Budget Strings?

The lure of fresh strings is difficult to resist. If not for its price, everyone would follow the restringing patterns of their favourite players on tour.

When sufficient unfulfilled needs arise, a business opportunity comes by. So budget strings popped up, some at merely ¼ or less the price of original brand names they claim to replicate.

Since I have yet to figure out how to grow money on trees, I jumped on the bandwagon too. Then got off. And on. And off. Multiple times. (No brands nor models will be mentioned here)

There are multitudes who "swear by" the quality of these strings. And probably an equal number who threw out unused reels.

So far, I have succumbed to cheap natural guts, syn guts, polys and kevlar. Out of about nine different strings I tried (many multiple times), I thought a few polys were not bad, playing almost 70-80% similar to the real deal. 

Usually, two similar sticks were strung, one with original strings, one dud. They were rotated during play every fifteen minutes. A single new can of balls was used.

At 15 minutes, both were almost indistinguishable. At 30 minutes, significant tension loss started creeping in. At 45 minutes, control and spin departed to string heaven. Budget price for budget durability too?

The kevlar did not feel like kevlar to me. More like garden wire. (link) The syn gut was completely devoid of any feel or feedback. It gave me the impression it was strung with coaxial cable.

Buying and stringing the budget natural gut was like playing russian roulette. One batch was kinked with white fold-lines straight out the package. Could have been the shipping, so after some negotiation, I settled on 50% price for a replacement and some freebies.

Nevertheless, I strung it up at 52 lbs. And it snapped in the bag overnight, right at the kinked spot. The replacement arrived in better shape. However, my gripe was the huge variability in gauge from start to end. I think it ranged between a 15g to 17g. And it was uncoated.

As it is, my tennis game is pathetic enough. Add to that my Mr Bean styled footwork is enough to make anyone collapse in laughter. Unless I'm bent on working towards ntrp 0.0, I would be giving all these budget strings a miss.

Or I could save them for competitors who beat the crap out of me everytime...