Mamba Premium Natural Gut - Review

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

So, I've had Mamba's Premium Natural Gut in my frames for a few days. By now, I have an idea of how they behave. All tension are reported after factoring the initial tension lost.

I am comparing everything to Gaucho Classic. I haven't used those big daddy gut (babolat, wilson, klip).

My old setup was Gaucho Classic 15L/Head RIP Control 16, 52/50

Like I have previously mentioned in the Mamba tennis thread, Mamba Premium Natural Gut feels dry to the hand. They can be tricky to string because they're so dry, especially at the knots. They're so dry that the simple bending/twisting action of tying knots can cause cracks and unravel the strings. BUT, it's nothing a little lotion won't fix. I applied some lotion at the very end when I was tying the knot.

Gauge was fairly consistent. Most of the inconsistency, if any, occurs on the ends of the strings. And they don't even go on the racquet. So who cares. Otherwise, they string onto the racquet without any problem, other than the excessive dryness.

Let's get to how they play! They're natural gut, and play like it. The ball pocketing, touch, feel, comfort, and most of all, the POWER are all there.

But holy crap, these strings are stupid powerful to me. Way more powerful than the Gaucho stuff. I was taken back by the power of these strings. At first I thought I was still cold and not swinging through the ball. But no, these strings are really powerful. Good or bad, that's for you to decide. For me, I don't like much power coming from my frames. Luckily these are gut, so I can up the tension without worrying much about the associated shock to my arm.

I'm also in the middle of trying out some "soft" polys, so far I've strung up:

1) Mamba premium gut 16/WeissCannon Silverstring 17, 52/46. Didn't care for it. Sort of glad it snapped on a framed shot.

2) Mamba premium gut 16/Tourna Big Hitter Silver 17, 52/46. Not bad, not the worse thing if I was stuck with this setup.

3) Mamba premium gut 16/Polystar Energy 17, 50/46. It felt awesome on impact, but then I had uncontrollable power with these tensions.

Once I settle on the poly crosses, I will revisit the tension and power issue. I know I haven't hit with the brand name stuff, but these are scary powerful. You're probably wondering why I'm sticking with gut. I like everything BUT the power gut provides. And there are ways to go around the power issue.

Finally, these strings seem to be able to withstand quite a bit of weather . One of my hitting session was on a misty night. We stopped after 20-30mins because the lines got slippery, but surprisingly, the gut is not ruined! But I wouldn't recommend you to hit longer than 30mins on a misty night with these gut.

Can't comment on durability yet. I will update as I go through these strings and different poly crosses setup.

To sum up, good quality gut with a ridiculous amount of power!

[Ramon]

Thanks for the reviews. I'm probably going to try a Mamba gut setup in the next few weeks. It does sound a bit too powerful, but a poly cross should address that.

If I were you, I would probably consider increasing the tension on the poly before going any higher with the gut. A 6 pound difference is already pretty high, and then you have to account for the fact that the poly will lose a lot more tension than the gut. 52 pounds is not abnormally high for poly but I probably wouldn't go past that. My limit would probably be 56/52.

[Power Player]

Yes..soft copoly cross like cofocus at 56 with the gut at 58 is the way I go...but I have a 100 size PDR and I believe OP uses a 90 so he can go lower.

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Go above 52lbs on polys?! I don't know, that sounds like it'll hurt...

[BlxTennis]

I strung up Supra Natural gut and it's not dry at all. In fact, kind of oily. Not sure if they coated the sting with oil or what. Unfortunately looks like I won't be able to play this week.

[drkplayer122]

The OP stung up the Premium Natty Gut not the Supra Gut.

[filphil]

Originally Posted by Say Chi Sin Lo

Go above 52lbs on polys?! I don't know, that sounds like it'll hurt...

I thought a hybrid with gut really helps with the shock a poly would normally have?

I'm using a poly/multi hybrid right now and it's pretty comfortable at the moment.

[Ramon]

Originally Posted by filphil

I'm using a poly/multi hybrid right now and it's pretty comfortable at the moment.

I initially thought so too, until my arm started to disagree with me. I think Poly/Multi hybrids (with poly in the mains) are deceivingly rough on your arm. The poly could be dead but you don't realize it until it's too late. I'm not sure that's the case with hybrids where the poly is in the crosses. Gut/Poly hybrids seem to have a lot of fans who say it's still arm friendly even after the poly dies. Multi/Poly hybrids have a different solution to that problem; the multi breaks before the poly even has a chance to die.

[filphil]

I agree. At the moment I'm watching ball placement to determine when to change my strings. If I feel that I have to swing harder/faster to place the ball deeper, I'm going to deem the poly(mains) as dead.

[Power Player]

Originally Posted by Say Chi Sin Lo

Go above 52lbs on polys?! I don't know, that sounds like it'll hurt...

It doesn't because it is cofocus and it will drop tension pretty fast initially.

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

I do have a set of co-focus and I'll give it a try.

[Power Player]

Have you ever used pacific gut?I just wondered how the power compared..well I will find out soon, but the pacific does not break easily.

Thing I love the gut/poly is that trajectory you get..it is very fed like for me at least..the ball dive bombs..that's the only way to put it.

[tripleWRECK]

Supra or Premium > PerformaXX?

[drkplayer122]

Originally Posted by Say Chi Sin Lo

Like I have previously mentioned in the Mamba tennis thread, Mamba Premium Natural Gut feels dry to the hand. They can be tricky to string because they're so dry, especially at the knots. They're so dry that the simple bending/twisting action of tying knots can cause cracks and unravel the strings. BUT, it's nothing a little lotion won't fix. I applied some lotion at the very end when I was tying the knot.

OMG! I wish I read this before stringing the Natural gut up! I totally agree that it is very dry and can be a pain in the rear end when stringing. I will try the lotion trick the next time I string it up. I bet it will help the string just slide right by.

[ferrytran]

my review on mamba supra gut strings. http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=421987

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Originally Posted by drkplayer122

OMG! I wish I read this before stringing the Natural gut up! I totally agree that it is very dry and can be a pain in the rear end when stringing. I will try the lotion trick the next time I string it up. I bet it will help the string just slide right by.

Lotion helps a lot.

If anyone is curious about their durability, right now I'm at about 15hours with the Mamba Premium Gut/Polystar Energy 17g, 50/46lbs.

There's no fraying, no random unraveling. So far, I am very happy with Mamba Premium Gut.

On a side note, I am loving Polystar Energy as a cross! I've got a few more polys to try:

MSV Co-Focus 1.18
Tecnifibre X-Code 17
SPPP 17
Mamba Iontec 1.20

Let's just say if I have to end my playtest now, I can stick with Polystar Energy as a cross.

[Will Wilson]

Originally Posted by drkplayer122

OMG! I wish I read this before stringing the Natural gut up! I totally agree that it is very dry and can be a pain in the rear end when stringing. I will try the lotion trick the next time I string it up. I bet it will help the string just slide right by.

What type of lotion is ok to use and how do you apply it?

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Originally Posted by Will Wilson

What type of lotion is ok to use and how do you apply it?

Any lotion will do, it just needs a more lubricating surface for the strings to slide across each other when tying the knot.

And you just run a little bit of lotion onto the surface of the gut.

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Update at ~20hours, I'm convinced enough to stock up!





Sorry I don't have a macro lens, but here are some closeups.





That one string has been unraveling since it's been strung, and the loose end hasn't grown since. With the Gaucho stuff, if I saw a string unraveling, it'll keep unraveling and I knew a pre-mature rupture is a few hours away.

I break a lot of strings. At 20 hours and still sitting pretty, that's just gravy on top! I'm very happy the durability of Mamba Premium Natural Gut.

As for playability, I do not notice a drop as time goes by. Soft and comfortable, excellent pocketing, excellent feel, and apparently, excellent durability in my book.

[Ramon]

What specific setup are you showing at 20 hours?