Restoring Lost Tension?

Even natural gut, widely reputed to hold tension the best, loses about 13% tension. (~7 lbs stabilization loss when strung at 51 lbs, according to Tennis Warehouse University String Performance).

For non-string breakers, it can be difficult to justify cutting out a set of strings after just several hours of play. 

Up till now, some of my friends call me fussy and wasteful when I cut out my strings after 8 to 10 hours. (Yet these same chaps always want to "try" my racket almost everytime we play!)

For the sake of going green, is there any easy way to "add" tension back without restringing? How can we "pull" the string and re-tension it after tie-off?

Then I came across this...

So I bought a pack and gave it a try.

The string savers look like tiny doughnuts, measuring just 3.5mm wide and about 1.5mm tall. Kind of resembles this.

The hole in the centre assists with "locking" it in place between the intersection of the mains and crosses.

Since my objective was not to "save" the strings from breakage, nor allow them to glide, that "hole" reduced the amount of string deflection I wanted.

An increase in bend means a longer string. And a longer string means greater stretch, thereby higher tension. So I cut out a few snipplets from my old replacement grip and inserted it alongside the stringsavers.

When I played with it, there was a significant increase in tautness. It felt more dampened, but the added control and power reduction was unmistakable. So much, that I moved my dampener to 12 o'clock to add about 6 swingweight points to beef up the power level.

I swapped the stringsavers and the black snipplets around and found the black pieces worked much better at "increasing" tension. None dropped off after several sessions, even at direct full impact.

When removed, the stringbed dropped back and became its former floppy trampoline again. Poor control with too much power.

For those who may be skeptical, I have measured and found that from 50 to 60 lbs of tension, both syn gut and multi stretches only an extra 1.0-1.5 mm. For poly, it's an extra 1.0 mm.

I believe either the snipplets or string savers can easily add 1.0mm of stretch to the strings. And you would need only about a dozen pieces, thereabouts.

String viagra, if I may...