Carbonex 35
Model CAB-35
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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Carbonex 35: a Gum Metal box frame whose first shafts read “BLANCE”
Misprinted at launch
Yonex Japan began selling the Carbonex 35 in August 2009 and within weeks had to apologize for it. A notice on its site, captured on September 14, 2009, said that an English word printed on the shaft read BLANCE instead of BALANCE. Yonex said the racquet’s performance was not affected at all, offered to exchange misprinted frames through the shop that had sold them or through its own offices, and promised correctly printed stock from late September. It also pledged tighter production and inspection. A Carbonex 35 with BLANCE on the shaft is therefore not a fake: it is a frame from the first weeks of sales that was never exchanged.
Gum Metal and Ultra PE Fiber
Yonex Japan listed a high-modulus carbon frame with Gum Metal and a high-modulus carbon shaft with Ultra PE Fiber, joined by a built-in T-joint, and named five technologies: Gum Metal, Ultra PE Fiber, the built-in T-joint, a Solid Feel Core inside the frame and the box shape. Gum Metal (ゴムメタル, “rubber metal”) is the titanium alloy from Toyota Central R&D Labs that Yonex Japan had introduced in the Nanospeed 9000 in 2006. Yonex’s export pages call the same frame material Nanoscale Elastic Ti, and Yonex USA summed the racquet up as an Elastic Ti frame for “accurate control” and an Ultra PEF shaft for “maximum power,” describing the fiber as light enough to float on water. In 2010 US retail copy billed the 35 as a cross between the ArcSaber Z-Slash and the Armortec 900 Power; that comparison came from retailers, not from Yonex’s pages.
A club player’s Carbonex
No professional is documented using the Carbonex 35. Neither Yonex Japan’s nor Yonex USA’s pages name a player. Yonex Japan aimed it at intermediate and advanced players who wanted faster, more powerful smashes and accurate control, and its rating grid marked it for both levels but not for beginners. By 2015 the one-line pitch on its page had become simpler: the frame’s Gum Metal raises control, and the shaft’s Ultra PE Fiber flexes tenaciously to add power.
One finish, two sets of sizes
Every Yonex source shows a single finish, Black/Clear Red (Yonex Japan color 564), from the 2009 launch to Yonex USA’s last page in 2020. Sizes depended on the market. Yonex Japan sold the 3U in grips 4 and 5 and the 2U in grip 5 only; Yonex’s export and US pages list 3U (85–89.9 g) and 2U (90–94.9 g), each in G4 and G5. A “Carbonex 35 Muscle (Cab 35MS)” is not a separate model. The name comes from a US retailer’s listing of March 2010, which used the same description it later gave its plain Carbonex 35, and Yonex’s Muscle model of the time was the Carbonex 30 Muscle, listed beside the 35 on Yonex’s 2010 export page; it has its own page. The Gum Metal idea continued in the Carbonex 50, released in late January 2012 with Gum Metal at the four corners of the frame.
Japan first, then export and the US
The Carbonex 35 reached Yonex’s export list about eight months after its Japanese launch. Yonex’s global Carbonex page did not show it in March 2010, and by early April it was there, tagged “New!!,” as the aluminum Carbonex 8 left the list. Yonex Japan’s list price was ¥19,000 before tax on its first archived product page, in March 2010, and still ¥19,000 plus tax in May 2015. Yonex Japan’s redesigned site of February 2015 already showed only the Carbonex 50 and 20 in the series, and no production-end notice has been found. Yonex USA kept a page for the CAB35 from at least 2013 to January 2020. Verified sales so far are pre-owned frames from Asia resale, and the price panel above lists them.
Genuine quirks, not fakes
No counterfeit Carbonex 35 has been documented, and Yonex published no model-specific guidance. Three things that turn up in listings look odd but are genuine. The BLANCE shaft is Yonex’s own misprint. The case and grommet set are made in Taiwan, as Yonex Japan’s page states, while the racquet itself is made in Japan. And the SP or JP that sellers put in titles is a country-of-distribution code: a BadmintonCentral administrator explained in 2002 that SP marks Yonex’s Singapore-based distribution for Southeast Asia and JP marks Japan, and that neither tells you where a racquet was made. Every Yonex page for the CAB35, Japanese or export, says made in Japan.
A late box-frame Carbonex
The Carbonex 35 arrived in the year Yonex Japan ended production of the Carbonex 23 and Carbonex 13. A Japanese shop owner’s launch-week blog noted that it kept the egg-shaped, standard-length head of the Carbonex 20 and 23 while adding newer materials. Yonex’s series copy describes the formula: a round head on a box-section frame, for players who want a solid feel from the strings at impact. The name runs back to the 1978 Carbonex 8, and after the 35 Yonex moved the line to the Carbonex 50 and, by 2020, the 6000 N, 7000 N and 8000 N. In that line the 35 paired the classic box frame with the Gum Metal of the Nanospeed 9000.
Look for the name CARBONEX 35 and the item code CAB35, a Black/Clear Red finish (the only one Yonex lists) and a Made in Japan marking, whatever the SP or JP code. Yonex documents a high-modulus carbon frame with Gum Metal (Elastic Ti in export copy), an Ultra PE Fiber shaft, a built-in T-joint, a box-section frame and Stiff flex. Sizes are 3U (85–89.9 g) and 2U (90–94.9 g); Japan sold the 2U in grip 5 only, and Yonex lists no 4U. A shaft printed BLANCE is a genuine early frame. The C-SCS case and the grommets are made in Taiwan. A “Carbonex 35 Muscle” label describes the same racquet. If a hologram sticker is present, Yonex’s test is that a genuine one resists peeling.
A Carbonex 35 suits a player or collector who wants a late, Japan-made box-frame Carbonex rather than a vintage aluminum one. Check the head, the throat and the T-joint area for cracks, as on any played frame. To restring it, Yonex Japan recommends 18–23 lb for the 3U and 19–24 lb for the 2U, with NBG95 for hard hitters or NBG98 for control players. If a listing claims a BLANCE shaft, ask for a clear photo of the print.
Verified prices last updated Aug 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.