If I recall correctly, I think Z mentioned that he clocked about 10 hours of play on the PS95s strung with 17g syn gut. And the string has not snapped yet! (link)
There was severe notching though...
It took me quite a bit of convincing before Z decided to try full poly again. He just liked the feel of syn gut too much even though durability was pathetic.
I selected a soft co-poly this round to see if the feel would closer mimic the syn gut that Z liked.
White strings go well with the racket...
After stringing, I added about 6 grams near 2 & 10 o'clock to beef up the swingweight to about 320 kg/cm2.
Playtest:
- The plowthrough was better with increased stability, power and depth.
- However, Z did not like the typical stiffer stringbed with full poly, even when it was a soft poly. Comfort and ball feel are definitely prioritized way above durability for him.
- Surprisingly, spin was ridiculously low when I tried hitting with it. Even power and control was poor despite the full poly stringjob!
- Back to the drawing board...
While I took a two decades break away from tennis, many of my old buddies did not.
I tracked down another old mate recently, hoping to catch up on some tennis. Unfortunately, it's his turn away from tennis now. Not a voluntary decision though.
He developed severe tennis elbow and wrist pain around the ulnar area (link). Most days, he cannot even use his master hand to drink his morning coffee. It is disheartening to see him look seemingly healthy but suffering from such pains.
He shared how his quest for "more power more spin" drove him to stiffer and stiffer frames strung tightly with full poly. But he forgot he was aging!
Just a few years ago, he was the typical profile of many tennis players today who:
- wants more spin,
- wants more power,
- uses light & very stiff frames,
- strings too tight (above 50s) with full poly, and
- restrings his rackets only every few months.
But synthetic gut can generate heaps of spin too! And add plenty of comfort along the way!
To test that, I invited a few current tennis buddies, who are heavy spinners to try syn gut. Sadly, most declined, claiming syn gut is so very passe...
C and PK were two who matched the typical profile and accepted the blind test. (PK admitted that the last he used syn gut was a few years ago.)
All they know, were their rackets were strung with syn gut. Nothing else was communicated.
Both were asked to track amounts of spin, comfort, control, power & durability compared to their usual full poly strings.
Here's one stiff frame I restrung with full syn gut...
When I cut the poly, there was minimal snap. The string stayed close together with only a tiny gap. To me, that was an indication either the poly was strung too tight or the string was dead from use.
Another clear sign was the very severe notching on the mains. To have continued playing with this was akin to committing arm suicide.
A modified proportional stringing method was used to better distribute the string tension around the stringbed. That helps to add ball cushioning and spin.
Playtest:
- Over the March 29-30 weekend, both C and PK clocked 4 and 5 hours of play respectively with the fullbed syn gut.
- While their ages may be apart by about a decade, their feedbacks were generally similar.
- Note that I did not watch nor play with either of them.
- I grouped their findings for ease of reading below...
Initial impressions
- Both thought the all black syn gut looked like full poly.
- C was completely blown away by how comfortable the syn gut played.
- Barely 15 minutes into his rally with his usual buddies, C could no longer contain himself and let the cat out of the bag. His partners then took turns trying his racket and declared it "unusually advantageous".
Comfort
- Unanimously very good.
Spin
- C does not normally hit with heavy topspin as he felt it was an inefficient stroke and took away too much of his power. However, this setup provided very easy access to the spin he had wanted. He pulled off a lot of slice winners and "quite a few heavy topspin shots easily".
- I found PK's feedback on spin a little contradictory, so I thought I'll just quote what he wrote:
"Spin was normal but I find that I needed less power to generate the spin. I used new US open balls (US version). The whole racket was filled with fur."
"I felt my slices was awesome today as most of it went in with a lot of spin."
"This is the first time I have seen ball fur on the strings. Never on any polys I used even with hexagon shape strings."
"Tried to use 100% full swing. I noticed that if I hit prematurely, the ball files out. Spin was good only when the contact of the ball was during the brushing motion. If I can get my timing correct, my shots will be really deadly."
I play lousy tennis compared to C and PK, but from PK's words above, it seemed like there was indeed access to a lot of spin. However, some stroke or timing adjustments may be needed compared to their regular full poly setup. Or, was PK too excited to whip the ball that he was hitting early?
Control
- C did not notice any drop in control and accuracy.
- However, C felt that the comfort of the syn gut stringbed gave him a lot more confidence to execute difficult shots without the fear of "stinging pain" on off-centred ball contacts. If this was taken into consideration, he felt control improved.
- Another observation by C was a huge increase in the sweetspot size. He felt he miss-hit less balls with this setup.
- PK commented:
"Control was a little off today maybe because I was not used to the strings. I could not hit hard with this setup as I could feel the trampoline effect."
"I felt control was a little off after 3rd hr of playing."
Power
- From what I heard and read, there was an abundance of power experienced by both. Only PK used the word "trampoline" once. (Note: PK is in his mid-30s, about 1.8m tall, fit, muscular and very athletic)
Durability
- There was no string breakages, no mention of string movement or notching. So I deduced it either did not happen or it was so minimal it did not bother them.
- Since I did not get to meet them, I could not measure the frequency drop after play as well.
After their feedback, I expressed thanks to both for their willingness to risk messing up their strokes to try this setup. My only objective was to prove that syn gut CAN offer heavy spin with comfort. From what I have read, I am satisfied.
After being convinced that strings can make a huge difference to how the racket plays (link), Z started having second thoughts about selling all his 18x20 sticks and converting to open patterns.
Unfortunately, the fishing line I used in the Dunlop (link) was not readily available. So he asked for recommendations. And I suggested a shaped poly with syn gut hybrid.
Z had already restrung the Blade 93 thrice with different setups, none to his liking. This was the last chance for the 18x20. He had two Blade 93 and has already sold one.
I wanted to get it right for him. The added advantage was, I have played with Z, so I understand his hitting style, strength, spin preference and racket prep.
Despite the decent swingweight (333 kg/cm2) of this racket (link), string tension would be kept low due to the dense 18x20 string pattern. The base tension would be 45 lbs for mains and 43 lbs for crosses, with some variations at different strings.
Z was so excited that he picked up the racket for play right after I finished stringing it. He arranged for another hitting partner and agreed to update me via sms.
After just an hour of playtest, a flurry of messages was exchanged between Z and me. I extracted a few below...
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Z: The blade bites like hell!!!! My topspins were heavier and deeper. U revived my blackie!!!!!!! Omg this is much better than the 95s!!! U hv to try it. I can feel the cutting and the biting!!! And though tension was low. Its well controlled and just nice. Deeep enough but doesnt fly the balls! U are genius
Z: Did u remove some weight from the racquet! The power is there even though i felt like i was late for the ball
me: Thanks! Glad u like it. It's a proven setup... done it many times...
me: Yes, prob dropped a few grams cos syn gut lighter than poly. Your hands r very sensitive.
Z: U hv to try the blade and blog it...i swear it could b one of ur finest work
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Do not be afraid of using low tensions in poly/syn gut hybrids. Polys are designed with that in mind in the first place. Worst case scenario, is to send a few tennis balls into orbit in space. Then, just cut the strings out and add a few pounds of tension in the next re-string.
Here's a pic after about 10 hours of use... and it's still going strong and playing extremely well!
A few friends have been asking how this thin fishing line would perform in a hybrid, when strung in an open patterned racket.
Then I recalled that previous attempts were either:
(1) fullbed in open patterned racket, or
(2) hybrid in dense patterned racket. (link)
So I got down to doing that heavy pre-stretch again to get the string ready and then laced one up...
It's amazing how thin this line is. The incredible ball feel is just indescribable.
Playtest:
- Tested this racket against a very fit partner named PK.
- Throughout the session, I could not reconcile how and why this stringbed felt so soft, limp and a little uncontrollable.
- Power level was very low. Had to take full loopy swings to get the ball deep on the other side.
- Feel, bite and spin remained very good though.
- After I reached home, showered and changed, I took the racket out to check if tension loss was excessive. Then I saw the mains had snapped in the bag...
- I still have a few wanting to test this setup, so I did that "taboo" stuff again (link) and restrung only the mains...
- Then it dawned on me! PK brought the wrong can of balls! Instead of new ones, he brought an opened can previously used for play in the rain. We tested the bounce and it was only about 45% at best.
- The ITF stipulates ball bounce from 100" to be between 53"-58", or 53-58% (link).
- With the flat balls, both of us unconsciously hit much harder, leading to less control and greater stress on the stringbed (link1)(link2). No wonder the mains snapped...
- Will do another playtest with fresh balls and update here.
23Mar2014 update:
- The difference in stringbed performance was very significant between old and new balls.
- This session was very fun and enjoyable. With proper bouncing balls, control and accuracy was very good.
- Hitting deep was easy since there was more than enough spin to dip the ball down before it flies out. There's no need to hold back and we could just let it rip.
- Comfort remains excellent and string movement minimal.
- Next few sessions would throw up more info on tension maintenance since I did a different type of pre-stretch for the fishing line.
25Mar2014 update:
- Due to the previous premature snapping of the fishing line, I was caught unprepared. I did not provide enough time for the pre-stretch before stringing and string tension dipped drastically.
- I cut out everything and restrung from scratch. I cannot recall how many iterations of this fishing line I've tried, but the cost so far is definitely in the hundreds...
- I was running low on this fishing line, so I thought I'll just string up the centre mains this time. I measured thrice to ensure the line was really pre-stretched very well before stringing.
- Although each re-string brought me closer to the ideal setup, there are still many issues to review, especially tension holding, durability and string movement.
- I tested this racket playing with a big and strong chap named W. He admitted the spin was extraordinary, even with just a seemingly light brush that I did. Throughout the two hour session, he confessed that all he thought of, was how to crack my spin.
- Looking at the stringbed after two hours, I think the string movement issue can now be considered resolved.
