Ball Review: Jet Bowling "Fighter" The ball is a medium strong pearl, box finish 1000
grit polished. RG 2.549, diff 0.49 3" pin, 3.75 oz top weight. Layout 4.5 x 2 x 4.5 with a higher weight hole (ball came with 3.75 top) Bowler stats: 5.24 left (left handed) .0125" up 16mph release speed 400rpm variable 35 degree axis 10 degrees tilt.
This review is based on a medium oil volume 40' house pattern inside temp 77 degrees, 14% humidity absolute control lane conditioner.
First off you'll notice this ball is drop dead gorgeous. There were many comments, all the same ball looks great. The look of a ball certainly won't help you score, but it will make it want to fairly jump out of the bag and get used. The upper medium RG would imply good distance and ease through the heads (which it likely does have, but the heads at this house were very light volume and had been oiled the evening before (this is a 40' stripped and conditioned shot, filled to 35' in the afternoon, this has been the lane maintenance program for a couple years at this house. This pair had minimal lineage before the test. Rolling the ball at a slower but still near normal speed, it read the lanes a bit early, not much, just a bit, and finished strongly, forcing a large move deeper, in fact deep enough that I was throwing across the dry right side of the lane. Seeing this reaction I squared up to lane center, and bumped the speed up to slightly higher than I would normally use. This woke up the beast within. The ball skidded through the fronts, started slowing and rolling in the later midlane and made a very strong but smooth move to the pocket. There was no jumpiness, and no "wonder if it's going to hook" it simply slowed down and hooked strongly. Energy retention was great even at lower speed, it did not tend to roll out, it simply hooked too much to hold pocket.
Hooking across lane (lefty for 10 pin) was a no brainer, ease up a touch on the speed and let it walk over, no jumping, no unexpected skidding, just picked up and rolled where I wanted it to, and went where I expected. The reaction of this ball was compared to a medium strong big brand pearl that I am replacing due to extensive damage (very high lineage) The Fighter is very similar to the ball I'm replacing, both in numbers (though the RG is a bit higher and the diff is higher) the cover strength is very similar, and this is a great thing, as the old ball was my benchmark, and usable nearly anywhere on nearly any condition but shined on patterns shorter than 41 feet. This ball is so similar in reaction (with a bit stronger move through the hook phase, and much more continuation) that it will be the new benchmark, and will spend most of it's life on the lanes doing what it does best, and for me that's striking.
This is a ball that has a place in anyones bag, low rev players will love this on light to medium oil, tweeners will find a friendly smoothness coupled with a strong contiuous move through the pin deck on Medium to lighter heavy. Higher rev players will "need" this reaction on medium and higher concentrations of oil. This ball will attract attention for it's looks absolutely, and will attract as much attention for it's performance on the lanes as well. Jet has a real top shelf winner on it's hands here, really hats off to the ball designer, this is one great piece of equipment, and you couldn't pry it out of my dead hands! I can't wait to have some Sport Shots layed out to try it in my comfort zone, and will update this review once done!
