[Grain Theory] GT-E1

Dope! Doesn’t it look classy? It kind of brings me back to my first dama, a red TK16.

 

I was still tempted by the Ice Blue though lol. It’s so clean! Looks so icey with the Stitch.

 

I thought the same thing. The blue is so subtle, it’s quite perfect. If it wasn’t for the KROM Purp Kamo and the Analog Squab coming out on Monday and Tuesday. I would totally cop the Ice Blue E1.

 

Haha that’s the one I was looking at before I saw the Purple. I don’t have a ken with a lunar balance hole, so I’m curious as to how it plays.

 

Managed to convince the wife and kids that a good Father’s Day present would be a Walnut GTE1 Roku .

Here it is pictured next to its design inspiration!

 

That’s awesome! Shout out to the fam lol

 

Just got my Red E1 and wow this thing is fantastic. The only qualm I have with it is it’s a little too light for my taste. But the ken shape and tama paint/clear coat is stellar. Going to give the ken a couple coats of beeswax tonight and really see what it’s like.

@Stuart Barron I bet the Walnut is perfect!

 

Hey @AN_TY yeah it’s real nice. I reckon with a month or so of play the walnuts really gona look good. I’m glad GT dropped them the 2nd time that’s for sure.
Like you said above about your red. Its a little lighter than what I’ve been playing recently and the lunar balance is so so, but the sticky af paint keeps it in check and the GT shape is solid too.

 

My thoughts:

Owning a GT is something to be proud of, it’s something you work incredibly hard for, open the website every day hoping you’re there in time for the drop, copping limited editions, slaying them, saving them, and praying to one day have one.

I feel like this is a HUGE step away front GT’s roots and what they promised Kendama consumers in the beginning. That was, handcrafted, USA made Kendamas.

Now, I love seeing the new product out from GT, I like the concept of a 1000 count batch and the cheap price but..the paint really gets to me. To me, GT was the place to go for a natty (excluding hg from sweets). Every player seshed a natty and showed us just how good they could be..but hey, GT will do GT, and at least they put something out with a proper mindset to get more people into their brand.

 

Love it.

I got the Teal, sexy has hell. I've been punishing both tama and ken tip for a week trying to land that trick where u spin the tama up upright from spike to spike. Still looks sexy after all the direct impacts.

the ken grain is super smooth and feels much better and sharper than my ozora in similar wood.

the cups are very forgiving.

the ken grip is better than my Ozora's.


the hole bevel is wider than the cookiemonster I was uber lucky to find secondhand, but paradoxically harder to spike. It's taken me a whole week of spiking to get the tama to slide in smoothly, so I guess the hole itself needs to get broken in. This wasn't required on the other kens I own. (I guess that's the not-hand-turn factor?)

A week later at a couple hours of playing per day, it's fine, but still narrower than my Homegrown or Ozora.
I guess that's good for longterm, but as a noob it's tough.

I love the string... it's kinda fat and slightly elastic, and I like it better than the Sweets strings I have.
They're more.... shoelacey?

The only thing I don't like about the GT-E is the way it sounds. My Ozora's wood looks very similar, and both have a coated dama, but the GT-E sounds very dry and sharp, and I personally don't dig that. (First world problem, hey?)

I would definitely recommend this ken as a gift to anyone, especially at 50 bucks shipped.

Oh, the tama's coating is less grippy than I imagined, but it gets really sticky with ambiant moisture and housedust... I land noob lighthouses way WAAAY easier with it.

 

Awesome review of why you like it!

The sound is from the all maple setup with the Sticky AF paint. It is indeed very sharp, but most Maple setups are this way. The nature of the denser woods. But most people love Maple for the way it plays... which for me is the reason I do not prefer it. I enjoy rougher grain woods like Hickory, Ash (if its heavy enough).

As far as the tama.. another DS user mentioned before that you can take a wet paper towel to it and wipe off the oils and dirt it collects from your hand and it returns its tackiness.

 

yeah as a tots noob stickiness is my friend lol

 

yeah, plus seriously, the last 1.5 librarian drop? I was up and standing by, refreshing my screen on highspeed 4G, but by the time I wrote my ass long tokyo address it was all sold out. Keeping the original mission and promises while almost nobody can grab one doesn't really achieve anything.

The real question is, how do the GT-E play compared to the original made in USA stitch?

 

Yeah I TOTALLY understand it from a company standpoint, and I do truly want to see GT succeed and excel in the industry. But I mean..the expensive damas still sold out quicker than most could even get to their computer. As well, sweets has all the entry level damas, kusa as well, I feel like besides Mugen, GT was the luxury of Kendama and I just don’t wanna see that go away. I don’t want the E1 to consume GT basically