Monkeyfinger Forte
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
September 2, 2013

Introduction

Sometimes I swear Monkeyfinger is run by the guys from “Strange Brew”. There must be something in the water up there that is causing them to come up with such bizarre looking yet uniquely fun to play yo-yos. Sure they came out with the tame looking Gelada but then they released the Lesula and Evil Yo two of the craziest designs I have had the opportunity to play. Now, the “plan” that the MFD guys told me was to bring out a crazy design followed by a tame/safe one so I was expecting Mike Montgomery’s signature yo-yo to be a little more conventional. I was wrong, Mike brought the Samuel Adams to complement the Monkeyfinger Molsen. The Forte is an unconventional signature design created to fit Mike’s needs and I can’t wait to give it a shot. The Monkeyfinger crew has proven time and time again that they know unconventional/crazy. Will this be the crazy that send them to Bellevue or have they Houdini’d out of another straightjacket?

Specs

• Diameter: 56.13mm
• Width: 36.32mm
• Gap: 4.10mm
• Weight: 68.6 grams
• Bearing: C-Size Steel Bearing
• Response: Monkey Snot Flowable Silicone

Construction

First thing people are going to notice is how absolutely skinny this yo-yo is and some are going to be turned off by it. Honestly though, I am really grooving on it. The feel in the hand is reminiscent of SPYY’s Flying V, a yo-yo that was one of my absolute favorites from the once great company. The profile is a narrow V-Shape with wide rims and rounded edges. The cup has a stair step design that places weight midway between the center and the rim. There is no IGR in the Forte. The floor has a small flat hub in the center. The over all finish is a two tone blast where the catch zone has been bead blasted while the cup has been polished to a “car wax” shine with Monkeyfinger’s Buff yo-yo polish. The feel in the hand is comfortable. With a yo-yo this thin is a given that your fingers will rub against the rims and those rounded edges allow the fingers to roll over them without a harsh feel.

Given the curious design I had to ask the man himself. Here is what Mike had to say about his signature design:
“The Forte is based on the design of my first two yo-yo’s the BassBoost and the Beast. Both of those yo-yos had a shape I liked but had issues with stability. Mostly because both of those yo-yo’s were too wide for where I had put their weight at. For the Forte I kept the sharp angles that the Beast had and the nice outer rim shape that the BassBoost had for grinds and made the overall design thinner to help with the stability issue I had with the first two throws. I also move the weight closer towards the middle of the yo-yo but not close to the axle (a mistake I made with the BassBoost) so that the yo-yo would be even more stable than my prior two while still feeling rather solid (it does to me at least lol)…
It plays as fast as I like my yo-yo’s to play but is still capable of the slower technical tricks I like as well. And because the width is smaller than my other yo-yo’s I found another benefit, it’s easier to land it on the specific string I want when I’m learning really hard combo’s for my Let’s Play Yo-Yo series without accidentally landing on the other strings that happen to be near my target string.”

Weight

At 68.6 grams, this is a solid yo-yo but does not have the “boat anchor” feel that a design like this could have. Being so thin, the weight is concentrated in a small area. The Forte fixes this by counteracting the slender width with a large diameter that spreads the weight over the face of the yoyo. The speed is moderate to quick and can easily be pushed to the extremes if needed.

Response and Bearing

The bearing is just a stock steel C-Sized bearing. I am glad Monkeyfinger shied away from using a string centering bearing. With the high walls on the Forte I could see a string centering bearing gumming up the works more than aiding the play.

Monkeyfinger stuck with their custom brand of flowable silicone, which they sell under the Monkey Snot brand name. It is a favorite of mine thanks to the easy to use applicator and the dead unresponsive feel once dry. This is the closest thing to ILYY’s silicone that you can buy on the market today. One thing I will say, it isn’t indestructible. I had a knot in my string close to the gap that ripped up some of the response on one side. Totally my fault but you can see it in the picture so I wanted to mention that.

Playability

I found the Forte to be quite stable on the string but at the same time it is easy to make it break plane during tricks. It is a Gyro Flop king that turns instantly when you want it to. This is a stark contrast to wider yo-yos that fight back during Gyro Flops. Suicides are decent but the high walls close the loop quickly causing the player to rush during those types of trick. Where the Forte excels is in learning new tricks. It is thin so it is going to force players to become more precise during hops and whips. At the same time that thin width is also a godsend when you are working on a trick with close quarters finger wraps and precision hops from string to string. That is where this shines. An example would be the relatively simple Black Hops. Jumping from string to string on the initial Triple or Nothing can be difficult on a wider yo-yo where it ends up landing on multiple strings or the wrong string entirely. Thinner yo-yos like the Forte effortlessly weave between the strings landing on the exact string you want. Grinds are mostly a brilliant thing on the Forte. Palm, finger, and arm grinds spin with easy thanks to the top notch blast Monkeyfinger uses on all of their designs. Thumb grinds are next to impossible due to the lack of an IGR. I am not surprised buy the last part; the design just did not have room to incorporate an IGR. Over all this feels like a more solid Flying V on the string, which means I am a huge fan of the play.

Final Thoughts

The Forte is going to be a love it or hate it yoyo so I definitely recommend playing it before you buy. That isn’t a slam on the Forte, more of a common sense thing when it comes to any out of the box design. I am decidedly in the love it category thanks to the spot on play and the similarities to a past yo-yo that I loved throwing. If you have a chance to throw one of these do not pass it up even if it is outside your comfort zone, I would be willing to bet that it will surprise you. The only thing I would change would be to package the Forte with a slim bearing like the Flying V so that old school responsive players have another metal to use along side their Walters and Flying Vs.