9g is more than acceptable to me, my girlfriend wanted her own slaydawg and get one with 23g difference (96g tama) it helps putting things into perspective It’s my third GT now and I was never disappointed with this though.
I think this move was necessary and the right one. I got both and I'm currently playing the Roku. Even though these aren't my first GT's or specifically GT-1's I still got that same excitement and feeling opening the bags. I do love GT's wood variety and the natty/raw tamas, so it was different getting a sticky painted tama. That said I'm am glad this wasn't a beech dama and full maple is a great dama wood so no downside there. Hopefully down the road we could see some wood variety come into the picture with the E1's. I would love to see a birch version of this! As far as the rarity and exclusivity that GT has given up with this move, it is what it is. It was either stay what they were or move forward. There's potential for them to do what sweets does in having HG. Now I know a HG is not the same as a GT as far as quality goes and HG's are still factory made in semi mass numbers. But if GT can boost their capital with these drops, they could potentially invest back into the Chattanooga operation and we could possibly see "larger" drops of the GT's everyone desires without passing the point of diminishing returns in quality. I also think the "everyone" side of this is a good thing and has already been elaborated on very well I this thread. My only concern with mass production and this isn't just with GT, it's across the board, is the "weights issue" people unfortunately have to deal with. I feel like I got really lucky with both damas in this purchase. My Roku has 69g ken 69g tama and my stitch 70g ken 71g tama. My current scale doesn't have decimals but those numbers are perfect to me. To be honest, until I read around I was really wondering if these were in fact weight matched. Now I see that doesn't seem to be the case although I haven't read anything outrageous which is good to see. One thing I always knew with buying a GT was that you wouldn't get crazy weight differences and they would do there best if you requested weights. This is an age old dilemma in the dama world but I felt needed mentioning when comparing GT-E1 to GT in general. I think we'll see bigger and better things come from GT. They've got smart and creative folks behind the wheel, so I'm certainty not worried or disappointed. They also have an awesomely diverse and talented team giving input on the damas. GT= 5 stars, 10/10, 2 thumbs up!
Didn't know which to choose, so I got both!!! Glad I did. I'm finally an owner of a GT product. Now all I need is a couple from RWB and my personal collection will be complete.
Just wanted to clarify, Matt handles all GT shipping, so the orders always come from Portland no matter what they are. It's dope that you live in Oregon, it looks nice up there!
I really hope the walnut E1s don't have the same sarado problem as the maples because that would suck. I like that they're going to use white string on them to match the white paint.
They were signifying their allegiance to the Illuminati. 3 string holes that make up a triangle, and the “eye” of the spike in the centre of it - that’s hardly subtle at all, Jake.