Are all bowling balls basically the same?

[Hammer]

Like say you get groups of bowling balls from the plastics to urethanes to reactive resins to hybrids and you get one guy that knows how to throw a fingertip ball and you put the same layout on all of them wouldn't they all do about the same thing as far as skid, hook and roll? When you think about it how different can a bowling ball be when you group them into similar categories like I stated above and give them the same layout and surface prep.What would seem to make the difference would be the core each one has. You do have balls that are used for shots straight down the boards and coast to coast type balls. So there are different manufacturers but they all make balls that hook less and hook more and balls in between. So I guess it all boils down to whose ball you like more then the others. If you like a certain Storm ball for your type of bowling chances are another ball maker can give you a ball that would do the same thing as your Storm ball. So each manufacturer can give you a ball that can do what you want it to do. Each ball can be changed with layout and surface treatment to get it to do what you want so what difference does it make who you buy from? It comes down to personal preference. Maybe they have the color you like or the name they give the ball. So is a bowling ball a bowling ball a bowling ball a bowling ball?
They all make bowling balls but you make the choice who you buy from. What are your thoughts?

[Brother_jd]

If you took every bowling ball from one manufacturer(lets say Storm because I am more familiar with them) and layed them all out the same and put the same surface(lets go with 2000 abralon, because it is between 1500 and 4000) on the same oil pattern you would get completly different reaction between say a Triopical Breeze Hybrid and a Sync. The reason is the core and the cover. The core/cover combo on the Sync are way more hooking than the combo on the Breeze, even if you set them up exactly the same. Same thing between the Nightmare and Misfit pearl. Now if you set up a Nightmare and a Sync with the exact same layout/surface prep the difference would probably be very minimal as they are both designed for heavy oil.

Some core/cover combos are just designed to be stronger than some.

[eugene02]

Difference would be in the core as all brands have different cores for their balls. The cover stock might be different but they are all mostly the same.. So it boils down to your preferences and your liking..

[ArtVandelay]

I think theyre all very different, but having said that, i think most bowlers are very adaptable. I think it would be hard to find a ball you cant eventually adapt to.

[ArtVandelay]

I think theyre all very different, but having said that, i think most bowlers are very adaptable. I think it would be hard to find a ball you cant eventually adapt to.

[UBowling]

No bowling balls are not the same. Check out the ball motion study USBC did. Each component of the ball affects the motion in a different way with the coverstock being the lead contributor to differentiation of ball motion.

A lot of companies focus on different kinds of reactions. For example, Storm focuses on skid snap reactions with sharp angles whereas Brunswick focuses on smooth reactions.

[billf]

Then you have balls that are core heavy VS cover heavy. Balls are as different as the bowlers that roll them.

[GoKidd]

I think theyre all very different, but having said that, i think most bowlers are very adaptable. I think it would be hard to find a ball you cant eventually adapt to.

I think my own experience agrees with Dr. Vandelay.

If I had a lot of extra dollars laying around, I would think it cool to have several balls with the same RG and differential factors drilled exactly alike and surfaced alike just to see the differences between coverstocks -- both between different ball companies and within an individual ball company's different performance lines.
But then ... mayhaps that would yield results very similar to what is offered from fine publications like BTM?