I know this is an old post, but I too have been curious about this question. Has anyone been able to have a sanded pearl and a polished hybrid/solid of the same ball with identical layouts and have achieved similar reactions?

IMHO: Having watched many ball reaction videos and from my experience, I feel like I see a lot similarities between a sanded pearl and a polished hybrid...and, likewise, a sanded hybrid and a polished solid (of course, need to play around with the different grits/polish to make a fair comparison). E.g. A sanded Hyroad Pearl was similar to a lightly polished Hyroad to me (since the coverstock is different by a "half factor"), but I felt like a sanded Hyroad Pearl and a polished Hyroad Solid was not quite the same (since the coverstock is different by 1 factor). However, sanding the Hyroad gave me similar reaction to a lightly polished Hyroad Solid (again a half factor), though I felt the original Hyroad gave me greater hitting power at the pins. I think this may sound very logical or "duh" to some, but I took away 2 practical applications for my future ball selections:

1. Gives me more appreciation for a hybrid cover's "best of both worlds" and versatility, as advertised.
2. If I'm on the market for a used/clearance ball, I can expand my search. I will consider the option to get the hybrid version of it and modify the surface accordingly in the case that I can't get the solid or pearl version of that ball.

I've actually found a lot of success applying surface to pearlized balls. My Lucid came out of the box at 4000 matte, but I have always tended to use it at a lightly scuffed 2000. At that surface, the ball still gets through the heads, but it gives more midlane read and tames down the backend a bit. Likewise, I also enjoy going with rough surface grits under polish on some pearls. I had a Deranged that was dynamite at 500 grit with polish on top.

As kidlost2000 said, surface is everything. Don't get locked into a ball's box finish. Play around, and you might be amazed at the different reaction shapes you can achieve by changing surfaces around.

I can relate to this with a couple of pieces that I currently have, namely my Reax Version 2 solid, which come polished out of box, and my Reax Pearl, which comes 4000 matte out of box.

Once I finally accepted the fact my Reax Version 2 was not a heavy oil piece it was played up to be, I found fairly good lane reaction after applying a 3000 grit pad to it when bowling on most THS's in my area.

I've had mixed success when appying more surface (as low as a 500 grit pad) to my Reax Pearl (solid as Phil Cardinale once described to me). But I've seen more consistent ball motion if the ball surface is 2000 or finer.

That tells me that some bowling balls take well to surface adjustments while others don't take well to moderate adjustments or with none at all based on your own game.