Ball Review
THE SKINNY ON THE LATEST AND GREATEST
46 Hook 18 Length 16.5 Breakpoint Shape HAMMER: VIRAL
Manufacturer’s Intent: “Hammer couldn’t go too long without one of our most popular cores in our line, the Vibe core,” says Bugsy Kelly. “We’ve combined this extremely successful core with Violent Flip Reactive Pearl, which was previously used in the original Black Widow series. The com- bination of the two provides Vibe-type ball motion with an enhanced move at the breakpoint, which will be perfect for medium and lighter oil patterns.”
Core: The Viral uses the successful Vibe symmetric core with an RG of 2.51 and a differential of .042. We saw 3 inches of flare.
Coverstock: The all-silver pearl Violent Flip reactive coverstock is sanded with 500 and 1000 grit Abralon and topped off with factory finish. The effective surface grit is 5200, with an RA value of 1.48.
Overview: We were excited to see that Hammer didn’t keep the Vibe core out of production for too long. The Viral lives up to the reaction of the Vibe core with its strong hitting power and motion down the lane. The successful coverstock of the Black Widow (July 2006) gave us extra length through the fronts and down the lane. This ball was quite helpful on the lighter house pat- tern, because we could play farther right, closer to the track area. We had easy hold down the lane and some nice recovery from the right. The Viral saved its energy down the lane for when it made its move off the breakpoint with a strong drive through the pins, making them dance on impact. On the USBC Doubles/Singles pattern, it was too long at first, but this ball definitely will come into play for the later games on this pat- tern. On the Stone Street pattern, playing out around the 5- or 6-board at the arrows allowed us
“The Viral lives up to the reaction of the Vibe core with its strong hitting power and motion down the lane.”
to create hold area with some recovery right and strong drive through the pins. The Viral fits medi- um to light condition patterns because it needs to be used when there is friction on the lane. That’s how we were able to get lined up outside on the longer Stone Street pattern. The Viral will not disappoint the Vibe core lovers of the past few years. It gave us the most length and angular motion we have seen out of a Hammer ball to date.
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