Where have all the nerves gone?

[ice6769]

Am I the only one still using a nerve out there? This place looks pretty barren...
Hit me with any out of the box ideas about upgrading if you have anything that isnt run-of-the-mill.

[AmbushOrigin]

to ebay! :D

we still have 2 on our team. Im actually keeping my eye out on ebay, if i see a gold one ill probably snatch it up. Or a nice pewter.

[Uziel Gal]

Still have mine. Great markers, just not fashionable. They also suffered from a delayed release, and lots of negative rumours circulated about them, which put a lot of potential buyers off. Never as popular as they deserved to be.

[AmbushOrigin]

well it was a lightened impulse design with a shocker frame :P

although they do rip, one of the easiest guns to really get going.

[Uziel Gal]

That would be one of those rumours then..... :dodgy:

A lot of people did think that it was just a prettied up Impulse, and that reputation stuck. With that taken in to account, the Nerve looked horribly overpriced.

I've made huge posts about the differences between a Nerve and Impulse before (hence why I think your baiting me..... :dodgy: ), so I won't dig myself in to that hole again, but suffice to say that with the firing assembly re-arranged so that the ram strikes and opens the valve rather than a hammer, the Nerve is more akin to the rammer functioning markers such as an Intimidator or Ego. Ignore that change, and you may as well say that any Poppet valved EP marker is just an Impulse.

There's also the fact that there would be no easy way to actually convert an Impulse in to a Nerve. There is the same functionality, broadly speaking, but the markers are constructed very differently.

[paingwin238]

Uziel-1
Rumors-0
i call keeping score

[AmbushOrigin]

the imp was a proven tournament marker for what.. a good 3 years atleast. simple design. The problem was the nerve was suppose to be the flagship marker, it didnt turn out that way. I still love the feel of the trigger and frame on it, and the quick turn bolt is awesome.

[EMPaint]

Didn't SP move from the shoebox shockers to the current single tube shockers at about the same time or soon after the nerve came out? At least thats kind of what I remember, it's all a blur though.

[GrimAssasin]

I almost bought an Orange Nerve near the end of their production cycle. Thought that was the coolest looking marker around.

[AmbushOrigin]

sft started in 03. Which it was a really popular gun despite its 1k+ price tag. Then nerve came out in 04 with a 1200 price tag, ppl rathered the cheaper,smaller and lighter gun that was field proven.

[EMPaint]

sft started in 03. Which it was a really popular gun despite its 1k+ price tag. Then nerve came out in 04 with a 1200 price tag, ppl rathered the cheaper,smaller and lighter gun that was field proven.

That's kind of what I was getting at, but i just couldn't remember when each came out well enough to actually say something about it.

[Uziel Gal]

They were both intended to come out at the same time. I believe it was a two fold exercise - to have a really high-end gun, with all the best bits that SP had (the Nerve), and the other to be slightly cheaper (the Shocker). Perhaps more importantly, despite the price separation, they also were putting out two different types of marker - the Nerve to go up against the Intimidator, and the Shocker to go up against the Matrix. So, a) increase your profile with a luxury marker, b) take on your rivals in both sectors of the EP market.

Turned out that the Nerve was delayed, and the Shocker was released first. Not surprisingly, Smart Parts equipped their teams with Shockers - at that point, it was that or the Impulse. So, people who like to buy what the teams are using bought the Shocker. People who just wanted Smart Parts latest marker, bought the Shocker.

By the time that the Nerve actually appeared, the whole idea of a two marker release had backfired, as those people who were undecided and may have bought a Nerve had had their decision made for them and bought a Shocker; the marker was very expensive, so that put more people off; others thought it was just a pretty Impulse, so they didn't buy; people who had already bought the Shocker weren't ready to buy a new marker; and let's face facts - Bob Long fans tend to be very brand loyal, and trying to attract people away from the Intimidator was a bit of a non starter.