scenario when I find two or more of my straight (meaning not mixed) damas don't match each other. Hell, sometimes I make setups on a whim! My current mixed setups include: -Blue and Yellow Halfsplit Rubber Tama on a TK16 Ken (Most successful setup so far, does everything great). -TK 16 Tama on Alex Smith Pro Mod Ken (Won't do lunars, but I made this setup with durability in mind, plus it has that traditional feel to it). -Ash Tama on an Ozora Ken (Because Natty is Life. Still breaking the setup in though so I have yet to see how it plays).
If I'm mixing a natty setup, how the contrast between the wood colors pair up (different wood species obviously). Raw ash and keyaki, definitely one of my favorites. Besides that, balanced weight for my play style, not necessarily weight matched (I don't have a scale, so unless the kendama comes with the tama and ken weights labeled I won't know otherwise) I typically prefer a slightly heavier tama when compared to the ken. How paints on the tama play on the cups of the ken, each single tama seems to play differently on different kens, even if they're the same wood species and/or same paint (rubber/silk on maple, sticky on ash, etc) and even if they have the same/similar amount of play/damage on the paint. I also kind of like knowing that a number of my setups are unique to me. It's cool finding out that other players have made the same/similar setups as you did (my Glacier Turquoise Mugen Musou tama on a GT-1 Gin n Tonic ken I've seen done a couple other times on other GT-1 and GT-NS kens, and the RWB Classic ash ken with a GT raw ash san tama) but it's definitely a pretty awesome feeling knowing that no one else has the same setup as you do.
I usually go for a medium weighted ken and a lighter Tama. I'm all about that Cush too! I like the beech tamas on a hickory ken. I also like a ken that can sling loon axe/underbird.
I'm partial to ~160g+ setups for standard sized kendama. I tend not to mix/match brands since I like stall tricks and sometimes the tama bevel and ken angles are not a good match between brands. Other than that I play pretty much whatever looks like fun; different woods, sticky, glossy, even plastic (Catchy Air).
Searched through the forum, and I wasn't able to find any thread regarding what people look for in a ken shape (favorite ken shapes came up, but I'd like to know why these are your favorite shapes). Nowadays, most of the talk about how to pick a kendama starts off with the common query: "Is the tama tacky?" Sure, tamas are great and all, but they make up only one part of the kendama. Also, little do people know that as much, if not more, thought goes into crafting the shape of the Ken. So, with this in mind, what do you look for in a Ken? Wood? Ideal Weight? Cup Size? Lunars or Slingers? All around playability or specialization in one trick? Feel free to illustrate these criterion using examples in the market today or in the past.
-I somewhat prefer slim kens that are kinda on the heavy side, and I like kens that have a good lunar and slinger balance. -For the overall kendama, I like it when both parts weigh just right. It's not too heavy and not too light at the same time (basically 69-78g is my overall go-to weight range). -I don't have a problem with any wood besides Kaizen cherry wood, but ash is a wood you will rarely see me play due to the amount of light ash tamas I've received in the past. -The tama shouldn't be lighter than the ken by 5g, and the ken shouldn't be 10-11g lighter than the tama. About 5-6g is okay as long as my spacewalks and hand rolls don't look wonky. -Cup Size: TK-16 to OG HG cup size should be okay for me.
For my preferences: I prefer a nice middle ground between a slim and a bulky ken. I had a Craft Slim for a time and I didn't like the feel of it (though I'm sure other players do). Kaizen 2.0s are great examples of this, in my opinion. An exception to this middle ground criteria of mine is the Ben Herald Mod ken. Had a chance to play with it one time, and it felt amazing in my hand. I like Ash kens. Beautiful Grain, amazing feel, and a crisp clack. Contrary to popular opinion, I'm not that big a fan of maple kens because they're harder to break in, plus they don't offer anything special other than durability. Right now, until I get better with my slinger game, I prefer to have a ken that specializes in lunars. So I'd want a heavier sarado with my ideal ken to help lock in my lunars.
I look for quite swooped sarado for gunslingers. Sarado about 2g heavier than a sword so lunars are crazy good and gunslingers are good. Big cups. Quite thick cup ring. I mean a part of a cup, that tama lands on. On my hg it was so thin that I was scared to play on it. And this is the most important on a basecup, coz it destroys quite fast, especially with thin cup. Now my prime has everything I want. Thick cups for a durability, sarado 2g heavier for lunars, swooped sarado for slingers.
I didn't play much variety of kens, but by my opinion, I really agree with @Emil Apostol 'middle group's mindset, as my hands are quite big, any slim ken(for the slimmest ken I've play is DWI Lucifer)(and I referred to any ken slimmer than that) will make my play uncomfortable(I think) But I just order a Givedama batch#2 from SlayLunars, which I see is a quite slim and light ken for better slinger and lunar, well maybe I will change my thoughts after I receive it. Other than that I have no much comment on the ken shape, as long as it slays XD
@Ben Lowe did a review on the Giveadama, and he said that it was better for lunars over slingers (Dave Cher said something similar in his video if I remember correctly as well), so sorry if I let your hopes down.
Oh I will check that out, thanks dude. No you didn't let me down though haha, as the new batch has some changes on the old shape, so maybe the playstyle will be a lil different than the first batch. Thanks again!
No problem! I usually check in with new and old threads to answer any questions that I can offer my input on!
About slingers and lunars, it is quite obvious they made a kendama, which has heavy sarado and light base cup so lunars are nearly horizontal. And slingers are bad, because the gunslinger rotation comes from base cup. When saradk is heavier, gunslingers are worse.
When I look for a Ken I look for either a Terra leaf or a JKA seal because that way I know its going to take a beating. You can learn to do tricks on anything so sometimes you got make so adjustments to your play style.