BallReviews
Reviews => Columbia 300 => Topic started by: admin on December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM
-
The CLASSIC ROCK™ features Columbia’s TEC2™ cover stock. The ball is available in Black/Blue with Light Grey engraving. It is available in weights of 12-16 lbs. The CLASSIC ROCK is designed for most common house lane conditions. It features the TEC2 (patent pending) shell with microscopic particles to bite through oil for more hook. The high-density center core promotes early roll and the bottom flip block creates more mid lane roll. The low Rg (2.518) and medium-low differential Rg (0.42) creates a ball with a lot of mid lane reaction and strong arcing backend for control at the break point. This ball will perform well when the bowler needs a ball to get into an early roll with controllable ball motion. The CLASSIC ROCK offers a hook rating of 23.
-
For review purposes, I put more than average revs on the ball, and have average speed. My PAP is 4 3/4 X 1/2 down. Therefore, I have an inverted track. This creates early roll which is why in most reviews you will read that the layouts of my equipment will be no less than 4 X 4.
Got my L test ball a few weeks ago. Have about 40 or so games on it now. Drilled 4x4. Lane condition - Synthetic - Heavier oil blended to about 37 feet. Stripped backends for some games. Carrydown for others.
Compared to the Rock Star, which is what our rep said it would be closeest to, the Classic Rock turns up much harder on the backend. It ended up being about 4 more boards on the approach and 4 more boards on the lane more than my Rock Star. The Classic Rock gets through the heads well mostly because it comes shined. Has great hitting power like the entire line of Rock balls.
As for length, both balls are pretty long. As I stated before, the main difference is in the backend reaction of the two balls, regardless of whether there is carrydown or not. In fact, I found the Classic Rock to handle carrydown better than the Rock Star. My Rock Star tends to keep skidding past my breakpoint at times, while the Classic Rock still hooks up.  Â
So far, so good with the Classic Rock. Good length, good recovery from the outside. With that said, tugging this ball is not a good thing. It has so much strong backend reaction that tugging is not recommended. But hey, you can't have everything. :-)
-
I drilled my Classic Rock test ball 2 weeks ago and was happy to see that this ball gave me more revs and a heavier roll in the backends then the Rock Star. This ball is a great fit in the Columbia product line and particularly the Rock line. The ball perfectly fits between my Rock On and Rock Star. There were times when I wished that I had a particle ball that would give me just a touch more around the corner than my Rock Star and this ball did just that.
I layed it out with a 4 3/4 by 3 1/2. A balance whole was placed on my vertical axis line (5 1/2) in the thumb quadrant.Now I have tried this ball not only on my soft house shot but also on the team challenge conditions (even though they were slightly softer team challenge condition). In the team challenge finals is when I noticed what kind of potential this ball had. When the lane began to burn up this ball allowed me to stay just inside the track but not have to force the ball through the front. And this ball hits like a truck. I believe that this will be a big seller for Columbia. Purchaser just need not to expect this ball to hook out of the building. This is a ball that will fit nicely in ones arsennal.
Finally, I need to thank Brian at Columbia 300 for sending me this latest ball and for all of his help.
-
Alright, just picked up this ball from Chris at Buddie Pro Shop - thanks! I'm right handed, top weight 3-3/4 oz, 3-4" pin fron cg, I have the cg siting in the palm of my hand and the pin just above and to the right of my ring finger.
I ordered this ball Thursday, got yesterday and had it drilled immediately. Couldn't wait to throw it. Well, let me tell ya, right out of the box I shot 247! This ball has a nice smooth arc to it and for a particle ball it gets down the lane pretty well. I shot over the middle of the lane going out to 20. On one occassion I missed completely and went out to 5 and this baby recovered beautifully with enough power to scatter the pins on a light hit. Second game wasn't that hot with a 190 - I bowl in a Friday night league at 9:30 where the nearest oil in the house is at the deep fryer at the snack bar!! I then had to go with my Ti Pearl Messenger in the last game for a 244. I am really pleased with the Classic Rock and look forward to using it more often this summer with better conditions. I give this a 9 out of 10.
-
The CLASSIC ROCK is exactly what Columbia said it was; a house condition
ball. I drilled mine 4x4 and used it on an over-under type condition and
found that I could open up the lane in the dry area better than ever but
because of my weaker release I could not tug in the oil and still get a
reaction. Ball has excellant carry both on light and solid hits.
-
My "L" Classic Rock test ball had the pin out 2 inches from the cg and had about 2.75 top weight before drilling. I drilled this ball with basically a 4X4 layout. With my low track, this ball will look kinda like the following:
O O P
+ cg
O
This is very crude, but you get the idea. Pin is about 4 1/4 inches with the cg in a strong or stacked position.
For me this ball has great length and a very snappy back end motion. The motion is continuous through the pins, which I like. The ball hit very hard. In the box finish, which is shiny, the Classic Rock seems a little limited in it's effective use range. The shiny got it down the lane, but it seemed to flare so much that it was trying to roll early. It seemed to get an over/under reaction on fresh oil.
2 things:
1. Just a little surface, red scotch brite by hand, made this ball much better on fresh/oily lanes. I just could NOT stop striking! No over/under. Good hitting power. But like I said, the high flare tended to dry up the heads.
2. Using the ball shiny when there is still some head oil in the middle and the rest of the lane has broken down some, this ball has terrific area, back end motion and hitting power.
I like this ball, but, why? If you shine the crap out of your Rock On, then you have a ball similar to the Classic Rock. If you dull up the Classic, then you have a Rock On. Too similar for most bowlers. I think this ball is pretty nice, I could use it well on different lane conditions with the proper surface adjustments. Had great power and carry. Cleared the front part well on oil, but was a little jumpy when the fronts went away.
BTW, this ball tested on Brunswick synthetic lanes on most all lane conditions available.
Hope this helps ya.......
--------------------
Mike Austin
Mike Austin's Precision Pro Shop
Houston, TX
strikes4days@aol.com
-
I just got my classic rock drilled today and let me tell you I was upset. Little did I know that I was throwing the ball totally wrong. After I got help from the pro shop owner I found out how much potential this ball has. I just couldnt stop the hook, and this is my first brand new ball. I had a plastic ball a long time ago and a used brunswick zone which was good. The classic rock is defenitly the best ball I've ever seen personally. Its a 9 out of 10 in my book
-
I just had my Classic Rock drilled for me on 5/23/01. I am not up to speed on all the different drill patterns, but my pin is place just above my ring finger off to the right, with my cg 2" below my ring finger. With this drill, the ball goes long and snaps back on the back end ( Hard ).
I am a 210 average bowler at my house. I have never bowled a 300 game, but when I started using the Classic Rock, I bowled my first 300 with in the first 3 games of throwing this ball. This ball is 100% predictable, just hit your mark and score every time. I rate this ball a 10 out of 10.
-
Myself-Bowler with an inverted track, dont use my thumb, above average speed, above + average revs.
I got this ball due to the fact that I rely on angle and roll. The weight block and shell seemed to match what I wanted. I polished aggressive ball with a weight block built to roll. While it doesnt hook as much as I thought it might the ball has turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The first 5 games I threw with it I was a little concerned however. In the first 5 games I threw I left some of the weakest 10 pins I have ever left and some weird looking 7 pins. The ball if it wasnt dead flush just tended to hit a little funny (which worried me). However when the ball was flush it just looked so nice. I kept playing around with it in practice and a handicap league. I just seems very steady. I needs a little head oil---not a lot. Just enough to clear the heads because its not a ball that sees dry and then kicks left---it seems very smooth. If the shot does track out there is no fighting it thru however. It reads the dry too soon or if you fight it thru it doesnt hit.
What really impressed me was when I pulled it out for my sport league shot. Every ball Ive pulled out that hooks at all was overreading the midlanes left and right. I pulled this ball and swung deep and was able to just relax and let the rolling ball roll. It was smooth at the break point and didnt over read anything. I like it. I dont know if I love it but its a steady ball which has hit better since Ive gotten some games on it. Thats all. NOTHUMB
-
i have had this ball for about a month i have thrown 2 300's and my high sereies 855. I got this ball drilled with 12o'clock pin which lets me get the most length out of it with some killer backend, and this ball is very veersatile. When the lanes are flodded i can play straight up the boards, and when the lanes are dry i can swing it out. The carry of the ball is great i leave very few ten pins or single pins on good clean pocket shots. Overall this ball is the complete package I recommend this ball for anybody that creates alot revs on their ball
-
Axis coordinates are: 5-1/4 right and 3/4 up.
Pin distance from cg: 3-7/8"
Ball Layout: Pin is 3-3/8" from axis and c.g. is 3-3/8" from axis. Weight hole is 6" over and down in the thumb positive quadrant(a line was drawn from center of grip through cg and intersects the vertical axis line). Surface is box finish.
As part of my arsenal rebuild, I needed a ball for a wide open lane condition where you stand left and throw right and have recovery. I figured this ball would be a good ball for this condition.
This ball clears the heads very well and rolls very nicely through the midlane and recovers very nicely to the pocket. This ball has a nice strong arc to the pocket, not a snap reaction that you normally get with this stacked leverage layout. As with any stack leverage layout, on an over/under condition, this ball does not perform well. I got an over/under reaction. On light carrydown, I was able to square up to the pocket. Also, on the same condition this ball was very speed sensitive, but that would be expected. Overall, I think the Classic Rock is an excellent ball and fits very well in my arsenal for the condition I drilled it for.
-
Drilled for a right handed tweener. Strong side roll, med speed and revs.
Specs:
2" Pin
3 oz. TW
Out of box surface (shiny)
Customer was looking for something as a benchmark. Looking for strong, midlane movement for medium to heavy oil. Even though this is a strong particle, I felt that something that would rev up early would give a more predicatable reaction.
I ended up putting the CG 1" from the PAP and the pin in a leverage position. I kept the pin closer to the midline (1" above) to tame the reaction. Drilled the weight out 1" past the PAP for a little more zing.
One thing I can safely say about this ball is that when it transitions from skid to roll, you can definitely tell. Bowling on a sport conditon (42' Christmas tree) the ball cleared the heads nicely and began to rev up quickly. Not too much longer, the Classic Rock kicked in and began to dig. However, the move is smooth and not jerky, something that the customer was happy to see.
The overall look is a big arc and a big hit. This ball hit like a truck...a really big, heavy truck. After 3 games or so, we had to start bumping in, but the Classic kept making a nice move. We also tried it on a house condition and got much the same reaction. We did get a pleasant surprise in that the ball didn't seem to read the dry backends as hard as we thought it would. Again, we kept getting the same big arc no matter how deep we got.
This was the first Classic I have drilled, but I doubt it will be the last. Out of the box, this ball is an excellent performer on medium to oily lanes. I can only imagine what it would do with some surface tweaks on some real oil.
-
CLASSIC ROCK
WOOD LANES MED OIL FROM CENTER TO ABOUT 8 MODERATELY DRY OUTSIDES AND EVEN DRIER BACKENDS.
1/4 INCH PIN
We decided to keep the box finish (polished) because of the reaction I was looking for out of this ball. I wanted something to go about as long as my Rock Star,but would turn the corner harder! Because of the weird pin placement we decided to drill it with the pin about 1 3/4 inches to the right of the ring finger with the cg sitting directly under the pin. We also put a small shallow weight hole about 1 1/2 inches to the right of the pin. This ball does exactly what I wanted it to do. A lot more punch on the backend! Best carrying ball I've ever thrown. Out of 6 practice games, I bowled 5 games of 200+. Not bad for the first time using it. I took it to league tonight. Everything inside of 3, was heavily oiled. I wanted to use this ball to get some games on it. I had to crank it a little and slow it down but it made a hard turn as long as I bellied it out to at least 5. I could've picked up my Zone Pro Azure, but I wanted to use this a little more. Ended up with a 575, I'm not disappointed, it didn't count for anything since my team had locked up first place the week before! Sorry for telling a story here but overall, the ball is a solid 8.5 out of 10! I'm sure that number will be higher when I hit some of the JBT's conditions! Thanks for reading...
-
FOLLOW UP REVIEW
As previously stated, this ball has great backend, but what I failed to mention was the fact taht it isn't a heavy oil ball. I'm sure with a dull surface it could tackle a semi-flood. Through my experience, this ball is great shined on a typical house shot. This is my foundation ball when I bowl in a house that I'm not familiar with. Although have I haven't seen many games over 250 with this ball, it's very consistent and predictable. This is a must have for all of my fellow Columbia fans.
-
I throw about 15mph, low revs and try not to cover more than 4 boards. I got this ball last April and it is 16lbs, I threw 14lbs up to this ball. My classic is drilled drilled for length pin above ring finger and cg in palm. Until recently this is pretty much the only ball I threw.
Heavy oil--Columbia say's this ball is not for heavy oil but I've found tons of success shooting on heavy oil with this ball. It could be just the way I throw the ball. The ball would go long with a nice movement at the end and carry was solid. I'd give it an 8.5 out of 10 on heavy oil.
Medium oil--This is what I'd call our normal house shot. For me as long as I kept the ball between boards 16 and 10 I could score nicely. Once I got it to the drier part of the lane 9 to 1 I got into trouble due to my low ball speed. I can walk into a few different houses and see their house shot and score on it with this ball. I'd give it an 10 out of 10 on heavy oil.
Light oil/dry--This is my toughest condition and I struggle badly on dry lanes. I have been able to score decently with this ball but I'd not recommend it on dry lanes unless you have a higher ball speed. I'd give it an 5 out of 10 on dry lanes.
Overall this is probably the best ball I've ever thrown, untill now the El Nino was the best(I've even owned an eraser). With this ball in my arsenal I feel I can score with the best of them.
Brian
-
What a great bowling ball!!! I bought one a while ago, and is just as good as when I first rolled it. Its a lot of crap that everybody says it punches out after 50 games. I probobly have between 100 to 125 games on the ball and it still hits like a tank. The ball is drilled up max leverage. I would recammend this ball to anyone with a good bit of rev rate. I play inside i dont know how it would do up the boards.
-
Talk about a real dud. I punched this one up for steady feed in oil. It's drilled w/ pin over fingers w/ MB in strong position and weight hole about 2" above my PAP. This thing skids 55 feet in oil. On dry lanes, or lanes with rippin' backends, its great. But, play this in oil and it sucks. Columbia says it hooks in oil, don't think so.
-
Had this ball for awhile, one of the older in my arsenal. Unfortunetly this ball suffered the now coin phrase "tec death" i've noticed not only from this ball but from other bowlers that you shouldn't play with the coverstock. I resurfaced this ball and another bowlers because there was damage done by the machines on both the tracks and when fixed the ball just turned into a dry lane ball or a spare ball. Although this ball was great before this happened. Word to the wise, clean your ball often and avoid problematic lane machines. 8 out of 10 before "tec death" and 5 out of 10 after. Good ball for one season.
-
A follow up to my last review, this does not hook like it used to but the hit is still similar. I recently pulled this out because i was using back-up balls (just to remind me how this did) and it out because it was really dry so this came out. Throw straight down 15 and right into the pocket and i was suprised that it still hit well, so i decided to use it for the second frame and believe it or not I struck every frame with that ball for my first 300. This ball may just find its way back into the arsenal at tournaments, upgrade to a 7 out of 10 after tec death.
-
I HATE IT!!!! I HAVE HAD AN AVG. FROM 205-220 FOR 17 YRS. I BOUGHT ONE OF THESE BALLS ON A RECOMONDATION OF A LOCAL PRO. IT OVERREACTS WAY TO MUCH. ON A FLOOD UP THE MIDDLE AND BONE DRY OUTSIDES IT SOME TIMES WORKS BUT ONCE THE TRACK STARTS TO DRY UP YOUR DONE. SOMETIMES YOU CAN GET THE BALL OUT PAST THE TRACK SOMETIMES NOT AND IF YOU DONT, LOOK OUT! IT RIPS HARD LEFT. I CANT PLAY THE BALL WITH ANY CONSISTANCY AFTER THE FIRST GAME IN LEAGUE PLAY. I SEE COLUMBIA DISCONTINUED IT THAT IS PROBABLY THE BEST THING THEY COULD HAVE DONE. RIGHT NOW IT IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE BOAT ANCHOR I HAVE EVER SEEN.
-
I have found it difficult to understand how this
ball isn't used more frequently. I have a 14lb'er
with a 3 inch pin and 2.75 onces of top weight. I
don't know all of my specifics, although I know I
have this ball drilled 4 x 4.5. I throw with high
revs and medium speed. I can usually play 22 to 9
with this ball and leave very few single pins. I
usually get a medium oil shot. The ball hits very
hard. In fact I throw in a house that is known for
its corner pins. In fact the tour stopped here twice
but the guys didn't like the carry. I highly recommend
this ball and in fact I am looking for another, so
if anyone is looking to get rid of a 14 lb Classic
Rock let me know.
1tool
-
This is really a love/hate ball with me. I have it drilled pin above fingers, cg stacked below it (about a 2-3" pin).
The Love: This ball has a very distinctive skid/snap reaction (I keep mine polished) but surprisingly it keeps the pins low to the deck and carries exceptionally well even to this day. I've had it about a year and a half now and have put several hundred games on it. I've been fortunate in that I haven't experienced the "TEC death" others have spoken of.
The Hate: This ball *ONLY* works for me if [1] I can swing it, [2] there's a wall of oil to get it out to the breakpoint and [3] it's dry outside. In other words, the lane pretty much has to be blocked.
The bottom line, if you're bowling on a typical league shot where the lane is fairly wide open and you have a bit of swing/area then this ball kicks some major rear end! (Mostly because IMO the carry is great). However, if it's a tough, tournament-like shot where straighter is greater and break point control is critical then don't even bother with this ball.
-
I have a Classic Rock as part of my arsenal.I have mine drilled very aggresively with a weight hole. I have better than speed and heavy revs. I keep it shiny for medium o
il conditions. I plant on the 25-37 and target the 12.It gets through the heads and pines fairly clean. With the weight hole, it gives me a strong reaction on the backend.I am able to make small moves during lane breakdown and not surrender the pocket. I don't feel this ball is a force on oil lanes but it's solid on all others. You have to watch it in the boneyard. It will take off BADLY. Personal overall rating: strong 8 out of 10. Now, go out there and RIP'EM.
-
As I was reasing my posting, I noticed that I wrote that I plant on the 25-37 board. I meant to say the 25-27 board. Sorry about that!
-
got a classic rock in december to compliment one of my favorites of all time the rock star.
wanted a little stronger ball and got it with the classic.
did my research and noticed the classic has the same coverstock(tec2) as the rock star and a stronger core so i figured this is my ball.
16lb, 3-4 inch pin.
drilled it label leverage with no hole, pin ended up being to the right and above ring finger. very readable ball. doesnt do anything crazy, which is what i wanted. hits like a truck.........
this ball combined with the rock star are the perfect 1-2 punch.
start with the classic and finish with the rock star.....