I've recently gotten a few pairs of the JCS Super-band flipper rupbbers and thought I might share my impression on them. Feel free to comment and add yours.
We ran an IFPA tournament this weekend with a Dr. Who and to switch things up I put a pair of these rubbers on the flippers.
The jury is still out as to whether an average player would notice much difference between the SBs and regular flipper rubber. Appearance-wise they are brighter and shinier. They "feel" just a bit thicker than regular flipper rubber but that could be more of an illusion or how they stretch when they're put on the flipper bats. They do seem a little harder to put on initially than traditional rubber. But I love the idea they they can be wiped down and won't turn black - time will tell on that.
My first impression was I didn't like them. At first I felt I had less ball control, but I think as they "warmed up" I began to see how they behave, and IMO they definitely behave a bit differently than traditional flipper rubber in a few specific areas. I think I'm going to like them, but they do have some slightly different ball effects IMO.
While they claim to have the same "bounce" technically, I got the feel it takes a little more initial velocity to compress them than traditional rubber. So for fast balls on the flippers they really do seem to "stick" more and give you a sense of greater ball control. For maneuvers like bouncing the ball into the inlane post to stop it from rolling to the flipper they seem to work better than regular rubbers. I didn't notice much difference with dead catches. Not much with live catches, but drop catches might be a little easier due to the "ball spin" effect.
Where I think these flipper rubbers differ from regular flipper rubber is when it comes to ball spin. Because their surface is more polished and shiny (i.e. less porous) they don't have as much an effect on stopping ball spin as regular flipper rubber has. This can result in some very unusual ball effects. Usually if a ball is spinning and you hit it with the flipper, you can stop or reverse the ball spin based on the intent of the flipper. But if the ball isn't hitting the flippers with enough velocity to compress and "grip" the ball, it will "slide" along the smooth side of the flipper and retain spin. And what happens there is weirdness that you don't expect.
I don't know if after time this effect becomes less pronounced, but the most notable thing I found was if the ball isn't hitting the flipper hard, if it has spin, it will slide more across the flipper surface than you'd get with regular rubber.
I'm looking forward to getting more time with the products and seeing if there's any significant advantage/disadvantage to that. In our tournament I don't think it mattered a whole lot, but I did find wide angle shots to be a little harder - the ball seemed to increase in speed on those shiny flipper rubbers the further it got down the flipper.