How many knots?

[kengan]

I just received my Gamma X2, and I'm planning on stringing my first racquet in the morning.

While I was cutting off the broken strings from one of my racquets, I noticed that there were 2 knots in 1 quarter of the frame. I noticed this because I had a tough time removing those strings because they were both knotted to another piece of string that shared grommets with both of them, and I had to cut the string from the outside. I didn't notice how many knots there were in total as I had no problem removing the rest of the strings, but I'm assuming there were another 2 near the head of my frame. However, compared to my other racquet strung by TW, I noticed that there were only 2 knots, one near the head and the other near the throat, diagonally facing each other.

So what I'm wondering is, did my stringer do a bad job with the racquet? Or could this be due to a different stringing style? The strings that I cut were from a ncode six one 95, and I was comparing it to k six one 95 and dunlop aerogel 4D 200 tours, all 16x18 stringing pattern.

[gmatheis]

Your stringer probably strung your racket with 2 pieces which takes 4 knots , TW probably did a 1 piece string job.

Both are fine.

[kengan]

I see, thanks.

So according to Wilson, for the six one 95s, it says to skip 7&9T/B, tie off mains at 8B, which will produce the 2 knots for the mains I'm assuming. But as for the crosses, it says start at 7T and tie off at 5T/11B, how exactly does that work? Will the 5T knot be part of the loop with 7T as the start point?

[tennytive]

Yes, your crosses will start at 7 top and tie off at 5 top. If you have a starting clamp, you can use it to hold your top cross and re-tension it after weaving all your crosses and tying off at 11 bottom.

You'll end up with four knots.

Good luck.

[retlod]

...and yes, sometimes a frames tie-offs will be next to each other and you'll have to cut the string on the outside of the frame or cut through one of the knots. IIRC a lot of HEAD frames do this.

[pvaudio]

Originally Posted by retlod

...and yes, sometimes a frames tie-offs will be next to each other and you'll have to cut the string on the outside of the frame or cut through one of the knots. IIRC a lot of HEAD frames do this.

Youtek Radicals in particular do this, I string a lot of them.

[Irvin]

Originally Posted by kengan

I...
So what I'm wondering is, did my stringer do a bad job with the racquet? Or could this be due to a different stringing style? The strings that I cut were from a ncode six one 95, and I was comparing it to k six one 95 and dunlop aerogel 4D 200 tours, all 16x18 stringing pattern.

Yes your stringer messed up. If you string that racket two piece the mains tie off on the mains the the bottom cross ties off on a cross. So there should not have been a problem getting the strings out.

EDIT: When you tie off the bottom cross on a main that is connected to the tie off for the mains you will see the problem you are talking about.

[kengan]

So I finished stringing my first racquet, spent the last 4 hours in my basement. Half of that were probably spent on watching videos and making mistakes starting out the main. I watched this video of yours Irvin and got lost at 1:40, when I removed the starting clamp. The bar wouldn't go down when I removed the starting clamp, so the tension must have been already too high (or maybe I put the floating clamp too close to the frame?), even though I seemed to have done exactly what you did in that video up to that point.
At the end of it, there were just so many videos out there and they were probably too much for a beginner like me to comprehend. I decided to just skip the starting clamp method that people used and stuck with the floating clamps. I think I did okay but I do have a couple of concerns that came up. When doing crosses, I stuck with over-under-over-under for the whole string bed. I realized that if I did with crosses every time, the crosses would also alternate over-under along the mains. But when I reached the bottom, I think at the 2nd last cross, I had to go under-over in order to keep the alternating over-under crosses along the mains. And the other concern was after the last cross, how do I keep the tension from escaping? It seems almost impossible to get the floating clamp on the last 2 crosses while I tie the knot at 11B.

[yem]

Originally Posted by kengan

So I finished stringing my first racquet, spent the last 4 hours in my basement. Half of that were probably spent on watching videos and making mistakes starting out the main. I watched this video of yours Irvin and got lost at 1:40, when I removed the starting clamp. The bar wouldn't go down when I removed the starting clamp, so the tension must have been already too high (or maybe I put the floating clamp too close to the frame?), even though I seemed to have done exactly what you did in that video up to that point.
At the end of it, there were just so many videos out there and they were probably too much for a beginner like me to comprehend. I decided to just skip the starting clamp method that people used and stuck with the floating clamps. I think I did okay but I do have a couple of concerns that came up. When doing crosses, I stuck with over-under-over-under for the whole string bed. I realized that if I did with crosses every time, the crosses would also alternate over-under along the mains. But when I reached the bottom, I think at the 2nd last cross, I had to go under-over in order to keep the alternating over-under crosses along the mains. And the other concern was after the last cross, how do I keep the tension from escaping? It seems almost impossible to get the floating clamp on the last 2 crosses while I tie the knot at 11B.

Stick with the starting clamp, trust me--your string jobs with the X2 will be much more consistent. The tensioning bar doesn't have to drop when you release the starting clamp, or even after you clamp/reclamp the floating clamp closest to the starting clamp.

For the last cross, I use a scrap piece of string to clamp instead of the next to last string. The distance is usually too far to clamp the last 2 strings. Use a starting clamp and learn a pro knot, this knot will take out most slack in the last string.

[Irvin]

Originally Posted by kengan

So I finished stringing my first racquet, spent the last 4 hours in my basement. Half of that were probably spent on watching videos and making mistakes starting out the main. I watched this video of yours Irvin and got lost at 1:40, when I removed the starting clamp. The bar wouldn't go down when I removed the starting clamp, so the tension must have been already too high (or maybe I put the floating clamp too close to the frame?), even though I seemed to have done exactly what you did in that video up to that point.
At the end of it, there were just so many videos out there and they were probably too much for a beginner like me to comprehend. I decided to just skip the starting clamp method that people used and stuck with the floating clamps. I think I did okay but I do have a couple of concerns that came up. When doing crosses, I stuck with over-under-over-under for the whole string bed. I realized that if I did with crosses every time, the crosses would also alternate over-under along the mains. But when I reached the bottom, I think at the 2nd last cross, I had to go under-over in order to keep the alternating over-under crosses along the mains. And the other concern was after the last cross, how do I keep the tension from escaping? It seems almost impossible to get the floating clamp on the last 2 crosses while I tie the knot at 11B.

I think you are on the right track. Skip the videos and string your racket.

To keep from losing tension on the last cross the best thing is to get a machine with fixed clamps. Or you could get a triple clamp. You loose tension on the last string because of twisting. Two fixed clamp work better than one and if you can run in the next to last cross last you could use two clamps to clamp it to the cross above it and below it to prevent twisting.

EDIT: If you can string one piece ATW will stop a lot of that twisting. Use a short side pattern and run in the center 14 mains. Use the short side to run in the second cross but don't tension it. Use the long side to run in the third cross and tension it. While hand pulling on the second cross clamp off the third cross. Tension the fourth cross and move the clamp from third cross to clamp the 3rd and 4th. Now remove the second cross. You can now tension the short side 7th mains and remove the clamp on the 6th and 7th mains and hold the 7th main with your starting clamp. Continue stringing the 5th to the 18th cross and tie off. You will get a little tension loss on that 18th cross but not as much as you did on the 19th cross because it is closer to the string it is clamped with.

Now (after the long side is tied off) you can use the short side to string the short side outside main, the bottom cross, long side outside main, second cross, and top cross. Again you will have some tension loss on the top cross but it is isolated from the main bed of the racket so it should not be noticeable.