Tibhar Balsa Fibre OFF 60

My measurements for the concave handle version: 88g. The head is 8mm thick, 155mm tall, 148mm wide (= thick and small for stiffness).

TL; DR: all-rounder with bigger sweet spot. Speed: medium, control: medium, feedback: low-medium.

I chose this blade for my close-to-the-table offensive setup (short pips on FH, inverted on BH). It feels rather light in the hand considering it’s an OFF blade. It has balanced weight distribution by itself. Gluing thicker rubbers on it will make it head-heavy (good for power and spinning). The concave handle does well to prevent accidentally dropping the racket when hitting hard. It is comfortable in the hand, but with my long fingers I find it a bit thin.

The fiberglass layers give a noticeable boost to speed when hitting with the sweet spot (middle of the bat). When hitting through to the blade, it provides a solid speed and spin boost, but remains controllable. It does not support chopping, but it does NOT make it impossible to do so.

The sound it makes when smashing is a sharp, crisp sound, but rather similar to all-wood blades, very satisfying.

As a developing player, I got this with Tibhar aurus sound on FH and BH. I wouldn’t recommend that setup. The blade is soft, and a soft rubber makes it very difficult to feel the ball when brushing. It is very comfortable to play with, but it is better suited for a harder rubber.

Un lemn extraordinar ținând cont de prețul acestuia, este ușor, are viteză f. bună și plusul este la control, bate multe lemne scumpe.

This is a good OFF- blade with no vibration when hitting the balls. Spin generation and speed are pretty good. However, the balsa core is very soft, and I don’t recommend using soft sponge rubbers on this blade. Also, the head of this blade is rather too thick for me (almost 7mm thick?).

A pretty hard blade and very stiff. Very light, and without rubbers it feels hollow, though it isn’t, of course. With rubbers, the sound it makes on contact is muted, and there is little to no vibration. I personally really like both the feel and the sound. I didn’t weigh it without rubbers, but it can’t be more than a few grams over 70.

Decent balance, maybe a tad head heavy. I am using it with Rakza 7 on FH and Rakza 7 Soft on BH, both in max. size.

Good control; even with R7, I can place the ball where I want to with relative ease.

As far as speed is concerned, I would say this is about an OFF-/OFF blade, about the same as my Stratus Power Wood, slightly slower than Nittaku Forestia, but faster than Sweden Extra.

On topspin, the arc of the ball is pretty low. I would say the blade is more suited for smashing and blocking. Blocking is especially good; I have yet to find a blade that makes blocking as nice and effortless as this.

I would not recommend it for beginners who want to learn all the proper strokes. More suited for intermediate players. Nor would I recommend soft rubbers for the blade; while it’s fine for my BH, R7S bottoms out quite easily on FH, and when it does, the ball shoots off the blade in a straight line.