Feel like one of these might make it's way into my ST-G 3 wood rather quickly
2024 Mitsubishi Diamana BB Shaft – Blue Board is Back
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Another beauty @Jman! After my first round the other day with the WB this one I super intriguing. I love that they left it the same matte black and just added blue to the oval. A matte blue similar to the new Ventus plus would have looked good as well but they would have been flamed for coping. I like what they have done. Would love to try this in a 63x
Good stuff on the review here as always. This is an interesting shaft to me as mid seems work for me historically, even though I know that's not the same for all vendors. Definitely will be following along. So cool that 4 THPers got a WB and one of these to test!
@Jman, nice write-up!
I got mine all shafted and gripped up and took it to the range Friday before playing. I brought both Mitsubishi shafts and had the TB in my Rogue and the BB in my old Epic Flash. The Epic/BB combo came in at E2 swingweight and the Rogue/TB combo came in at E0 with both playing at 45" which is normal for me.
At Ballyhack, I had the Rogue that I put the TB into and was hitting it well (many drives that were 270-290), but I did have a few bad misses that went way, way right so I wanted to take both to the range and see what I thought.
My initial feedback is that the BB "feels" to be softer to me and the first swings confirmed that it has a different bend profile. What I found worked best for the BB was a nice pause at the top, to let the backswing finish before starting the downswing (something I strive to do, but don't always manage). It allowed me to get better control of the ball than a fast transition. The TB doesn't care if you get quick, as long as you deliver the head to the ball. That said, I could FEEL the shaft loading on the BB much better than I can on the TB.
For comparison, here are the two shafts I was using (both 73g, stiff flex):
I ended up playing with the Epic/BB combo on Friday and besides the first 2 holes where I put a bad swing on it, I had one of my best driving days in a long time.
I generally will get one or two drives out past 240 in a round, but with the BB, I had 5 drives over 260 (longest was 276) and two more that were over 240. The misses were minor as the ball flight was nice and straight.
I did swap the Rogue head onto the BB shaft for yesterday's round, but never hit one more than 225 (no range time, hot, humid and I could not keep my hands dry) and then the rain came half-way into the round and we called it since we were soaked to the bone and even had water squishing out of our shoes.
So, more testing will be done for sure! Out of the two, I don't know which one will be the winner.
The date code proves that these were hot off the production floor. Jonathan mentioned that these showed up in Carlsbad on the Tuesday before our Experience started and he had them sorted and shipped to Ballyhack directly for us.
I got mine all shafted and gripped up and took it to the range Friday before playing. I brought both Mitsubishi shafts and had the TB in my Rogue and the BB in my old Epic Flash. The Epic/BB combo came in at E2 swingweight and the Rogue/TB combo came in at E0 with both playing at 45" which is normal for me.
At Ballyhack, I had the Rogue that I put the TB into and was hitting it well (many drives that were 270-290), but I did have a few bad misses that went way, way right so I wanted to take both to the range and see what I thought.
My initial feedback is that the BB "feels" to be softer to me and the first swings confirmed that it has a different bend profile. What I found worked best for the BB was a nice pause at the top, to let the backswing finish before starting the downswing (something I strive to do, but don't always manage). It allowed me to get better control of the ball than a fast transition. The TB doesn't care if you get quick, as long as you deliver the head to the ball. That said, I could FEEL the shaft loading on the BB much better than I can on the TB.
For comparison, here are the two shafts I was using (both 73g, stiff flex):
I ended up playing with the Epic/BB combo on Friday and besides the first 2 holes where I put a bad swing on it, I had one of my best driving days in a long time.
I generally will get one or two drives out past 240 in a round, but with the BB, I had 5 drives over 260 (longest was 276) and two more that were over 240. The misses were minor as the ball flight was nice and straight.
I did swap the Rogue head onto the BB shaft for yesterday's round, but never hit one more than 225 (no range time, hot, humid and I could not keep my hands dry) and then the rain came half-way into the round and we called it since we were soaked to the bone and even had water squishing out of our shoes.
So, more testing will be done for sure! Out of the two, I don't know which one will be the winner.
The date code proves that these were hot off the production floor. Jonathan mentioned that these showed up in Carlsbad on the Tuesday before our Experience started and he had them sorted and shipped to Ballyhack directly for us.
Great write-up! Its been a while, but gamed the BB many years ago and it was a fantastic shaft. Looking forward to all the feedback on this one. I've been using the kai'li blue in my UW and have liked the smooth feel of it so the BB could be interesting.
That production sticker is such a cool touch to see
They got them on Tuesday and you had them in hand on Thursday? That is absolutely wild and so cool! Only at a THP experience!
Have never swung a Diamana shaft in my life, going to have to see if one shows up at local GT, otherwise might wait until find one at maybe a demo day.
Of course, I missed that one!
Maiden voyage time.
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Just finished my first round with the Diamana Blue Board in my Stealth Plus head. The shaft I was given was the BB 53 R which is a 50 gram shaft in regular flex. I am not going to use the "w" word @Jman , but, other than an Autoflex, it may be the most flexible driver shaft I recall ever using. But, with that said, the shaft still felt very stable throughout the swing. And the word smooth does not even do the feel of this shaft justice.
I am in the process of transitioning away from a little heavier stiff shafts in all of my clubs so there will be a little bit of learning process to get used to softer flexes and lighter weights. I feel it will definitely benefit me and my game in the long-run.
I did not hit any balls at all with this setup before going to the first tee late this morning. I quickly found out that I needed to keep a smooth tempo throughout the swing to what I want out of this shaft. Getting too quick either resulted in low pull hooks (a common miss of mine) or high pushes out to the right. The first two balls I hit had the low pull hooks ball flight. I could tell the build was a little lighter than what I am used to (put it on the swing scale when I got home and it was D0) which may have contributed to my getting a little quick coming from the top. I swung it smoother off the third tee and saw a nice high towering draw which brought a smile to my face.
Once I got comfortable with how to swing the shaft to get what I wanted out of it, it felt great and produced very good results. I definitely saw a higher ball flight with the BB than I was getting with the Diamana GT which is certainly not a negative because it is designed to be a slightly higher launching shaft. Well struck drives were producing pretty much the same total distance I expect to get from the previous two combos I played. Like with the GT, the dispersion was quite good with the BB as long as I did not try to go after it too hard.
Definitely feel like it was a successful opening round with the BB shaft and look forward to more consistent results once I get the tempo and timing where it needs to be. After I returned home, I looked into the possibility of ordering a heavier weight to put in the back of the driver to bump the swing weight up a little but am going to hold off until my other 12 swing clubs arrive tomorrow or Wednesday. As I stated above, the lighter weight, both swing and overall, may be something I want to get used to playing.
I am in the process of transitioning away from a little heavier stiff shafts in all of my clubs so there will be a little bit of learning process to get used to softer flexes and lighter weights. I feel it will definitely benefit me and my game in the long-run.
I did not hit any balls at all with this setup before going to the first tee late this morning. I quickly found out that I needed to keep a smooth tempo throughout the swing to what I want out of this shaft. Getting too quick either resulted in low pull hooks (a common miss of mine) or high pushes out to the right. The first two balls I hit had the low pull hooks ball flight. I could tell the build was a little lighter than what I am used to (put it on the swing scale when I got home and it was D0) which may have contributed to my getting a little quick coming from the top. I swung it smoother off the third tee and saw a nice high towering draw which brought a smile to my face.
Once I got comfortable with how to swing the shaft to get what I wanted out of it, it felt great and produced very good results. I definitely saw a higher ball flight with the BB than I was getting with the Diamana GT which is certainly not a negative because it is designed to be a slightly higher launching shaft. Well struck drives were producing pretty much the same total distance I expect to get from the previous two combos I played. Like with the GT, the dispersion was quite good with the BB as long as I did not try to go after it too hard.
Definitely feel like it was a successful opening round with the BB shaft and look forward to more consistent results once I get the tempo and timing where it needs to be. After I returned home, I looked into the possibility of ordering a heavier weight to put in the back of the driver to bump the swing weight up a little but am going to hold off until my other 12 swing clubs arrive tomorrow or Wednesday. As I stated above, the lighter weight, both swing and overall, may be something I want to get used to playing.
Your GT is a "Low+" shaft, right? Just for the sake of the comparison?
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- #64
Correct, and the GT is actually a good bit lower launching and spinning according to Mitsubishi.
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Correct. That is how they classify it. Low + launch and spin, while the BB is classified as Mid launch and spin. Also, the GT is SR flex and 6 grams heavier in uncut weight. I built the BB to the exact same finished length (45") as the GT.
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I don't have anything to measure data, but the ball flight was definitely a bit higher on average with the BB. Since I was ending up in about the same finishing positions with both on well struck drives, I have to believe I was getting a little more carry with the BB and a little more rollout with the GT. And that comparison is with the head set exactly alike (stock 9* loft and sliding weight at neutral).
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That’s exactly how it should play out between the two, honestly
Nice review! I want to try all these new Board releases, and I love how extensive their offerings have been for each model. It's really pretty incredible how many weight/flex combos they make.
If I got only one to try without testing, I'd probably go BB for that mid-mid performance. I don't recall ever trying any of the Boards, but I feel like that needs to change soon.
If I got only one to try without testing, I'd probably go BB for that mid-mid performance. I don't recall ever trying any of the Boards, but I feel like that needs to change soon.
I just got back from my first round with the BB. I didn’t get any swings prior to the first tee with it so I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect, especially coming off rounds with the Diamana White Board. It started out fantastic. The first three tee shots were a higher launch and carry than I normally see which was fun.
I could definitely tell right away that there was more play in the shaft than the WB. It didn’t feel “whippy” just a little looser. This worked out perfect going straight to the tee with no warmup. The swing was smooth and the shaft was doing the work. It had some serious pop. I guess that surprised me thinking this is mid/mid and expecting maybe a little ballooning. It didn’t do that at all even though it wasn’t as penetrating as I’m used to seeing.
As I started to warm up and had a pretty good score going, the tee shots started to get a little wild. I tend to get a little aggressive with my swing as well as trying to place the ball out there. When I hit this dreaded pattern holes 8 through 13, I noticed that I could really feel the shaft moving more than the WB. a couple felt like the head was behind me a little and I was losing balls right. I reminded myself to slow down and let the shaft work and got it back on track.
Overall, not a bad first round out. I do like the smoothness of the shaft when I’m swinging properly. I’m looking forward to giving it more time and adapting to it.
I could definitely tell right away that there was more play in the shaft than the WB. It didn’t feel “whippy” just a little looser. This worked out perfect going straight to the tee with no warmup. The swing was smooth and the shaft was doing the work. It had some serious pop. I guess that surprised me thinking this is mid/mid and expecting maybe a little ballooning. It didn’t do that at all even though it wasn’t as penetrating as I’m used to seeing.
As I started to warm up and had a pretty good score going, the tee shots started to get a little wild. I tend to get a little aggressive with my swing as well as trying to place the ball out there. When I hit this dreaded pattern holes 8 through 13, I noticed that I could really feel the shaft moving more than the WB. a couple felt like the head was behind me a little and I was losing balls right. I reminded myself to slow down and let the shaft work and got it back on track.
Overall, not a bad first round out. I do like the smoothness of the shaft when I’m swinging properly. I’m looking forward to giving it more time and adapting to it.
The 43x coming in sub 50g has my attention. I’m intrigued about the potential performance benefits of the ultralight extra stiff shafts that have hit the market.
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Getting ready to head out for round 2 with the Blue Board. Not putting the GT in my bag this time as a safety blanket so it is either swing smooth or see more of the course than I really care to.
I am going out again on the 4th and then on the 6th (weather permitting).
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Got in three drives today before the bottom fell out. Unfortunately, they were not pretty. Definitely going to take a lot of work for me to figure out how to swing this shaft on a consistent basis to get consistent results.
From a flex perspective, it feels really similar to the Diamana T+ shaft in regular flex that I tested out with the Qi10 head a couple of weeks ago. Struggled to get the timing down with it with my normal swing. Switched to a stiff in the T+ and hit it better from a distance and dispersion standpoint with my normal swing than the regular. Granted, I only hit about 15 balls with each of those shafts that day and did not try to swing either any differently than I normally do.
But, I will get the Blue Board figured out and make it work consistently for me. Ordering a couple of extra weights to to get the swing weight up a little may be the ticket to helping my timing out. I have traditionally played driver at D2 - D3 and this one built out to D0.
From a flex perspective, it feels really similar to the Diamana T+ shaft in regular flex that I tested out with the Qi10 head a couple of weeks ago. Struggled to get the timing down with it with my normal swing. Switched to a stiff in the T+ and hit it better from a distance and dispersion standpoint with my normal swing than the regular. Granted, I only hit about 15 balls with each of those shafts that day and did not try to swing either any differently than I normally do.
But, I will get the Blue Board figured out and make it work consistently for me. Ordering a couple of extra weights to to get the swing weight up a little may be the ticket to helping my timing out. I have traditionally played driver at D2 - D3 and this one built out to D0.