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41 Reviews for Donic Waldner Black Devil Carbon Balsa

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Magnificent blade!
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A black gem in the right hands.. Moved to this blade coming from Donic Epox Offensiv (5ply all wood) and what I felt upon first touch are: blade is considerably lighter (mine weighed around 84-85g) and immensely faster especially on flat shots/smashes. Head size is slightly smaller (about 2mm shorter than typical wood blades) and cutting/finishing is a bit rough. The Koto/balsa material is fragile, you can put on edge tape if you want.

Just like its name, the BLACK DEVIL is a difficult blade to control. Expect a few bouncy, over the table hits when first using it. DO NOT use this blade if you just started out playing table tennis - use an all wood instead, stabilize basic strokes and control techniques first.. only then you can move to this blade if you feel confident enough...

Personally, this blade is gonna be my stepping stone to further sharpen my techniques before I decide to get an ALC blade sometime in the future.

Typically people will suggest to use medium/soft rubbers with this blade. I first put Donic Bluefire M2 and Yinhe Mercury 3 Euro Soft on FH/BH. Control is pleasant enough without compromising much speed. Close/mid distance to table plays are quick and deadly; however a problem persisted when playing far from table, my shots occasionally lacked power to go over the net with such setup, maybe it's the characteristics of softer rubbers or at that point I just simply wasn't skilled enough to control this blade ?.

After a few intense weeks of taming this little devil.. I moved the M2 to BH and put Friendship (729) Battle 2 Provincial on the FH to turn the blade into a mid/far distance looping beast. Speed+super spin obliterated anyone who dared to put up their blade :)
Yes, a hard Chinese rubber on a stiff/fast blade , either I am confident enough in my skill improvement or I am an outright table tennis masochist. LOL ?
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The layer which use balsa and carbon become to be hard and stiff, but when I use it, I feel a crazy speed. Because of I use a soft rubber, I can play comfort.
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very fast wood. not for beginners
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Makes pong sound. Best balsa carbon looping blade. Easy to reverse spin. Really good close to the table. Much easier to use then say an alc blade.
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This ply is really good!! Your shots r very consistent with it but don't buy very fast rubbers even now also I use fast rubbers with it but when I will change my rubbers I will use some slower rubbers as it will improve ur game and u won't be dependent on ur rubbers for speed.This ply is good and is enough to be played with slower rubbers as this ply will handle the speed.If u will buy this ply plz use slow rubbers
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Its not a blade for beginners, be sure of this. A hard balsa + carbon blade that works better with soft rubbers, I used a Acuda Blue P2 on FH and had no problems in smashes and blocking, but had difficulty in create spin because of the "zero dwell time", serves were just OK. Its very light, but a little bit small on the top of the head. I was tired of miss the table trying to loop and top spin, so I changed to a all wood blade, my game increased a lot. Maybe its because Im not a expert or professional player, but this blade is very difficult to dominate.

I think its not a good for reverse penhold players because its really smaller than other blades, it increases de chances for the ball hit the fingers when the player tries to make a reverse shot.
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Muita velocidade , porm um controle ruim
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Lot of people dont love the sound of the blade But i am in love with it :).
I use it with Xiom Omega IV PRO fh
and
Xiom Vega Japan bh
what i did not like about it was its face size .. its small.. but you will love the sound when you hit smash.. sound and speed :) you need good control and proper strokes to use this blade.
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This blade I had an attraction to from the start truly looks astonishing wonderful piece , it's almost stiff type blade with balsa to maintain control and carbon for speed made an excellent combination I used donic x1 turbo platin rubber and this produced some extraordinary results and shots the true sound was amazing but only problem was face size but it wasnt an issue that caused to much of a problem , highly recommend this for the price it's better than the stiga balsa carbon
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The blade for professional play.
My best blade till now. Good for smashes, speed is very high and I love the sound of the blade.
Rubbers that suits my play are
Forehand: Donic Acuda S2
Backhand: Stigma Airoc astro 8
This is the best combination of rubbers
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Not bad, ligth, good feel, n' best for smash...
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good for strong spins and smashes great speed
I like the sound of the blade
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The material is solid .. so do not feel shakes his speed .. full .. a good combination between hard rubber combined to attack and medium soft with height control for counter block ...
Handle fitting FL suitable for high acceleration rubber that feels good .. I tried was a combination of hard and soft rubber .. I allround play type , spin attack , counter block ... the selection of rubber ( FH ) Andro Rasant Powergrip , character hard suited to spin faster and ( BH ) Andro Rasant Beat , soft character to counter block with height control , the occasional back spin ...
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The Racket is light, mine was about 78 grams. but my bat is the pen-hold version. great for drives , loop and smashes. Feels very "non tangible" when doing backspin pushes. Consistency with drives and loop is good. Just my 2 cents.
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Very sexy blade!. ive got xiom rubbers with carbo sponges and no edge tape. it looks dangerous! it is actually dangerous for a 1350 player like myself because i keep hitting balls off the table. Blade is fast, light, and stiff. feel is minimal. sounds funny. I now use a yasaka special edition 5ply with (f)rakza9 and (b)h3neo. will go back to this blade once my stroke develops.
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weird sound, not bad blade
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Had great hopes for this blade. After buying into carbon blades thought that balsa was going to save the day and give me the performance of carbon with the lightness of balsa. The one I got was 88grams so it was nothing like the quoted 80grams. !This blade was probably once of the worse blades that I bought. Had terrible trouble getting rubbers to stick to it. Handle was terrible and head size is small and the balance is a little off. Transferred the M1 rubbers over to it and they were too hard and didn't suit it at all. Did play against a guy who used this blade with T05s on both sides and he plays brilliantly but I couldn't get it to work. It's either a love or hate it blade.
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Very fast
Nice playing
Not very handy for chops and sending "close to the net" balls
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I have been using it with "Rakza7 Soft" on FH, that allows me to achieve Control and Spin and due to Carbon this wood has already a good speed. If you don't spin the ball from you back hand you can use any medium hard sponge rubber like CoppaX1.
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It's an awesome blade, build for speed attack! my setup for this blade follows:

FH: Yasaka Mark V (max)
BH: DHS Neo Hurricane 3 (2.15mm)
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This is a really fast, controlled, light blade. This really is a silent black killer. If you want to feel your shots, this is not it. It's perfect for an attacking player who'd like to place it and place it FAST. Short -long distance attacking is incredible
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It's not very fast. I would say OFF. Not enough control. too much bouncing
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I've used this blade for a week. First that i said "OMG, its very fast, but where is the control...??"
I used Donic Acuda S1 on FH and Yasaka Mark V AD on BH. To make the control more perfect i think i have to use softer rubber. Maybe Donic Desto F3 on FH and Yasaka Mark V Soft on BH. Overall, i like this blade so much ex. when rally is goin' on.
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I love it. Fast and great "unmeasurable" control. I just love it! don't even want to say more. I love it !!!!
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çis the best donic blade, is amazing very fast and light, this blade have a perfect balance and super feeling!!!
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we
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this is the "Champion's" new blade. A revolutionary design. The exuberant playing style of the master is complemented by the advanced technology of this weapon. Carbon and Balsa have been combined by DONIC for the first time. The soft Balsa core results in a blade with unbelievably good control, particularly when returning the ball. Incredible power and speed can be achieved with the hard Koto middle plies and carbon fibre of the DONIC Waldner Black Devil CB. The light weight and enlarged sweet spot of the 7-ply high-tech product attains perfection.

Waldner's "black devil" will delight all attacking players!
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Pros:

- Very fast!
- Extremely light for what it is capable of
- Good control
- Looks good

Cons:

- Low dwell time
- Fragile
- The handle curves to the top can be abrasive to fingers (this can be smoothened by sawing off the sharp edges, but I didn't dare to try damaging the bat)
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Great Blade ! I am an intermediate level player(club level. I take part in corporate tournaments).

This blade is awesome for a player like me who doesnt rely too much on spin but relies on speed, blocks , and flat shots.

For a blade this fast , the control is amazing.

However one should be careful in choosing the right kind of rubber for this blade.
Because of the stiffness , it has ZERO dwell time and therefore brushing the ball will not produce much spin.
I tried Donic Coppa JO gold (FH) and GKI chelonz (BH) but it was not a good combination(no spin and too much speed, and hence no control).
Then i tried Donic Sonnex JP on BH and Joola Mambo H on FH. This was an awesome combination.
The blocks were amazing and I was getting good spin from my FH. The speed was amazing and control was good too with this combination. The kind of bat i had always wanted!!!
Also blocking against topspins are speedy and deadly. Fast blocks almost always fetch me points ;).
Sonnex on BH was giving good control and very good in return of serve. With by BH i could negate the spin and return with ease.
Shots are effortless with this bat.
All in all a great blade for such a less price. Better than most of the planks i have (I have Butterfly Schlager, Donic Waldner Senso, Donic Waldner Senso ultracarbon) .
More than worth the money you pay :)

CONS: Not easy to generate really heavy topspins because of the low dwell time.
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This blade stands out in many aspects: it is very light, very fast. Comparing to other carbon blades it has no that annoying vibration. The kraftmanship is perfect. The controll might be better but it is alway a balance between weight/speed/controll. Since the dwelling time is close to zero the blade leaves very little information for player about the ball. In order to compensate this it is prefferably to use soft or extra soft rubbers on this blade, which will add more controll and consistency. I have tried first this blade with Donic Platinum on FH and Platinum Soft on BH (my usual setup) and I felt that I can toss satelites in the sky. The bat was just too speedy and I think that there are very few players out there who would feel comfortable with such setup. Then I chenged the rubbers to Stiga's TS i max and it was just right. The speed was almost the same but I could control every strike and loop I made. Besides, this setup is extremely light which adds more freedom for movements and more power in attack. I was alwaus sceptical to all carbon and artifficial substances in blades but this one has changed my opinion. An amazing blade! Once you have played it with right rubbers you will be willing to play it againg and againg even if your main setup is slower or different in other ways!
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Been using this blade for 3-4 months. During that time, I've changed the rubber/sponge combination a few times to get an idea of what to use to optimize the blade. For reference:

Setup 1: Desto F3 1.8 FH/BH
Setup 2: Hurricane III FH / Hurricane II BH (and vice versa)
Setup 3: Sriver EL FH/BH
Setup 4: Bryce FH / Sriver EL BH
Setup 5: Tenergy 05 FH/BH

Going by the review ratings:
Speed - Yeah, this blade is SPEEDY. Ludicrous speed. Whatever you describe for speed, I will use that to describe this blade's speed rating. If they had a higher number than 5, I would probably use it. Fastest blade I've had.

Control - This rating is reflect MY capability to control the blade. The rubber/sponge setup could determine the control to a degree but you really need to be an advanced player to control this blade. My coach, for example, could pull off very nice touch shots with my setups. I could not. So the control is there; but I feel you need to be very advanced and very committed to whatever shot you're trying to do. So quite honestly, if you aren't VERY good, I'd think a bit before choosing this setup. Very little dwell time means you better know what you're doing.

Hardness - you don't see this rating but we're asked to rate it. This blade is hard. Of course, that contributes to the speed; there is very little dwell time at all. This becomes VERY evident if you play a softer sponge and the ball gets to the blade itself. Harder sponges may "slow" it down but it seems to me that the blade makes the sponge faster than what you might normally expect on another blade.

Weight - Light. I weighed mine and it hovered right at 80g. At the time, I wanted a light setup. However, when using some of the heavier rubber/sponge combos, the blade will get head-heavy very quickly. I've seen as high as 185g and the lightest was 152g with the setups listed above.

Build quality - seems to very well put together. It has a very nice look to it. Only complaint I could find was that the handle wasn't what I was hoping for. I ordered it in a ST configuration. An equivalent Butterfly ST handle is more square-ish; this blade's handle seemed more rectangular and didn't really meet my expectation of what an ST handle should be like. I ended up doing a gauze wrap (like tennis players use) and modified a thin tennis grip over that to get what I felt I wanted.

Value for the money - Not the most expensive and not the cheapest. If you want a full out attacking, offensive, take-no-prisoners blade, this should fit the requirement. The blade weight might seem to say not so fast but put the ball on the blade face during a full out swing and you'll see.
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Ive been playing on this blade for 2 years, lot of speed and moderate control,used to have tenergy 64 ,didn't like,put andro revo on it and it became a deadly weapon. I love the feel of this blade!
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Jackpot! This blade almost has it all. It is lightweight, Donic rates it at 80g, but mine weighed in at 76g. The rubber size on this blade will be smaller than e.g. on BTY, Yasaka or Stiga, but only by 2-3mm. But boy, is this blade fast! The control is somewhat better than you would expect, considering the stiffness and speed. If you are an advanced swing-for-the-fences attacker or a speed blocker who likes to keep close to the table, you'll simply love this blade. It has some vibration, just enough to keep you informed of what's going on. It produces a knocking sound when hitting, it's almost funny until you get used to it. =)

Compared to Stiga Hybrid Wood, this is way faster. I like to play Tenergy 64 on my forehand and I just love the combination. Tenergy 05 just wasn't right for me with this blade. A had a friend of mine try this coming from BTY Maze (with T05), and he concluded that this was an excellent combination with the BTY T64. So I'm pretty sure that this blade works best with soft to medium soft rubbers. I even had a Dawei Inspirit Quattro UL 2.0mm H35 (SV35) on my backhand, but it seemed to bottom out occasionally. Maybe as a max or with a H40 it would be even better.

Well done Donic! Truly excellent blade. Especially the price/quality is worth a hats-off.

Pros:
-very fast
-lightweight
-stiff, but adequate feedback nevertheless
-good handle (flared)
-excellent price/quality
-aesthetic looks (dark grey)

Cons:
-control should be even better, were the blade larger
-balsa is fragile, edge tape highly recommended
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What a blade! Mine weighs 76g. The blade size is a bit smaller than e.g. BTY, Stiga or Yasaka, but only 2-3mm. It is also very fast, and the control is so-so. But it is always a compromise between speed and control, isn't it? If you are an all-out attacker or at least a speed blocker, try this blade, you'll love it. The blade has some vibration, but not much. It makes a higher-pitched sound than normal blades, this is due partly to the smaller size, but mostly to the material of the blade. It almost sounds as if your rubbers were speed-glued =)
Coming from Stiga Hybrid Wood, this is much faster. I play Tenergy 64 on my forehand and I love it with this blade. T05 just didn't feel right for me with this blade. A friend of mine tried this after the Maze (w/T05), and said this was excellent with T64. So this blade probably plays best with a soft to medium soft rubber.

Donic, well done! Awesome blade. And for half the cost of e.g. BTY Maze or the likes.

Pros:
-lightweight
-very fast
-stiff, but still some feedback
-good handle (FL)
-excellent quality/price
-looks cool (black)

Cons:
-control might be better, if the blade was larger
-balsa is fragile, needs edge tape
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Wow, this blade is LIGHT. lightest blade iv ever tried. When people at my club hold my racket, they are astonished by how light my racket is (it also helps cause i have light rubbers). in terms of speed, its great. control also great. This is the perfect blade for me.

the only thing I would say would be better about it is that the handle is too short for my hand. they should have added a few cm to the length of the handle.

P.s. If you like blades that had a vibrate feel, then stay away from this blade. This blade is stiff and gives u no vibration at all (I like it that way, but I understand that some like it otherwise)
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this is absolutley all player wanted, the blade is ligt, the speed is amazing and the one that i love it so is the control of this donic its very unbelievable, even the material is carbon but i think the balsa plies makes it soft and great touch for all over area"(near, mid and far from the table)....and i will say that impossible is nothing....
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Due to the balsa plies, it's little soften than others carbon blades, but high speed plus excellent control make it a good deal for a life time main-blade, enjoy it
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well i beg to disagree with some guys here that you cannot use it with high speed rubbers im using bryce fh and bryce fx bh i can execute drop shots with ease maybe it is more of aquestion of technique the only drwback is the sound quite annoying but i got use to it too .overall agood fast rubber for the offensive minded person relatively cheap too
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The donic black devil is indeed a devil, it is a very very fast blade.Not a blade for a beginner
If you like the fast attacking play then this could be the blade for you, the control is ok if you don
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Donic waldner black devil cb is a 7 ply blade that has balsa and carbon combination. the blade is fast with pretty good control, but there is something about it that makes it a very awkward blade to use.

although the blade is 7 ply, the blade is relatively thin and lightweight. also, the wood is not as hard as its supposed to be, so although you can make some pretty fast shots, you do not feel a solid contact. this is the main reason why i do not like this blade too much. it seems as though it is a defensive blade with added carbon to make it faster, which makes the feeling really weird. this is similar to stigas optimum sync blade.
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