Why Not Restring Mains Only?

All the times that I restrung only the mains did not end up well. Either the stringbed developed heavy vibrations, or there was a sense of loss of control.

Now that I am testing fishing line fervently, and that the thin fishing line snaps so frequently, the question that kept popping up was, "Why not restring only the main strings after it snaps?"

The sole reason is racket warp. Once deformed, a lot of other variables are affected, such as, length, width, swingweight, sweetspot size, sweetspot location, pocketing, and feel.

Take a look for yourself...

On the left below was the freshly strung fishing mains with syn gut. On the right, the fishing mains snapped at two locations after about an hour of play. Compare the shape, length and width of the racket hoop. 

In the right picture, the racket hoop has narrowed and lengthened. Since the mains snapped, there was no tension holding together 12 and 6 o'clock anymore. The crosses compressed the hoop at 3 and 9 o'clock together, narrowing the frame.

As soon as I got home, I measured the frame width.

Just like that, the hoop narrowed by 9mm, which was huge!

I tried. No amount of re-tensioning on the mains could restore the frame back to its original shape.

So re-stringing mains only cannot, and should not be done.