Okay, so I picked up my first ecer Grain Theory Kendama last week. Here are my first impression. I got the espresso gt x stodd tama. Beautiful looking kendama all around. When i first held it I noticed it was considerably lighter than all of my other kendamas. The tama was my favorite part. Its such a simple design but yet it just looks so cool. When i first started jamming it I honestly abaolutely hated it. It just felt too light for me. I couldn't land a lot of the tricks that i usually do because the tama is just super slick. I prefer either a satin paint or something a little bit like the sweets prime paint. But after a week of playing with it some more ive grown to love it. I was never much a fan of slinger tricks, but the way the small cup grips and wraps around my finger is just magnificent. The lunar balance is astounding. Im just thoroughly impressed with GT. Quality damas. Even though i may have hated it in the beginning, I misjudged and found a new company I love!
i love gts, ESPECIALLY the tama. From my experiences their tamas are SUPER GRIPPY. Im not sure if that was luck, or what...
How much did the ken/tama weigh? If you have a scale let us know. Curious to what "too light" means for you. I definitely prefer heavier damas too, in the low 80's g range is perfect for me. That being said, lighter damas are just better for certain tricks sometimes.
to get the raw ash sticky you have to play it a bunch to get your hand sweat in there to raise the grain and make it sticky. spectrum is light, most are 66-70
If you want a certain weight just put it in the notes when your order and I'll get as close as I can with the stock we have. I try and make sure all ken and tamas r within 8 grams diffence if possible. Usually closer if I can
Landed my first lh on a gt raw ash, failed in but ever simce i had been looking forward to getting a gt, still havent gotten one tho
Scoop one! There's some good deals on here or Facebook kendama community if you don't wanna pay full price
On my first GT order I put in the notes about weight matching and they were ON POINT! GTs cost a little more than most other kendamas, but they totally deliver on high quality and exceptional service.
I remember getting my first stodd. It was a birch stodd and it slayed so hard. the shape is just good for everything
Gotta break it in. If you've been playing painted kendamas this whole time, natties are gonna be super hard to play with. Put some work into it and you'll see that landing a trick on a natty is way more satisfying/rewarding than any other painted dama.
My very first GT was a second run Capp, back in 2015. Soooo excited to finally get my hands on what was essentially, the most hyped kendama of the time! And when it finally arrived, i quickly paired it with my Prism Blue Musou, and it performed decently for lunars, since the weight distribution on the ken gravitates towards lunars (see what i did there?). Later on, after further use, the edges of the cups would chip, but very finely, and in turn creates micro "teeth", allowing the cups to grip so well to the tama! It just became a lunar machine, through and through. Hit many of my lunar milestones on the Capp, never regretted owning one. Nowadays, the Malaysian exchange rate is so bad that it's hard to afford a GT like i once did. I own 3 GTs to date - a Capp, a second-hand Maple HW and an SS-1. Much props to the GT team for coming up with some good fire from time to time!
I can't back my post with scientific evidence, but it's something to do with your natural hand and body oils, coating the tama, running into the wood pores and making it better for play. Also, it develops its own "character" when you break it in like this.
I watched a Jake Weins video about breaking in a natty, like wiping your forbess sweat on the tama to add the oils, and I've seen a ton of pros use natty's so I can only assume they're good yes?