want to buy my first dwi but cant decide between green tea sticky af or the rubber paint with bamboo ken... dont have a bamboo ken so im leaning towards that. suggestions?
That's a super hard choice. If it were me, I would go with the bamboo. I have the OG JP mod in bamboo/rubber and it's one of my favorite damas in my collection. For me, my maple Jarod mod is almost too heavy so the bamboo might be a nice change. If I were you, I'd pick up the Bamboo Jarod mod now and pick up something with Sticky AF in the V2 shape.
I have the sticky af jp and it plays great but I haven’t played a rubber paint or bamboo ken but they look sick
When I was starting to get more into Kendama I loved trying new wood types, new paint types, and new company shapes, if you have a chance to get something crossed off your collection for all 3 of those boxes I’d say go for that, but it’s personal preference. I prefer to play almost anything before bamboo, never had a great experience on bamboo, but all Kendama stories are biased/anecdotal, so keep that in mind when asking if a company is “worth it”
One of my favorite playing kendama was/is an old Bahama Kendama natty bamboo. It's currently strung lefty from back when I messed up my right arm so I don't play it as much. I'm itching to get another for right hand play. I like the sound of the wood strikes too really different than say beech or birch. tl;dr get the bamboo