Carbonex 20
Model CAB-20 · Taufik Hidayat
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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Carbonex 20: the 1984 all-carbon racquet still on Yonex Japan’s 2024 price list
Four decades under one name
The Carbonex 20 name spans about four decades of Yonex badminton. A Yonex racquet-history display shown at Istora Senayan in Jakarta during the 2008 Thomas and Uber Cup finals dates it to 1984 and describes it as all carbon with a built-in T-joint, “suitable for both offensive and defensive plays.” The display is known from bloggers’ transcriptions and photographs rather than from a Yonex page. In 2001 Yonex Japan called the Carbonex 20 a model that “built an era in the badminton world,” with strong backing from top players. Its last version, the CAB20F, was still listed as made in Japan on Yonex Japan’s page in May 2023 and still appeared on Yonex Japan’s price list effective 1 January 2024. Between those points the record is patchy, and the frames sold under the name changed finish several times and, in Japan, gained an F in the item code.
All carbon, with a built-in T-joint
On the same 2008 display, the Carbonex 15 of 1982 is already all carbon in frame and shaft; the built-in T-joint is what the display adds for the Carbonex 20. By Yonex’s 1996 Asian catalog the Carbonex 15 also had a built-in T-joint; it has its own page. Yonex Japan’s 2001 page lists an all-carbon frame and an all-carbon shaft and credits an “all-carbon multi-layer laminate structure” with high repulsion. Yonex’s export pages of 2006 and 2007 and its 2011 web catalog rate it Stiff, with a graphite frame and shaft, made in Japan; the Carbonex 21 and 30 Muscle beside it on those pages are high-modulus graphite, the 20 plain graphite. Yonex Japan’s CAB20F page of 2010 lists the solid feel core and box shape beside the built-in T-joint, and from 2011 it promised “the firm hitting feel of a round shape and box shape.” Yonex Japan’s spec charts of 2008–2012 place the CAB20F’s balance on the even mark. No Yonex launch price is documented; in 2001 Yonex Japan listed the violet CAB20 at ¥16,000 as a frame with a full racquet case, and the CAB20F at ¥16,000 before tax in 2010 and 2015.
A junior racquet for Taufik Hidayat
Yonex itself records one player with the Carbonex 20, from his junior years. Its Legendary Players page of 2013 quotes Taufik Hidayat, who had started with a Carbonex 9 his father gave him in 1993: “When I became a national junior player I used the Carbonex 20,” adding that it “really suited my style of play.” The quote names no 20L, 20 Power or 20 Tour, the Carbonex 20 namesakes in Yonex’s 1996 Asian catalog, and a collector-forum claim that he moved on to a 20 Tour has no Yonex source. Yonex’s 2008 history display ties the Carbonex 8 to Flemming Delfs and the Carbonex 15 to Liem Swie King’s jumping smashes, but gives the Carbonex 20 only its all-round description, and Yonex Japan’s 2001 line about backing from top players names nobody.
Violet, neon orange, white, and the namesakes
Yonex documents no colors for the frames of the 1980s and 1990s; resale listings show old-logo frames in blue and white, red and black. Yonex’s 1996 Asian catalog shows the Carbonex 20L, 20 Power and 20 Tour among its hard hitters, the 20 Power and 20 Tour as Professional models in high-modulus graphite (the scan prints no specification lines for the 20L), but no plain Carbonex 20; the 20 Power and 20 Tour have their own pages. In 2001 Yonex Japan sold the violet CAB20 (color 044) beside the black Carbonex 20 Long (CAB20L, high-modulus carbon), the 1996 catalog’s 20L, which it filed among its 2001 old models; the 20 Long and the Carbonex 20 Muscle (CAB20MS) of 2002–05 have their own pages. These namesakes are separate Yonex models. Yonex Japan filed the violet CAB20 among its 2004 old models, and the CAB20F appears in its 2008–09 catalog. Its page showed neon orange (color 196) from March 2010, neon orange and a “new design” white in September 2013, and white alone from February 2014 to 2023. Yonex’s 2011 export catalog lists the neon orange frame as item CAB20. Yonex does not explain the F. Some sellers offer a “Carbonex 20 PRO,” a name no Yonex source uses.
One name, several eras
The verified sales shown above are mostly of pre-owned frames, with one new racquet among them. A listing titled only “Carbonex 20” can be an old-logo frame of the 1980s or 1990s, a violet CAB20 of 2001–04 or a CAB20F of 2008–2023, and most listings do not say which. New CAB20F frames were still on sale in Japan in 2026, after the model had left Yonex Japan’s list. The Carbonex 20 Muscle and the Carbonex 20 Long also turn up under the bare name, so the printed model name matters as much as the condition.
Reading the frame
No counterfeit specific to the Carbonex 20 is documented; the practical risk is identity. Every Yonex listing of the racquet from 2005 to 2023 gives Japan as the country of manufacture, and Yonex offered it in 3U and 2U, with grip sizes 4 and 5 (and G3 in 2U on Yonex Japan’s 2001 page and the export lists of 2006–2011). Yonex’s documented colors date a frame: violet for the CAB20 of 2001–04, neon orange for the CAB20F to 2013, white from 2013. Resale listings describe the older frames as carrying a gold YY logo, a gold YY on the grip end and a JAPAN mark, with an “ALL CARBON GRAPHITE” print; no Yonex guide to logos by era is documented. A raised Muscle Power Frame between the grommets means a Carbonex 20 Muscle. On a frame that may be 30 or 40 years old, check the joint, the grommets and the hoop for cracks.
The long-seller’s last listing
Yonex Japan’s 2010 page called the CAB20F “a long-seller trusted by advanced players.” The page was still live in May 2023 and is gone now, and the racquet is not on Yonex Japan’s current list. No Yonex production-end notice for the CAB20F is documented, so the price list effective January 2024 stands as its last Yonex listing. Yonex’s 2011 catalog sold it beside the Carbonex 21 and the Carbonex 35 of 2009, both stiff and made in Japan with the built-in T-joint, in high-modulus graphite.
Yonex documents the Carbonex 20 as Stiff, made in Japan, with a graphite (all-carbon) frame and shaft and a built-in T-joint; the CAB20F adds the solid feel core and box shape. Weights are 3U and 2U, grips 4 and 5 (G3 in 2U on Yonex Japan’s 2001 page and the 2006–2011 export lists). Yonex’s item codes are CAB20 (violet, color 044, in Yonex Japan’s 2001–04 line; neon orange in the 2011 export catalog) and CAB20F (neon orange, color 196, to 2013; white from 2013 to 2023). Resale listings describe 1980s–90s frames with a gold YY logo, a gold YY on the grip end and a JAPAN mark. A printed MUSCLE and raised grommet archways mean the Carbonex 20 Muscle; “20 Long” (the 1996 catalog’s “20L”), “20 Power” or “20 Tour” are separate Yonex models; “PRO” has no Yonex source. Check old frames for cracks at the joint and hoop.
The Carbonex 20 is a name Yonex used from 1984 to its 2024 price list, though the record of plain Carbonex 20 frames before 2001 is thin and no Yonex Japan page for it is documented from 2005 to 2007. Because one name covers old-logo frames, the violet CAB20 and the CAB20F, the era of a frame is often unmarked in listings, and a buyer interested in a particular period should look for the item code, the color and the logo style rather than the name alone. The Carbonex 21 and Carbonex 35 are its closest stablemates.
Verified prices last updated Sep 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.