How would you rate the 4 ebonite bowling ball brands (Columbia, Ebonite, Hammer, and Track) 1 to 4 (1-being the best and 4-the worst) when comparing them based on best overall brand (timing of new ball releases, ball performance, current line up, etc....)? I saw a post similar to this a while back and wanted to see if any of your views or thoughts have changed now since time has passed and newer equipment has been released.
I'm in Central Va. The 3 proshops that are within a reasonable distance all push Hammer. So we see a lot of Hammer around here. In particular, two of the better bowlers in the area shot a lot of big scores with the Epidemic when it was first released, and then it looked like 1/4 of all the bowlers in our area had them, and a lot of honor scores were shot with them. Since then, there have been a lot of Hammer duds, with perhaps the First Blood having some limited success. Both the Purple and Jet Black Taboo's seemed to be really condition specific. The Jet Black's always seemed to be very smooth, but were not hyped up that way. I may have seen one or two Arson's, but they weren't popular around here.
Me on the other hand have thrown all of the 4 EbI brands. My personal preference has been 1. Track, 2. Ebonite, 3. Columbia and 4. Hammer. I have had good luck with a lot of Track and Ebonite equipment, and even when Ebonite was a "dirty word" back in the mid 90's, I had good luck with a lot of their stuff. Perhaps Ebonite has done better with their mid priced and lower lines as the Gamebreaker and Cyclone were in my opinion, very good balls for the money.
As a PBA member, Hammer rarely offers their equipment either at a discount or at all, while Track offers discounted prices. So personally I am a lot more likely to throw Track because of that very reason. The 300 and 400 series balls have been very popular with the rev heavy people in our area, as they give a controlled movement on drier lanes.
There are VERY FEW Columbia 300 balls being thrown in our area. And honestly, every one I have seen has given the bowlers using them terrible ball reaction. It probably is just some isolated cases, but if I was purely to judge on when people around me are throwing, I wouldn't buy a Columbia 300 ball. I saw someone throw the Crazy Antics last night, and in my opinion, it is one of the top 5 ugliest balls I have ever seen, and in almost 20 years of bowling I have seen my share of ugly bowling balls. It looks like a big Creamsicle. So perhaps if you like Creamsicle sticks ....
I have tried 3 different Hammer pieces, and didn't have much success with any of them ... with the Black Widow Pearl being the best of the 3 (and that was obviously a while back) Maybe I am missing out on some of their better stuff, but I would pick them far behind the other three (and would certainly be the exception in my region)
So for me 1-Track, 2-Ebonite, 3-Columbia, 4-Hammer
But I would say based on popularity in my area it is:
1-Hammer, 2-Track, 3-Ebonite, 4-Columbia
I won't throw in any gratuitous remarks about other manufacturers, as the OP didn't ask about any other brands.