More Gearbox Issues?

Author

Chris Olson
October 27, 2023

What’s up, guys? This week I’m recapping the new Selkirk Luxx Control air, the Pickleball Apes Pro Line Energy S, and more drama with the new Gearbox Pro Power.

Selkirk Luxx Control Air

The new Selkirk Luxx Control Air dropped this week. Everyone always seems to be very excited for Selkirk releases.

I didn’t mention this in my review, but I really like the paint job they gave the Control Air. Looks really clean. Though, I’m sure we’re going to see people complaining about the white Selkirk logo in the sweet spot (and the gold colored version as well.)

Anyways, if you want the short version, it’s a good paddle that is very strong in the soft game. It still lacks power, especially if you’re coming from a gen 2 thermoformed paddle. However, it is improved power from the 003.

A lot of people are praising the sweet spot saying “the entire face is a sweet spot”. I really don’t agree. If you play a thermoformed paddle, it’s evident the sweet spot is better on those than it is on the Control Air.

I think it has a reasonably good sweet spot for being edgeless, but far from top tier IMO. Not bad, just not exceptionally great.

It’s a really good paddle, but I still believe it needs lead tape for full potential and the fact that we are still using paint grit that can wear out in under a month is a bit crazy to me.

The tester in my review mentioned his sweet spot being smooth, I got to check it last night and the sweet spot is definitely smooth already. That’s about 3 weeks of play on the paddle. He still feels the spin is great and loves the paddle though.

So, it’s a good paddle, but I think there are plenty of great control options on the market for cheaper, and the grit should also last longer. Of course, you’ll get a different style of play out of the Control Air, but if budget is of concern, I think the paddles below can fit the bill great as well.

  • Vatic Prism Flash

  • Pickleball Apes Pro Line Energy S

  • Ronbus Nova.R1

  • Ronbus R1.16

Pickleball Apes Pro Line Energy S

The Pro Line Energy S was a highly anticipated paddle within my Discord community and for good reason. The original Pro Line Energy brought a lot of things that people enjoyed.

This was a shorter first look style video, so it doesn’t quite have the depth that you may be used to seeing from my full reviews. It’s hard to cover every new paddle that comes out, so I want to test out more first looks to get information out there, just without weeks of play testing.

I did get to play with the Pro Line Energy S one more time after this video and wanted to add a couple more thoughts that I didn’t get to put in the video.

First, while I didn’t rave about the paddle in the video, I do think it’s a good paddle. It just doesn’t have a single feature that makes me go “Dang, this is exceptionally stand out”. Just because it doesn’t have a feature like that doesn’t mean it’s a bad paddle though.

Any higher end paddle these days is usually good. It’s hard to find a bad paddle.

It’s a very solid all around paddle. In fact, way more people would be better off playing with something like this than the Gearbox Pro Power. It’s easy to get excited about flashy paddles, but a lot of times the paddle you play best with is not the flashy one.

Not to say the Gearbox Pro Power isn’t amazing, it is, but it takes a much higher skilled player to use it effectively than the Pro Line Energy S would.

I would put the Pro Line Energy S under the category of “reliable and gets the job done”. Which is what the vast majority of players need in a paddle.

What the heck is going on with Gearbox?

Wow, I have not seen a launch plagued with this many issues since earlier this year with Legacy.

If you didn’t listen to our last podcast or aren’t in the Discord, there have been a LOT of QC reports about the new Gearbox paddles.

  • Edge guard cracks

  • Cracking noises in the handle

  • Dents in the face

  • Weights ranging from 7.5-8.0oz

  • Possible power issues?

  • Slow shipping (not a QC issue, but an annoying issue)

This is REALLY weird for Gearbox. They’ve always been known for their amazing QC and for some reason, it’s been very subpar for this new launch.

Here’s the thing, I don’t expect ANY paddle company to ship thousands of perfect pristine units. There will always be a few bad ones that slip through.

However, from what I’m seeing on social media, more are showing up with issues than they are as expected.

Especially since Gearbox went on multiple podcasts raving about their durability and QC, this isn’t a good look.

Now the other issue I’ve been hearing in my Discord is reports of paddles that have a lack of power, even though they got the Pro Power Elongated. Some are reporting it’s an amazing control paddle but lacks power.

So, the current running theory is that either it’s a mislabeled Pro Control or there’s a QC issue with the core. Right now it’s way too early to say which it actually is. I’m hoping to get my hands on one so that I can verify myself.

What I can say is, I hit my friends brand new one the other day and it was almost exactly like mine. It was maybe 5-10% less powerful, but Gearbox and others have mentioned these paddles seem to have a break in period.

Which, after hitting my friends and my own, I would believe it. They weren’t completely different, just enough that you could tell mine was slightly more powerful.

I also recall that when I first got it, the paddle was easier to reset with than it is now. So, that would line up with the break in claim since mine has probably a month of use on it now.

If you haven’t bought one yet, I would recommend holding off until all these issues get figured out.

Fingers crossed Gearbox can get this all figured out. I think they have a really good recipe for a paddle, but at $275 you absolutely cannot have QC issues like this.

🎙️ Latest podcast

If you missed it, We discuss our favorite paddles of the year as well as dive into some of the QC issues with the near Gearbox that I discussed above. It was fun to go over some of our favorite paddles from this year!