if it makes you feel better same for me. i like that they done with less stamping and heavier headweights tho.

I'm a big fan of the BB and 5003 and would love to try the Isms, but these do not do it for me. Guess I am in the minority...

same here. wondering if they gonna be making JDM version of the mini.

I was interested in the SLDR 430 JDM but now I'll wait a bit to try the SLDR mini.

hey guys, you dont really need a machine to do this. you can do it with a simple swingweight scale and some basic calculations. have a look here http://www.tutelman.com/golf/design/swingwt4.php recommend you read the whole thing but the method itself is described under '... with a swingweight scale' section on that page. its super easy to do and it works.

its on purpose there so you know where to put some lead tape :)

its a great looking iron...they need to eliminate some of that stamping.....Miuraism is good enough for me......im not fond of the wdd accurate forged stamping...looks a bit too busy for such a classic beauty

NICE!

sounds like what i need and if they can make it hold the face angle to boot that would be my dream putter! :)

i dont think 430 head is any lighter. tour van heads seen on ebay both 460 and 430 seem to be around 195-197g (not hotmelted) and i wouldnt call that heavy at all. no idea how heavy/light jdm version is. how heavy is your 460 head anyway ? i read you can get different weight plates for them. i actually want a heavier 430 head 200+ or something, saw one jdm 430 tour head with toe screw on ebay too. edit: one of the 430 jdm heads on ebay says 202g weight.

I have a SLDR 460cc and I agree it has phenomenal distance....when hit in the middle! Unlike most other 460cc drivers, it goes nowhere when hit high on the face. I tee the ball lower and use 2* more loft. The head is pretty heavy necessitating a light weight shaft (57grams). It is for that reason that I. Am keen to try the 430cc head as I may be able to use a decent aftermarket shaft at a heavier weight.

Will let you know if I get one!

bump. interested in this too. thinking to maybe get one closer to when season opens around here. interestingly rumor has it tm being tm wrt their release cycle planning to release 250cc "mini" driver. so that should be interesting too tho dunno if there is gonna be jdm model or not.

black finish looks dope on that wedge. also like custom "woody" iron shot on your shop front page. yoro can certainly pimp them good and proper.

you mean his design with weight ports ? if you want heavy get something like miura 5003 heads (for carbon variety), they are probably the heaviest finished heads you can get and should be slightly heavier than wishons with ports loaded. or lead tape them to death, that works.

Can you please explain the quality differences in jdm and wishon? I was looking at a set of wishon blades because I can get heavier weights to keep the swing weights high with graphite shafts.

to me a classic blade has meat directly behind the sweetspot. i think this one is more towards what you call neo blades in your posts.

i think 5003 are plenty forgiving for a blade. if you compare them to very old stuff like old hogans or macgregors they certainly are. you guys just got spoiled by all those neo shovel 'blades' of today :) personally i dont like how this new one looks with the meat taken away i dont think its gonna have real blade feel to it. i understand its progress, market and all that good stuff but miura was one of a few who made no gimmicks real blades. on the other hand no one gonna see that cut from address so if they maintain their razor thin top line and invisible offset and it feels and works like a real blade but more forgiving that would be pretty cool.

thats a beautiful looking blade man! kinda proves my point just by looking at it and then looking at that putter and i mean you dont have to be Damascus or Champagne expert to see that. nobodys trying to cut golf ball in half in one strike with their putter either tho sometimes it feels like something like that can give a proper satisfaction and if thats the goal they should stamp under the grip how many they cut with each doing cut tests.

man bad example, you know i live in France ;) Champagne can only be from France and from the same region, there is appellation contrôlée to guarantee that and in most civilized countries its illegal to to sell anything else under that name so its not an argument its a fact. even when you plant the same grapes elsewhere and follow the same process the soil is different, the climate and weather are different, the water is different, the end result is not the same. some Californian whites are good examples of that. sure there are other sparkling wines that are great eg from Italy but none of them are Champagne.

Does that make it Damascus? Not really but it is the same. Same argument as champagne that's not from france.

Chris, dont get me wrong its nice looking putter and i'm sure it feels great off the face but this whole damascus story is just plain wrong i hate when manufacturers do that. damascus is long gone. there is no real production damascus today and hasnt been for ages. the art was lost long ago and while some claimed they have figured it out thru research and trial the only real damascus left are ancient blades in museums and private collections and what produced today is simply styled to look something like it because of pretty patterns. the real interesting thing about damascus was that it was hard and not brittle at the same time which is something very desirable for swords. japanese used special folding and quenching process to have a blade that can withstand bend stress, can be sharp and not too brittle at the edge. damascus had that plenty. one can make those patterns by cheap methods like etching or something after forge is done with it, similar to how knockoff japanese hamon is made or one can make it part of forging process which would be more expensive so thats what you are referring to i guess. the composition of steel however could be anything because there is no standard formula or recipe for real damascus. there is no real need for a putter to have the same qualities as sword either so composition can be anything best suitable for putters eg very soft carbon feel and then they have a styled pattern on it (cheap or expensive way) and call it damascus steel. its not like they took art collection pieces and made limited run putters out of them (thank god). just wanted to mention this.

thats cool Tario, i didnt realize they have actually measured one to make sure! good call too considering bs specs they put on US site prior to launch and thats kinda the reason of me being skeptical of their specs. do they actually design those heads now so that the head normal position at address is toe up ? i mean i do that, lots of other folks do that but i always thought those heads are actually designed so that the score lines meant to run parallel to the ground. so thats interesting. deeper cg is interesting too, should launch slightly higher than int version then, have you personally found its harder to launch than other heads of same loft ? seen some posts over at wrx some people say its a bitch to launch optimal angle even at higher lofts which kinda rings true to tm idea behind it. just wondering if jdm head has any practical difference to int 430 in that regard if it has different cg position.

Hi Anton,

Actually TM was kind enough to already measure it for me and let me know the specs when I asked.

While the lie angle of the club head is 56*, this is with the center of the sole laid flat in a loft/lie gauge, the lie angle of the head is 56*, they already confirmed to me the score lines are not parallell to the ground but about 2* more upright.

They also hinted at a slightly deeper CG which equals a slightly larger gravity angle thus the flatter lie to compensate.

I no longer have the demo here, had to return it to TM Japan but I can see if I can get another one.

thats interesting and for me might be the only reason to grab jdm version. if its not too much trouble for you to quickly compare your demo club with any other driver you have for which you know the lie angle score lines parallel just to see if one is noticeably flatter than the other, or better yet if you have a machine to throw it on and measure quickly ?

The lie angle is NOT a typo. It is in fact 56* and this is confirmed by Taylormade Japan.

They said if it was a typo they would have corrected it by now since the driver has been out over a month and the 56* is on all their literature as well.

i did a quick stock pics comparison and it appears the advertized lie angle of 56 for jdm head is a typo in their specs sheet. same head in different lofts painted black ?

so jdm version is 56 lie angle and usdm is 59-62 ? tm sites state 56 for both. oh well i guess its best to wait til both are in the wild and all these things are known for sure. not in rush til spring anyway. another interesting thing i read about that sldr adapter which i didnt realize is that its very simple system but the less loft you adjust for the more open the face goes too. i think i will be getting this one in highest loft available and then just dialing it down a bit and boom more open face. in any case from initial reviews it sounds like i'm gonna need all the loft i can get to max it out anyway so that should work.

now this is weird. tm officially took the wraps off sldr 430 usdm version and the specs list 420cc for 9 loft and 464cc (wtf?! 460 is supposed to be max allowed) for 10.5 and 12 lofts. jdm version is spec'ed at 430cc and comes in 10 and 11 lofts. are they really different heads or tm marketing simply cant get hold of proper specs for their website and input them without typos ? or 420cc-464cc and lofts from 9 to 12 are new manufacturing tolerances for tm and then they sort accordingly ? ;)

yeah i think 430 isnt gonna be very forgiving because those are not as high moi as some of their previous designs but look at the bright side its gonna be more workable for exactly the same reason if you are into working your driver that is.

cool pics Tario! looks like pretty deep face and should look compact at address (kinda hard to judge from up close pic but it probably looks smaller than its 430 size at address). you say full array of shaft upgrades, tm site just lists fuji speeder and gd mt as upgrades. gd mt is interesting but i think gd has 8x version of it which is not listed by tm. also their custom order, are they able to pick a head from the bunch based on more desired specs ? i know its jdm qa and all and they all probably already close to spot on but even for jdm qa they would deem 1-1.5 degree differences as acceptable so if i wanted their flattest lie head from the bunch do they sort them and able to pick one up on request or they cannot be bothered unless its for a tour player ?

SLDR 430 TP pics are up in second post!

thanx Tario! i see you have placeholders reserved on a separate thread so i'm gonna follow there. its real cool you have a demo on the way, you always seem to take nice pictures that are more warm and alive than those catalog ones from manufacturers marketing.

Hi Anton, I have one arriving here tomorrow for photos and testing.

As you know there are typically JDM TM drivers made for the Japanese market, usually these are made at the same factories as the rest of Taylormade's clubs but under the supervision of Japanese management and QA. There are different design teams and staff for the Japanese models specifically though they do work intertwined with TM USA staff as well ie for the Gloire line for example (which do feature typically very different materials, ie forged irons and drivers, carbon composite drivers etc.

As you noted the shafts are always the real aftermarket shafts, not OEM versions.

I am not sure what the current USDM SLDR's are like but the 430 TP has a lie of 56* which is not adjustable through the adapter.

didnt think the day would come me asking about taylormade driver on this forum but here it is. i'm potentially interested in it because its 56 lie angle open face head and sldr is hot, even retail heads. over at wrx they are saying 430 sldr (tp or not) is gonna make it to international market but it looks like its gonna be a different head so i'm gonna wait to see what that happens but preliminary here is what i'm curious about

= jdm version who makes it ? is it better manufacturing and its gonna be a tight spec head or its made someplace cheap with wide tolerances like the rest of it and they just sell it in Japan for alot of yen coz they can ?

= jdm version i assume shaft options are all real deal not cheap oem versions sold at the premium ? any other shafts they will be offering to custom order other than what they list on their we site ?

= jdm version adapter is it standard or not ? can it be used to tweak anything else but loft ? can lie or face angle be changed as well ?

the product page is here http://japan.taylorm...ifications.html

new 430 sldr tp there as well which looks interesting, not to take this off-topic or anything.