ant

i'm no pro of course but just like to second what Tario says here from personal experience. got RC Pro TP 3FW from him not too long ago and when i got it i was shocked at how good the club is ie how it feels and plays. after that all other FWs seem like tin cans to me. i havent tried that many but most popular off the shelf brands like TM, Nike, Callaway etc. its hard to explain the feel of the club but for a lack of better comparison imagine having a long iron that is much easier to hit than an iron, goes much farther than an iron but is very solid and precise almost just like an iron. i dunno if it makes sense but this is the closest i can describe how it feels to me and this is what i was looking for. anyways the club is very very solid and hefty but the clubhead itself is nice and small. i went for Nippon 950FW steel shaft and i thought i'm gonna loose some distance with this combo but in reality have actually gained a bit over my previous 3FW [ light tin can, graphite ] and i get far more control and better trajectory. RC no longer make Pro TP and there is no direct replacement for it in their current line and i really dunno why which i think, at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, is damn shame but those guys know how to make FWs good and proper thats for sure. hope this is helpful to you somehow.

GP Tour Velvet Cord. they shred your hands pretty badly tho, and your gloves for that matter if you wear any that is.

you can get a fairly good idea on grinds here http://www.vokey.com/tech_central/page.aspx?id=34# and here http://www.ping.com/customize/default.aspx and thats imho the main thing to think about when selecting your wedges. all other factors are easier to nail since you already know what kinda short game you have or wanna have going forward eg face angles and your personal club preferences eg swing weight, head shape etc.

thanx!

Never heard about them before and was just wondering about them, specifically are they just another brand or full on R&D to Manufacturing, and how they related to Royal Collection Golf?

i recently posted a question on Miura blades here and frogeye posted some real nice up close shots of MB-5003. i reckon they give a much better real life impression so have a look perhaps it would help you. there are also some first hand comments on MB-5003 that could be useful to you as well. http://forum.tourspecgolf.com/t29524.html on top of that Mjr. Diarrhea offered to sell a single MB-5003 #6 iron head to try.

thanx for the offer but i'm still in research stage at this point trying to narrow it down between different brands and models and was simply curious what is what in Miura product lines coz it seems quite complicated with their separate int/japan product lines.

thanx alot folks, your answers and comments are really helpful to me!

that helps, thanx a bunch!

thanx for posting comparison pix! it looks like 5003 [if i'm telling right which is which] is actually slightly smaller than their int tour blade. is it what it actually feels/looks like to you ? seems like 5003 is kinda closer in terms of head sizes to their int small blade or Miuraism compact blade, maybe just a wee bit bigger but still smaller than int tour blade ?

this is interesting. which one you had, small blade ? are you comparing them based on the same shaft ?

hmm, thats weird. Miura Giken site lists production year 2004 for Miuraism and 2007 for MB-5003. or is that just a year they were introduced to the market and then they make revisions like recent groove conformance etc ? also do you know what is Miuraism in a nutshell ? ie whats the difference with say their MB-5003 ? i did try to run their page thru Google Translate and from the gibberish that came out it seems that Miuraism supposed to have very strict quality control, very strict weighting and things like that. something i thought would apply to all Miura in general ?

folks, i'm trying to figure out whats the difference between Miura products for Japan and their export line, their forged blades in particular. from what i can gather on the web it seems like their international versions of Tournament Blade and Small Blade are based on Miuraism Custom Forged models, perhaps with a slightly different grind ? or they just similar looking but in fact different heads sourced from different forges ? the other thing i'm curious about is price difference : international offering is about a grand less than its Japanese counterpart. and if they are basically the same product i would have thought that since they both made in Japan that domestic version would cost less than export due to shipping, taxes etc. if you happen to be in the know and can answer these questions or at least some of them that would be much appreciated.