I think that the yoyo community has gotten too overly sensitive about vibe. There are plenty of great yoyos out there that are rejected by the community simply because of vibe. I do appreciate a smooth yoyo but if there is some vibe it’s not the end of the world, definitely not bad enough to return. I’m not trying to offend anyone, This is just what I’ve observed.
My favorite throw has vibe it gives it a nice feel imo, but I think for other throws its situational and preference
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i’m just going to start using FNVTBS
Fingernail Vibe to be Safe
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Even the Earth’s rotation has some vibe to it.
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It depends. If I pay 120$ for a “precision machined piece of metal”, better be precision machined xD. However, if it’s a gift I wont mind vibe at all as long as it doesn’t affect play.
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California (and Japan) have some nice vibe to it 
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Honestly, no, I don’t think so. I am pretty sure that if a yoyo were to come out tomorrow with a unique design that appealed to non-competitors, but the only caveat was fingernail vibe (ie. not felt on the string), people would still buy it. Vibe in modern throws in general, however, means imperfect design or imperfect machining.
If you are referring to BST, then also no. Nobody wants to pay ~almost retail for a yoyo that wasn’t known for vibe, but now has vibe for some reason. No, it isn’t NMTBS or MIB. If the yoyo always had vibe and it wasn’t user error (and others haven’t seen it in their yoyos), then you are out of luck tbh.
I have nothing against a community maintaining standards. Anything more than light fingernail vibe really doesn’t have a place in modern yoyo imo.
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I LOVE the obsession with vibration. It means that a perfectly wonderful yoyo costs me 50% less! Same with microscopic pinholes in anodization which affect nothing bar aesthetic.
When you astound people with a nice combo, they’re not going to ask about smoothness or ano.
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It depends on what I have to compare it with, I just received bad vibe from the Bimetal shutter and I want my money’s worth for it to be as good as possible considering I can buy 3 Skylines at once and use that for competition (even through no one recommends that) or 2 YYF Marcos for the same reason or even for learning 3A for the same price as the Bimetal shutter.
The difference for me is that I’ve had no bad experiences with the skylines I’ve tried before with it being 1/3 of the price; or for 1/2 the price I can get a YYF Marco, which I do own one also, and receive the same amount of vibe but also a similar amount of performance. I’ve also bought a California for 1/4 the price of the Bimetal Shutter and that thing was dead smooth. And I’ve also bought a Trimetal yoyo for $125 that has only finger nail vibe.
If I would want to be competitive I would just buy two more Marcos knowing what I’m getting now. Also with the term B-Grade or Fools Gold I expect the normal runs to have little (finger nail vibe) to no vibe if it’s priced at >$90.
This is just my honest take on the matter though.
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I agree with this.
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Amen. Some of theses companies (I’m looking at you YYF) need to tighten up their QC. The two least expensive throws I’ve bought in the past 12 months where both MK1’s both smooth as glass both about $65 anything that costs more better be as smooth or I’m not getting my moneys worth.
All of my boutique throws are completely smooth by the way.
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Honestly I would pay an extra 5 or even 10 dollars to assuredly get zero defects.
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Bravo, you and The Beach Boys win the forum today!
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There are yoyos under $100 that are pretty smooth. If I pay for a yoyo that is well over $100, it better not have any vibe, or it is going back.
I just don’t like yoyos with vibe (unless it is in the ‘budget’ category). Since it basically reflects poor QC, or the manufacturer knew about it, but still decided to sell it with the hope that the customer will just take it.
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i have two issues with this statement @Throwto100…
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your expectations are too high for $5 or $10
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your expectations should NOT be too high for $5 or $10
now marinate…
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A little vibe can be horribly distracting to the OCD/ADHD mind, thus dropping playability tremendously. I wish a little vibe didn’t bother me at all, and there are times that it does not distract me in the least. The problem is when it does. I become so ridiculously hyper-focused on it, it’s all I can focus on. It’s almost as if a little fingernail vibe can be magnified by my mind to feel like a tire not quite on the wheel or the wheel not attached properly to the axle, wobbling all about. Then I begin obsessing about it. Good times, good times indeed. NOT. Obviously I’m in good company, since this is a common complaint in the yoyo community. It’s ridiculous, it’s stupid, it’s even irrational at times, but alas, it is still maddening to some. I have definitely learned that some folks are not blessed with this affliction, thus never truly appreciating the curse of the fingernail vibe. It’s as if they can simply accept it for what it is, their brain files it away as some vibe, they note whether or not it affects play, and if so, how and how much, then they go on about with their play/throwing. For those of us who are tortured by vibe, we just want you to know that WE HATE YOU! LoL. Truth be told, I envy you. I’m a reforming perfectionist, I imagine this is just another aspect of my perfectionism, so I am working on not letting it bother me so much. I have a long way to go. Wish me luck.
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Can you name a few examples that come to mind? And if they were “rejected by the community” how did it hurt the community exactly?
If anything it just raises the bar and that’s how “yoyo tech” improves. The yoyos I buy today are far and away superior to ones I bought 20 years ago. I don’t see the downside here.
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The YYF d10 was one model that I know had too high of a reject rate due to vibe, IIRC they couldn’t figure out how to get it to yield a reasonable portion of A grades. I think the avant garde 2 also suffered this fate. I have B grades of both and they have minor thumbnail vibe. Maybe I got lucky with my samples. I know I’ve heard of other designs being abandoned as well.
The one thing everybody seems to overlook is that the vibe obsession definitely raises overhead for the yoyo makers and vendors. The margins are already razor thin, so the boutique brands don’t ever dare do too large of runs for fear that if a run comes back with even the tiniest vibe then they are going to wind up selling them at a loss. It’s my guess that very few of the yoyo companies can comfortably absorb this.
When I look at a nice bi-metal, which has expensive blasting and anodization and requires extremely precise design, machine work and assembly, I find it absolutely amazing that we have so many choices at or below $100.
This will probably be an unpopular opinion here, but I cannot help but wonder how much more fiscally healthy the yoyo business might be, and how many more designs we might see, if barely detectable nail vibe wasn’t a kiss of death. We might still have hspin, spyy and many others if we weren’t so demanding of perfection that we make it impossible for these companies to turn a reasonable profit.
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