Doom or Vibe as a lighter oil ball?

[Madmaxmarchhare]

Looking for experience and suggestions on this. Thanx!

[slap]

Doom- I don't know...maybe with a weak drill and a high polish if you can cut down the revs.

Vibe- Probably the better choice for light. The purple is more skid/flip where as the blue is more smooth arc. I have a blue for light and it works well for me.

[hammeredinkansas]

I'm with Slap...go with the Vibe for light oil. Why buy a ball you'd need to alter when Hammer makes a great light oil ball? Like I've said before, if the Vibe had been out when I was looking for a light oil ball, I wouldn't have the RS-1 you see listed below.:rolleyes:

[bluerrpilot]

Between the two, definitely go with the Vibe. The Doom will out hook the Vibe any day. Depending on how light of a condition you’re on, you might also want to look into the Pure. The Vibe is stronger than you think.

[Madmaxmarchhare]

Is the Doom made for medium or heavy oil conditions, then? Then again, since I've been out of the sport for awhile, I'm not too sure how much I'll encounter "dry" conditions nowadays. Compared to when I was in this sport, "dry" seems to be about the same as "oily" ten years ago and "medium" and "heavy" seem to mean that they used an entire tanker truck to condition the lanes.

Currently, I have a Brunswick Sapphire Zone and Sapphire Zone Pearl (these are the original two Zone balls), which both seem to be inadequate for the oil patterns that are used today. Both of them spin like banshees all the way down the lanes in "house" (heavy?) conditions and they're not terribly forgiving on the "light" oil patterns, either. I'm wondering if they made the Zones that I have today, what type of conditions would they be good for? Would they be considered "light" oil balls or what?

[Madmaxmarchhare]

..replace my two Zones with more up-to-date equipment. Since I don't have the time (read: patience) to look through every single ball manufacturer to figure out what the absolute best is, I've just decided to go with Hammer and purchase one ball for "heavy" oil conditions and one ball for "medium to light" oil conditons to replace my two Zones (I used the Sapphire one for "heavy" conditions back in the day, and the Sapphire Pearl for "medium to light"). There's a dizzying array of choices for balls nowadays, it seems like, and it's making my head spin. I do wish there was some consistent way to measure all of these balls (I guess with RG and Diff, there is to an extent).

[slap]

For a simple two ball arsenal you might want to think about a PAIN and DOOM. You could also consider a PAIN and TOXIC but based on what you wrote above the TOXIC might be too strong.

[bluerrpilot]

The Doom would be for medium oil. Even though this ball is meant to be a skid/snap, it does have decent midlane roll that will make it start hooking soon when things dry up. If you went with a Vibe it would do ok in med oil but when it dried up it would do better and be more controllable.


If you've been out for awhile it will probably come back to you pretty soon. And oyu should be able to use the doom just fine. The Doom and Pain would make for a very good 1,2 combo. Going from med/heavy to medium oil conditions

[Madmaxmarchhare]

That I was thinking of purchasing was Insite's Prophecy and Supernatural combo.. probably because they offer two balls and that makes it easy to choose if I stay with the one manufacturer premise.. I wouldn't mind having one really agressive ball in order to "play in" to current conditions and equipment, so I was thinking of going with something fairly aggressive for the second ball. The only thing that bugs me about the Supernatural is how much people like to tweak with its coverstock.. I just won't have time for that.

[BlackWidow95]

For light oil I am going to say a purple vibe.. I really do think that a blue vibe is meant more for inbetween light and medium..

[Longrodder]

I have a Doom and a Pure. I know the Vibe is a very good choice for light oil I just went with the Pure. My Doom has VERY strong backend with skid/flip through the middle. It is NOT a light oil ball. It would come down to the Vibe or Pure. Steve

[Madmaxmarchhare]

I'm looking for a 1-2 ball set for "heavy" oil and _lighter_ oil patterns.. not "light" oil only, per se..

[Longrodder]

Then I would suggest No Mercy/Black Widow for heavy. I throw a NM because I "test drove" a BW and for me it wouldn't take long for it to be uncontrollable. If you throw a fast ball...the BW might be the best choice...if it is medium speed...I would go with the NM. For a lighter oil pattern...I think the Doom would fit the bill. I have NOT seen anyone throwing the Toxic but I only hear good things about it. Two guys in my leagues throw the Pain and neither of them...ball wise...do very much but that could be the bowlers. I have not bowled against either of them yet to see exactly how they throw. Steve

[Madmaxmarchhare]

Yup.. the speed thing is an interesting issue. I think I'll normalize around 15-16 MPH. I currently use 16lbs, but that was back in the day when everyone was trying to get to 16lbs.. it seems that lighter balls are more acceptable, so I'm thinking of actually going down to 14lbs so I don't have to stay in the greatest of shape (and so I can take longer pauses, which is something I didn't do about a decade ago since I bowled three leagues per week). I use an old-school crank technique that lofts the ball down the lane, but gets good revs on the ball (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about). I'm trying to adjust to the newer "put the ball down and let it do its own work" style, but that's a big adjustment since I'm used to letting go so much later for loft.

It's strange to come back to a sport that has seemingly changed so much in just a decade, but I've always been one to update to stay current, so I'm looking forward to getting some newer equipment.

[bowlerbabe]

if you want to start setting up an arsenal and get rid of your zones I wouls say either the black widow or pain for heavy oil and the vibe for light oil. I am about to get a black widow and a doom for myself to replace my rhino and tropical storm. my husband has the black widow and it works great in heavy oil and we have a friend at our house that uses the pain and it hooks out of this world in heavy oil so either one of them would be a great choice for you... the doom is a medium oil ball and unless you get a really weak drilling on it it will be too much for dry lanes... do you bowl on wood or synthetic lanes? if you bowl on wood dry lanes would call for the vibe... synth you might be able to use a doom on in dry lanes because dry lanes on synth still have more oil than dry wood lanes... talk to your pro shop owner and ask him or her what they think... but dont go completely on what they say and if you decide on a certain ball do not let them talk you out of getting it.

[grayfin68]

I'd go with the Vibe. Both the Blue and Purple are similar, but the purple is a little longer and snappier.

I personally own the Blue Vibe and it is great when the oil starts drying up. Sometimes I do have to move left a little though. Make no mistake, this ball is still going to hook, but it is an even rolling ball and easier to tame than the Toxic and probably the Doom.

[fb1130]

Id go with the Vibe For A dryer condition;)

[ILoveMySlingBlade]

my purple vibe has the pin above the ring, drilled for length like the early person mentioned. much has to do with where you put the pin, if you put it under the ring, it will pick up earlier and result in more of an arcing motion.

[Ray75]

OK, for a medium to heavy shot, I would recommend the Black Widow. For a Heavy oil shot, the No Mercy would fit the bill. For a good Medium shot, I would go with the toxic, or doom. For Medium to light, the blue vibe would fit well in that category. The Pain would be for a med to heavy shot. The BW and NM are pretty close. The NM is about 5 to 10 boards stronger than the Widow. Hawgzilla is another heavy oil ball that is about 5 to 10 boards stronger than the Widow.....Hope this helps in your decision.....